Big Unit-to-A's rumor alive in Vegas

Less than a month ago, A's general manager Billy Beane called the possibility of him signing a veteran free-agent pitcher "highly, highly unlikely," so when one of Randy Johnson's agent last week said that he'd had preliminary conversations with Oakland's front office, it probably meant that he'd called the A's, not the other way around.

But as Day 1 of the annual Winter Meetings at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino rolled on, Johnson-to-the-A's was a fairly hot topic -- mostly because such a pairing appears to make some sense.

The A's have a deep pool of Minor League starters, headlined by 2008 U.S. Olympians Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson, and Vin Mazzaro, but the big league rotation is loaded with question marks and inexperience.

Ace Justin Duchscherer saw his season cut short by a right hip injury that required surgery for the second consecutive year, and none of the young candidates to start 2008 with the team -- including lefties Dana Eveland, Dallas Braden, Gio Gonzalez and Josh Outman and righty Sean Gallagher -- have made 30 starts in a Major League season. And righty Jerome Williams, who was signed to a Minor League deal Monday morning, spent 2008 in the Dodgers' farm system and made a combined eight big league starts in 2006-07.

"When I look at their starting pitchers, with all those puppies, I see a potential disaster," said a longtime scout for a rival American League team. "There's a lot of talent there, and the Minor League guys are potentially spectacular, but ... Randy Johnson would be a nice fit. He's a one-year guy, he's a local guy, and he'd be a huge drawing card because he's [five victories away from] locking in that Hall of Fame vote with his 300th win."

Johnson, 45, starred at Livermore High School, about 30 minutes southeast of Oakland,
but his local roots likely will be trumped by Oakland's need to spend whatever money it has earmarked for the 2009 payroll on bolstering what was one of the worst offenses in baseball last season.

Coming off a season during which he went 11-10 with a 3.91 ERA in 30 starts for the Diamondbacks while making about $15 million, Johnson's reportedly looking for something in the neighborhood of $10 million.

"In this economic climate, he's probably going to have to come down from that," said an agent not affiliated with Johnson who requested anonymity, adding that Johnson seems a better fit for a team that fancies itself a serious contender in 2009.

"Just chasing 300 wins isn't going to get enough butts in the seats to justify that kind of outlay," he explained. "So you better need him for another, bigger reason. Like putting you over the top."

Beane, who rarely addresses rumors and has a longstanding policy against talking publicly about free agents, declined comment on the Johnson rumor.