JJ Bleday's Stats, Metrics, Game Logs, Projections & Rankings

The Athletics said at the winter meetings that they will not trade designated hitter Brent Rooker, and center fielder JJ Bleday also falls into that category, according to a source briefed on the team's thinking. The A's desperately want to add plays as they transition to playing their home games in a minor-league stadium in Sacramento in 2025, but they are also reluctant to trade the few quality players they have. Star closer Mason Miller perhaps could be on the trade block, but the A's would want a quality position player under long-term control in return. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal wrote earlier this year that if the San Diego Padres wanted Miller, the A's likely would have asked for outfielder Jackson Merrill. The A's are deep in outfield prospects, but they're looking for immediate big-league help, which the rest of the league is also doing.

Oakland Athletics outfielders JJ Bleday and Seth Brown and infielder Max Schuemann are all out of the starting lineup in Wednesday's series finale against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field with a left-hander on the mound. As a result, Daz Cameron will start in center field and bat cleanup, Tyler Nevin will man left field and hit eighth, and Nick Allen will start at the hot corner and hit ninth against Cubs left-hander Justin Steele, who is making his first start off the injured list. Bleday has hit a pedestrian .246 (133-for-540) in his third year in the big leagues in 2024, but he has quietly hit the 20-homer mark and driven in 56 runs in 149 games for a bad A's team. He's hit .229 (25-for-109) with six of his 20 long balls on the year against southpaws. Cameron has the most DFS upside in the four-hole, but he's hit just .201 with five homers and five steals in 159 at-bats.

Oakland Athletics outfielder JJ Bleday had a monster day at the dish on Thursday, going 5-for-5 with two doubles, a homer, three runs scored, and an RBI. Bleday has had a productive season for the Athletics, swatting 19 homers with a .789 OPS. Unfortunately, he doesn't steal bases and has had trouble getting counting stats while hitting in a mediocre Oakland lineup. If the A's can get some hitting help in the offseason, Bleday could be a decent sleeper option for fantasy next year. For this year, though, he remains a deep league option with streamer appeal in standard formats.