A's Hitting Self-Destruct Button

As a nice consolation prize to Texas Rangers fans for their team's 95-loss season and last-place finish in the AL West, they've been able to watch the train wreck that has been the Oakland A's last few months.

It started when the A's traded their top prospect, shortstop Addison Russell, to the Chicago Cubs for starters Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel, then sent a hefty package fronted by Yoenis Cespedes to the Boston Red Sox for ace Jon Lester to load up for a deep playoff run.

That deep playoff run ended in the AL Wild Card Game after they almost missed the playoffs altogether. Since the offseason began, the A's have traded Brandon Moss and Josh Donaldson and just traded Samardzija to the White Sox while watching Hammel sign with the Cubs, and all they have left to show for all of that is Brett Lawrie and a load of mid-tier prospects. Oh, and Lester is set to sign Wednesday with likely either the Cubs or San Francisco Giants.

It's hard to say what it is the A's and "mastermind GM" Billy Beane are doing, but the only logical explanation is a complete blow-up and overhaul, and the only logical result seems to be that the A's are going to be pretty bad for a couple of years before they'll surely re-emerge and start winning division titles again.

But after the A's have crushed the Rangers' hopes and dreams a couple of times, this sure is nice to see.

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