Report: Tommy Milone wants to be traded after being demoted

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It's hard to blame Tommy Milone for being upset.

After his Oakland Athletics acquired Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel from the Chicago Cubs early in the month, Milone was out of a rotation spot and was subsequently demoted to Triple-A. For a starter with a 3.55 ERA and a 6-3 record to that point, and with a 2.62 ERA over his last 11 starts, those are tough shakes.

And Milone now wants out, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. The report indicates that the left-hander has asked the team to trade him, though whether the franchise has any plans to do so is unclear, considering they have three more years of club control on the 27-year-old.

The team probably doesn't want to do wrong by Milone, but they're in a pennant race and are serious contenders for the World Series. Feelings can't really be considered when it comes to maintaining a strong rotation and pitching depth for the stretch run, so it seems unlikely they'd risk thinning out their reserve corps.

Should they deal him, however, Milone's landing spot is important. As a soft-tossing fly-ball pitcher, Milone isn't someone who can survive anywhere. Even in a friendly park like O.Co Coliseum, he's maintained a 10.2 percent career home run per fly ball ratio, one that would likely spike in a hitter-friendly environment (some evidence: that rate is 8.7 percent at home and 11.6 percent on the road for his career).

In any case, 27-year-old southpaws with three years of control, a 3.84 career ERA and 4.20 career xFIP don't become available all that often, so the A's may explore shopping him for help elsewhere on the roster.