Diamondbacks, Cliff Pennington agree to deal

The Arizona Diamondbacks and shortstop Cliff Pennington agreed to a two-year, $5 million contract to avoid arbitration, reports Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Pennington was acquired by Arizona earlier in the offseason from the Oakland Athletics in the three-team deal that also brought them Heath Bell. Outfielder Chris Young was sent to the A's.

Pennington, 28, hit .215/.278/.311 with six home runs in 462 plate appearances for Oakland last season. For his career, Pennington has hit .249/.313/.356 with 24 home runs in five seasons all spent with the A's.

The slick fielding shortstop will compete with Didi Gregorius for the shortstop job. Gregorius was acquired in December in the three-team deal that sent Trevor Bauer to the Indians and Shin-Soo Choo to the Reds.

Pennington and the Diamondbacks were $1 million apart when the two sides exchanged numbers on Friday. Pennington filed for $2.8 million and the Diamondbacks countered with $1.8 million.

The Diamondbacks still have to resolve the arbitration case with outfielder Gerardo Parra. The team has not gone to arbitration with any of their players since Damian Miller in 2001.