The Oakland Athletics agreed Thursday to a one-year, $1 million deal with Shannon Stewart, closing the gap in their outfield with less than a week before the club will report to Spring Training in Arizona.
Stewart, 32, has been limited by plantar fasciitis in both feet over the past three years, playing in 44 games with the Minnesota Twins in 2006 and 92 games in '04.
The A's were one of the teams present at a workout by Stewart last week, apparently coming away impressed enough to offer him a contract, regardless of his history of unstable health. He can earn an additional $1.5 million in performance bonuses, if he manages to stay off the DL.
Stewart will compete with Nick Swisher for a starting job in left field. Should Shannon make his way into the starting lineup, Swisher would likely move to first, bumping Dan Johnson out of that spot.
Stewart is a career .299 hitter with 102 home runs notched in his belt, scattered over 11 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and Twins.
[San Francisco Chronicle]
2 comments:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
dammit. i like shannon. don't go baby! (and yes, i know you didn't have a choice. still, you could have retired like a champ.)
I guess I'm happy for him on one hand: he hasn't been able to play much for the past two seasons and he obviously wants to - he'll get to in Oakland. On the other hand, I'd have liked to see him retire a Twin...
Post a Comment