{"id":57443,"date":"2023-01-24T13:53:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T18:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=57443"},"modified":"2023-01-24T13:54:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T18:54:27","slug":"jesus-aguilar-oakland-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/01\/24\/jesus-aguilar-oakland-athletics\/","title":{"rendered":"Jes\u00fas Aguilar Signs with the Oakland Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jes\u00fas Aguilar has signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/12\/12\/sean-murphy-traded-to-braves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> Oakland Athletics<\/a>. San Francisco Chronicle beat writer Susan Slusser was the first to report a deal close to being complete.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It sounds as if Jesus Aguilar is set to sign with the A\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/susanslusser\/status\/1617945343987179520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 24, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Aguilar was one of the most interesting stories in the sport. He was claimed off waivers by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/12\/02\/kolten-wong-trade-seattle\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> and immediately caught on for a terrific ball club. Then, Aguilar provided power, something the Brewers needed. He made the All-Star team in 2018 as he participated in the Home Run Derby. It was a clear peak in Aguilar&#8217;s career, but he&#8217;s been an above-average hitter since that campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jes\u00fas Aguilar&#8217;s Career<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Aguilar was signed out of Venezuela with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/12\/06\/josh-bell-guardians\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Cleveland Guardians<\/a> in 2007. He led the International League with 30 home runs and 92 RBI for Triple-A Columbus. He hit 68 home runs and 262 RBI with an .818 OPS in three years at that level. But he batted .172 with five RBI in 58-at bats with the Guardians before his release in February 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Once he was claimed off waivers by the Brewers, he had the best season of his career, hitting 35 home runs for a team who reached the NLCS that season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">From 2018-2021, Aguilar hit .262\/.339\/.471 with 77 home runs and 70 doubles in 1,661 plate appearances. It was a rough season for Aguilar in 2022, who batted .236\/.286\/.388 with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/01\/20\/twins-trade-luis-arraez\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Miami Marlins<\/a>. After the All-Star break, he hit a disastrous .188\/.246\/.347 slash line before Miami explored the trade market to find suitors before the deadline but found no match. Aguilar was designated for assignment afterwards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/12\/03\/kyle-gibson-baltimore-orioles\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Baltimore Orioles<\/a> signed Aguilar to a minor league contract days after the Marlins released him. With his contract selected on September 1, he hit .235\/.281\/.379 between both teams. He&#8217;ll be entering his sixth major league season as he could be a right-handed platoon option with Seth Brown or Ryan Noda at first base. However, Aguilar&#8217;s numbers against lefties weren&#8217;t that good in 2022, where he hit .196 with a .254 OBP. Furthermore, Aguilar could slot in as the A&#8217;s DH, which could be shared with younger players such as Dermis Garc\u00eda and Jordan D\u00edaz. With Oakland&#8217;s latest signing, Aguilar picked the right place to maximize his potential and improve his game in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"zJ8K2x_FRWJHimY9Y3hCUA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1421963653\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'zJ8K2x_FRWJHimY9Y3hCUA',sig:'Hi52xFb135XhUlyAGkBB0Mj7OnraN6d3SXjHoQyB5MU=',w:'594px',h:'393px',items:'1421963653',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Players mentioned:<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aguilje01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-01-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jesus Aguilar<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=brownse01,brown-004set&amp;search=Seth+Brown&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-01-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seth Brown<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=noda--000rya&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-01-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Noda<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garcide02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-01-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dermis Garc\u00eda<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/diazjo03.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-01-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan D\u00edaz<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jes\u00fas Aguilar has signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Oakland Athletics. San Francisco Chronicle beat writer Susan Slusser was the first to report a deal close to being complete. It sounds as if Jesus Aguilar is set to sign with the A\u2019s. \u2014 Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) January 24, 2023 Aguilar was one of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":57444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,15,1071,35],"tags":[627,5995,2220,6140,1646,6139,3081],"class_list":["post-57443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-athletics","category-mlb","category-news","tag-al-west","tag-dermis-garcia","tag-jesus-aguilar","tag-jordan-diaz","tag-mlb-offseason","tag-ryan-noda","tag-seth-brown"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}