Athletics exercise Balfour's option, decline Drew's

The Athletics have announced that pitcher Grant Balfour's $4.5 million club option for 2013 has been exercised, and shortstop Stephen Drew's 2013 club option worth $10 million has been declined.

Balfour had a great season with Oakland, posting a 2.53 ERA in 74.2 innings while racking up 24 saves.  He shared the closer's duties with rookie Ryan Cook for most of the season.

Drew will earn a $1.35 million buyout. He came over to Oakland in an August trade and hit .223 in 327 plate appearances on the season. He served as the club's everyday shortstop down the stretch.

Analysis: Balfour had a great season and I honestly thought that Oakland was going to ship him out at the deadline. However, since they remained in contention they held onto him and he played very well down the stretch. Exercising his 2013 option is a no-brainer because even if he fails in the closer role next season, Ryan Cook can slide in to take his spot while Balfour moves to the setup man role, where he has had quite a bit of success. As for Drew, we had to expect them to decline his option. Oakland is obviously a small market team and paying $10 million to a struggling hitter coming off a big ankle injury wouldn't make sense. However, I do believe that Oakland will make a strong push to resign him because they recently traded away Cliff Pennington, who was their only other decent infielder on the roster. I say that Drew stays, signing a contract someone along the lines of 2 years, $15 million.