Print Email Font Resize Font Resize Can A's, Reddick agree to multiyear contract on time?

MESA, Ariz. -- Josh Reddick will always be the kid from Effingham County, but the A's right fielder would like to become a long-term resident of the East Bay. Though neither side is speaking publicly, they appear to be working on a multiyear contract that would be completed by Opening Day. Those negotiations, between the A's and Reddick's agent, Seth Levinson, could have a major impact on the season. If talks are fruitful, the A's won't have to worry about right field for the next few years. But if Reddick doesn't sign a deal before the season starts, trade rumors will surface, sooner than later if the A's start badly. Reddick, 29, has made it clear he doesn't want negotiations to drag into the regular season. Georgia-born and reared Reddick likes nothing better than to retreat to his native state in the offseason. "I'm not Josh Reddick the baseball player," he says of being back home, "I'm Josh Reddick the Effingham County kid.'' But he also has grown comfortable in Oakland, where he is beginning his fifth season since being acquired from Boston in December 2011. It's with the A's that he's had some success and carved out a niche for himself. "To stay in Oakland would be special,'' Reddick said. "When you look around the clubhouse and see the talent that is here, you have to see the future is very bright. This team is going to have Sonny Gray for a while, and with the trades they made and the prospects they have coming in, this team could be something very special. Advertisement Reddick singled out prospects such as shortstop Franklin Barreto, first baseman Matt Olson ("another Georgia boy") and pitcher Sean Manaea. "That's impressive," he said. "If I stay here long enough and if Billy (Beane) can keep this crop of young guys together, that would be something.'' The A's carry few fixtures on the roster. Reddick and Coco Crisp come closest. Both are in the final year of their contract, but Crisp is 36 and injury plagued. He played only 44 games last season. Reddick has considerably more upside. "I like him because he hits from the left side of the plate and he keeps himself in good shape despite a very lean body,'' an American League West scout said. "I believe he will age well as he moves into his 30s.'' But an AL executive, this one from outside the division, suggests that Reddick's '"salary likely doesn't fit the A's usual practice.'' He said he can't see the club making Reddick a qualifying offer in free agency next fall, so that makes a trade "this summer for decent players'' likely. None of that seems to occupy Reddick's mind. He refers all questions about the possibility of an extension to Levinson. "It's important to me not to think about this, 100 percent,'' he said. "I know it's a cliché, but this game is already hard enough. Any outside aspect that interferes with you trying to bring your game to its highest level, that's not going to be easy.'' What does occupy Reddick's mind is seeing if he can help get the A's back to the postseason after the team finished last in the A.L. West in 2015. He also wants to win back the Gold Glove he last captured in 2012, and he wants to hit in the middle of a productive Oakland lineup. "We have great potential,'' he said. "Hopefully my shoulder stays feeling really good like it is now to where I can go out and be the ultimate defender I can be. I'd like to be part of that 3-4-5-6 mix in the lineup where we have some really good hitters.'' And after the season, a few months in his other home of Effingham County. Kendall Graveman allowed just one earned run in 25.1 innings last spring and led the majors in ERA at 0.36. He hadn't looked like that guy this spring until Sunday, when he took a two-hit shutout into the seventh inning of a 10-1 Oakland win over Kansas City. His seven-inning, one-run effort came at the right time with the A's looking to realign their struggling starting pitching with the addition of lefty Felix Doubront. Graveman came into the game with a 6.75 ERA, but knocked 1.77 points off that number with just the one start. "I knew it was big,'' Graveman said. "I've been getting incrementally better in my mind from the first outing to the last outing. I needed to go out and do that, and I was in the right direction today with that.'' The Royals' Tony Cruz got the third hit and first run off Graveman in the seventh with a homer, but by that time the A's had already scored 10 runs with the help of four Kansas City errors. "I've seen him pitch that game before,'' Melvin said of Graveman. "But I don't know that I've seen him have a better pitch complement.'' The A's made two fourth-inning errors behind him, but Graveman, who committed the second error on a bad pickoff throw, had it together enough to pitch out of trouble. Jed Lowrie hit his first homer of the spring, a solo shot off Chris Young of the Royals in the second inning. He's had a big spring offensively, averaging .457. "It seems like he has a good at-bat every time up,'' Melvin said. Chris Coghlan gave Oakland its first two runs by following Coco Crisp's leadoff double with a homer in the bottom of the first. It was his second homer and fourth extra-base hit, and he followed with a single and a walk to get his average to .279. Errors by Coghlan and Graveman in the fourth inning and another by Eric Sogard in the eighth pushed the A's team total to 41 for the spring, an alarming number and the most in the big leagues this spring. Sam Fuld, who has been away from the team to get an MRI on his shoulder and to be at the first of his fourth child, John Spencer, is expected to rejoin the team today. Lefty Sean Manaea has come down with some soreness in his left leg and isn't expected to be with the team for the Bay Bridge series against the Giants. He'll say in Arizona and get treatment. "I felt it a little in my last start,'' Manaea said. "I don't think it's anything too bad.'' He was unlikely in the extreme to start the season with the A's in any event. The A's made a couple of roster moves after the game. Outfielder Jake Smolinski was optioned to Triple-A Nashville and catcher Carson Blair was assigned to the minor league camp Henderson Alvarez will face hitters in a session in the Coliseum sometime in the next 10 days, either Saturday before the game with the Giants or Wednesday before the third game of the regular season against the White Sox. A's 2004 Rookie of the Year shortstop Bobby Crosby, who was at the game with a couple of dozen kids from the baseball academy he works with, threw out the first pitch. For more on the A's, see John Hickey's Inside the A's blog at ibabuzz.com/athletics. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JHickey3.