It’s easy enough to think of Billy Butler as an afterthought in the Oakland lineup.
He doesn’t play every day. He seldom plays defense. For much of the year, he didn’t hit.
The most that could be said about Butler is that he made a lot of money. He signed a three-year, $30 million contract with Oakland before last season as a free agent.
It didn’t look like much of a deal last year when he hit just .251 with 15 homers. And when he got off to a .242 start through the first three months of the 2016 season, it seemed as if the .