Quote from Randy Manese on December 2, 2019, 6:27 pm

Also rooting for Austin - he worked so hard to get better behind the plate these past few years.  He needed, however, to go to an AL team where his first position will probably be DH, then 1b and finally C.  Profar will compete with current teammates Kinsler, Garcia and France and minor leaguers Quiroz and Miller who will be invites to spring training.  Don't see a downside to this other than money.  Profar does well and the team does well, we hold on to him for the year; Profar does well and the team doesn't do as well as expected, we can trade him or simply let him go to FA in 2021.  Profar doesn't do so well, then we just have a not so high-priced back-up at all IF positions and he goes after 2020 or before.  I think this will sort itself out in spring training - someone of the group of 4 at the major league level may go and France is the only one who can go back to El Paso.  It is a stop gap but a decent gamble since we really had no place for Allen except back in the minors.  Oakland must be counting on the power because Torrens is probably the better overall catcher.

 

Quote from Brian Connelly on December 3, 2019, 8:02 am

Torrens very quietly had a really outstanding year in AA.  Everyone's raving about Campusano, and rightly so, but he's going to have his hands full trying to replicate in AA in 2020 the Offense & Defense Torrens provided last year.

If being rated as a prospect in our system, Torrens would be in the #10 range.  Austin Allen in my mind < 100 AB is still a prospect, and still a good one, but off top of my head it's something like:  Campusano - 5, Torrens -10, A. Allen - 25 in our system.  So Austin Allen was squarely the 4th best C in our system at AA+ and we also have Hunt & Driscoll at lower levels; possibly both in our top 3o too.

NO way Pads trade 5 years of Torrens for 1 year of Profar at 5.7 MM.   But even A. Allen seems like an awfully good get for a guy A's would have otherwise non-tendered.  Some DH, some PH, some C, maybe a little 1B.  Definitely profiles as a useful bench guy in AL.

Best of luck to Austin.  Rooting for him on the A's.

Quote from LynchMob on August 10, 2021, 8:16 pm

BP sez ...

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/68897/minor-league-update-allen-ups-his-profile-jeffries-jumps/

Hitter of the Day:

Austin Allen, C/1B, Oakland Athletics (Triple-A Las Vegas): 4-5, 3 HR.
Three big flies in one night will play, even if they come in Sin City’s desert offensive oasis. Oakland didn’t trust him behind the dish enough to not go get Yan Gomes at the deadline, and between Sean Murphy and Matt Olson the route to reps isn’t clear in the Major Leagues.