After the Oakland A's designated Jonah Bride for assignment last Friday to clear room on the 40-man roster for the additions of Alex Wood and Ross Stripling, the team announced that they had traded the 28-year-old infielder to the Miami Marlins in exchange for cash considerations.
Bride spent parts of the last two seasons in Oakland, batting a combined .192 with a .296 OBP and one home run in 250 at-bats. While the stat line hasn't been great at the big-league level, he has shown that he has nothing left to prove in the minors, either.
Last season in Las Vegas he batted .305 with a .432 OBP across 73 games. His walk rate has hovered around 17% in Triple-A in parts of two seasons, and in his time with the A's it was just over 10%. He has the ability to get on base. The trick will be collecting more hits with the Marlins.
For what it's worth, his expected batting average last season was .242 in his 88 at-bats in the bigs, complete with an 89 mile per hour exit velocity. That's slightly above the 88.4 mph league average. He's also shown that he can limit his strikeout numbers, with his k rate at 18.4% for his career, nearly four percent better than league average.
With the additions of Zack Gelof at second base and Abraham Toro the likely third baseman, there wasn't a ready-to-go spot on the roster for Bride with the A's, which made him expendable.
Now with the Marlins, he'll get another chance to stake his claim on a new roster. Jake Burger is currently slotted in as the team's third baseman, and he is projected to be the team's biggest power threat. That said, if Bride can hit just a touch more, his on-base skills could be of use in Miami.
In just 197 innings at third base last season, Bride collected three Outs Above Average (OAA) according to Statcast. Burger, 27, produced -9 OAA by the same metrics in 848 innings at the position. If it weren't for Burger's power (34 home runs last year), then Bride would have a legitimate shot at making the roster out of spring training.
As the roster sits right now, Bride is slated to start the season in the minor leagues with former A's prospect Cobie Fletcher-Vance, whom the Marlins selected in the 2021 Rule 5 Draft. If Bride makes it to Miami, he'd re-join former teammate A.J. Puk.
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