Cleveland finalized a trade, the first of the winter meetings, that had been in the works for weeks by acquiring Moss, a first baseman/outfielder and All-Star last season, from the Oakland Athletics on Monday for minor league infielder Joey Wendle. Moss, 31, batted .234 with 25 homers and 81 RBIs in a career-high 147 games for the A's this past season. The left-handed hitter drew 67 walks and scored 70 runs. Moss hit .268 with 21 homers in the first half of the season to earn his first All-Star selection, but a nagging hip problem cut into his production over the final months.
On Oct. 21, Moss underwent an operation on his hip. Moss said Dr. Thomas Byrd was prepared to perform microfracture surgery but all that he needed was a labrum repair and cartilage cleanup, which should make his rehab somewhat easier. Moss said his rehab is coming along well and he expects to be cleared to run later this month. The chance to join the Indians, who contended for a playoff spot until the season's final weekend, excited Moss. He said the club is similar to some of the Oakland teams he has played for.
"There's a great core group of guys, and in all honesty, it reminds me of after 2012, when they brought us all up and we all kind of took off," he said. "That next year in 2013, we had that core group of guys and the young pitching staff and we won the division by a pretty good margin. It reminds me of a team like that. It's a team with a lot of talent and a lot of capability, and it's going to be exciting to be a part of it." Despite the hip issue, Moss, who also has played for Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, finished among the American League leaders in homers, RBIs, extra-base hits and slugging percentage. He played 67 games at first base, 56 in left field and 34 in right for the wild-card winning A's.
"One of the things that attracted us to Brandon is he's got the versatility to play either corner spot in the outfield and first base," Indians general manager Chris Antonetti said at the winter meetings in San Diego. Acquring Moss to solidfy the middle of the order could mean decreased playing time for David Murphy and Nick Swisher, who hit .208 with eight homers in a season cut short at 97 games because of injuries. The switch-hitter had surgery on both knees in August. With two more years on a four-year, $56 million contract, moving Swisher in a deal likely would be difficult.
