Andrew Lambo doesn’t invite the comparison, but his arrival in Oakland has some striking parallels with that of Brandon Moss five years ago.
Both came aboard at low cost because of a miserable season the year before. Moss had just six big league at-bats in 2011 with the Phillies despite 23 homers and 80 RBI at Triple-A. He wouldn’t come up to the big leagues with Oakland until the middle of 2012, but once he did, he was in the middle of the A’s lineup, hitting 76 homers and driving in 220 runs in the next 2½ seasons.