Oakland Athletics second baseman Mark Ellis is slated to become a free agent after this season since he's in the final year of a three-year deal he signed with Oakland back in 2006. He's never been the type of player to carry a team or anything, but generally, he's the type of player any GM would have as their second baseman.I mean, he's no Chase Utley or anything, but he gives you solid offensive production and has one of the best gloves of any second sacker in the game today. Odds are that if he were to hit the market this off-season, he could pull in anywhere from $6-$10 million a season from a team that sees him as a nice alternative to Orlando Hudson (who should be the most sought after free agent second baseman this winter).
Unfortunately for anybody who was hoping to sign him, it doesn't look like he's going to be available.
Ellis is in the final year of a three-year contract, and he isn't all that interested in leaving Oakland, so he's encouraged that his agent, Jamie Murphy, recently started talking with A's assistant general manager David Forst about an extension.The Athletics are just as interested in keeping Ellis around as well, because even though they just drafted second baseman Jemile Weeks in the first round of the draft, the team could move him to the outfield. After Weeks, the A's don't have any other real prospects at second, so keeping Ellis would be ideal.
"It's only been a couple of conversations, so we'll see where it goes from there," Ellis told MLB.com on Wednesday before the second game of a three-game Interleague series against the visiting Phillies at McAfee Coliseum. "But it's nice we're talking."
