[Hendu Style]

Josh Reddick's hot start and our ability to score runs without relying on the longball got me thinking. Why not cash in on Reddick's high value now and swap it out for some more speed on the basepaths? Much to Josh's chagrin, I put him on the trading block, and I was very pleasantly surprised with what I got back.

Cleveland offered up shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera. The Yankees dangled veteran first baseman Mark Texeira. The Blue Jays were willing to part with southpaw J.A. Happ. There were many other offers as well, but Kansas City's proposal of Jarrod Dyson was by far the most tempting. Though Craig Gentry was playing marvelously in place of Coco Crisp, his defense was below par, and I wanted someone who could cover more ground in CF to cover up some of Yoenis Cespedes's shortcomings in LF.

OAKLAND GETS:
OF Jarrod Dyson (.329, 15 SB, 18 R in 19 games)
IF/OF Danny Valencia (.231 in 13 AB)

KANSAS CITY GETS:
OF Josh Reddick (.375, 4 HR, 20 RBI in 24 games)
OF Craig Gentry (.383, 9 SB, 15 R in 26 games)

I suppose the trade made sense for the Royals since they were getting a power-hitting rightfielder, and Dyson was already stuck behind Lorenzo Cain in CF. Gentry gave them a quality fourth outfielder for some depth. Valencia provided us another option at first base, by far our weakest position on the field. The Royals also agreed to pay the remainder of Dyson's salary for the 2014 season.

Since the Jays were offering Happ, I decided to send them a flyer, even if it didn't involve Reddick. Toronto was looking for a boost to their rotation and weren't happy with Happ. They were madly in love with our offseason signee, Patrick Corbin, who had been on quite a roll in each of his last three starts:

8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
9 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
9 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Folks, that's 2 earned runs over his last 26 innings pitched. Problem was, we only signed Corbin to a 1-year deal, and I had no intentions of signing him to an extension. Straight-up, this would've been a fine deal for both parties involved, but I decided to up the ante and ask for R.A. Dickey as well. The knuckleballer had been a disappointment since coming over from the Mets and was in the last year of his contract. I offered up young lefty Tommy Milone in return, and we had ourselves a deal.

OAKLAND GETS:
LHP J.A. Happ (2-1, 4.25 ERA, 29.2 IP, 27 K)
RHP R.A. Dickey (2-3, 3.41 ERA, 34.1 IP, 19 K)

TORONTO GETS:
LHP Patrick Corbin (3-1, 2.29 ERA, 35.1 IP, 22 K)
LHP Tom Milone (2.11 ERA, 21.1 IP, 21 K)

We were happy to trade Milone, since Tommy was growing tiresome of not being in our rotation. The best part of this deal was that Toronto not only agreed to pay half of Dickey's $8.6 million salary for this season, but also all of Happ's $4.6 million salary through 2016. Yes, it cost us two promising lefties who were pitching incredibly well for us, but I liked the idea of having a rental pitcher in Dickey for this season, and a free pitcher in Happ for 2014, 2015, and 2016. With two trades, our payroll remained almost unchanged for 2014, going from $70.9 million to $72.2. But our projected payroll for 2015 had shrunk by ten million dollars, from $76.8 million to $66.4. With a very promising free agent market looming in 2015, we were positioning ourselves well for the offseason, which was still seven months away. I felt like a squirrel storing a tree-full of acorns for winter.