The A’s have four free agents heading into the winter and this is how I would deal with them:

Mark Ellis: 33-year old 2B Mark Ellis played in 124 games for the A’s last season and he was 127 of 436 (.291 avg, .739 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 5 homers, 49 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. The A’s have a $6 million dollar option on Ellis for 2011 with a $500,000 buyout. VERDICT: I would decline the option and try to sign Ellis to a multi-year deal with a smaller base salary.

Coco Crisp: 30-year old switch hitting outfielder Coco Crisp played in 75 games for the A’s last season and he was 81 of 290 (.279 avg, .779 OPS) with 51 runs scored, 8 homers, 38 RBIs and 32 stolen bases. The A’s have a $5.75 million dollar option for Crisp in 2011 with a $575,000 buyout. VERDICT: I would decline the option and offer Crisp a multi-year deal with a smaller base salary.

Justin Duchscherer: 32-year old righty starting pitcher Justin Duchscherer started 5 games for the A’s last season and he was 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP. He is a good pitcher when healthy but that doesn’t seem to be the case too often. VERDICT: I would let him walk.

Ben Sheets: 32-year old righty starting pitcher Ben Sheets started 20 games for the A’s last season and he was 4-9 with a 4.53 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP. His season ended with a major elbow injury which will cause him to miss the entire 2011 season. VERDICT: He’s gone.

26-year old lefty swinging outfielder Jeremy Hermida and 27-year old righty reliever Ross Wolf both rejected outright assignments to the minors becoming free agents. Hermida played in 21 games for the A’s and he was 16 of 64 (.250 avg, .653 OPS) with 5 runs scored, 1 homer and 2 RBIs. He played in 73 games overall for the Red Sox & A’s and he was 48 of 222 (.216 avg, .619 OPS) with 19 runs scored, 6 homers, 29 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Ross Wolf pitched in 11 games (0 starts) for the A’s this year and he was 0-0 with a 4.26 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP. The A’s won’t miss Hermida or Wolf.

The Oakland Athletics have declined 32-year old lefty swinging 3B/1B Eric Chavez’ option for 2011 valued at $12.5 million bucks. They will give him a $3 million dollar buyout instead so don’t feel too sorry for him. Chavez played in 33 games for the A’s this year and he was 26 of 111 (.234 avg, .610 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 1 homer and 10 RBIs. He finishes his career with the A’s having played in 1,320 games (13 years) in which he is 1,276 of 4,783 (.267 avg, .821 OPS) with 730 runs scored, 230 homers, 787 RBIs and 47 stolen bases. Eric Chavez ends his career with the A’s #9 all-time in total bases (2,288), #7 in doubles (282), #6 in homers (230) and #7 in RBIs (787) in team history. This probably will end Chavez’ major league career.

The A’s have released 31-year old lefty swinging 3B/2B Akinori Iwamura. Iwamura played in 10 games for the A’s this year and he was 4 of 31 (.129 avg, .411 OPS) with 3 runs scored and 4 RBIs. He played in 64 games overall this year with the A’s & Pirates and he was 34 of 196 (.173 avg, .535 OPS) with 21 runs scored, 2 homers, 13 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. This was a very easy call to let Iwamura go based on his play in September for the A’s.