The Oakland Athletics made what may be their only move on the trade market today, trading righty reliever Brad Ziegler for 1B Brandon Allen and LHP Jordan Norberto, Steve Gilbert reports. Nick Piecoro is reporting that Paul Goldschmidt will be promoted from Double-A Mobile and it remains to be seen how easily he will make the jump.
Ziegler will give the Diamondbacks another good arm in their much-improved bullpen from last year. It remains to be seen how Ziegler will be used, but there is no worry for J.J. Putz's spot as the closer.
This trade shows that the Diamondbacks are committing to Paul Goldschmidt as their long-term solution at first base. Goldschmidt broke out as a prospect this year, not appearing on Baseball America's preseason top 100 list, but coming in at number 50 on their midseason list.
Brandon Allen had been the D-backs starting first basemen over the past few weeks, which makes this trade very interesting from their perspective. Generally, teams in the playoff hunt do not trade their starting first baseman. Juan Miranda and Xavier Nady have also spent time at first base this season, but neither have done much offensively.
Norberto is a lefty reliever who has spent all year in Triple-A. He did get called up last year for 33 games and had a 5.85 ERA in 20 innings pitched.