It’s been a busy offseason for the Athletics and general manager Billy Beane following their surprise AL West championship in 2012. The A’s have exercised Grant Balfour’s option and re-signed Bartolo Colon to a one-year deal while electing to let right-hander Brandon McCarthy depart via free agency.
Beyond that, the A’s GM has orchestrated three trades this offseason, acquiring Chris Young, John Jaso and Jed Lowrie in three separate transactions — two of which were three-team deals. The A’s also dipped into the international market to add shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima. For those who have forgotten, here’s a quick recap of each of those moves:
- The A’s signed Nakajima to a two-year deal worth $6.5MM. The 30-year-old is expected to play shortstop for Oakland and owns a .310/.381/.474 batting line and 104 homers dating back to 2007.
- Oakland traded Cliff Pennington to the D’backs and Yordy Cabrera to the Marlins in order to acquire Young and $500K from Arizona. The Diamondbacks also received Heath Bell, and the Marlins received cash considerations. Young is set to hit free agency following the 2013 season.
- Beane and Co. traded A.J. Cole back to the Nationals in order to acquire Jaso from the Mariners. Mike Morse was traded from Washington to the Mariners in the deal as well. Jaso is under team control through 2015.
- The A’s traded Brad Peacock, Chris Carter and Max Stassi to the Astros in exchange for Lowrie and right-hander Fernando Rodriguez. Lowrie is under control through 2014.
Following today, Beane uncharacteristically divulged to reporters — including CSN Bay Area’s Casey Pratt — that the team was done making additions to its Major League roster (Twitter link). With that in mind, let’s put it to a vote:
