Phils acquire Blanton from A's for minor leaguers
Philadelphia on Thursday acquired right-handed starter Joe Blanton from the A's in exchanged for three minor-league players.
"Philadelphia was aggressive," Oakland assistant GM David Forst said. "They made it clear they needed a starting pitcher to help out and we were able to get the deal done."
The deal was first reported by ESPN's Buster Olney.
Blanton, who went 14-10 a year ago with a 3.95 ERA, has struggled in 2008. Through 20 starts, the 27-year-old righty is 5-12 with a 4.96 ERA.
He has underachieved in 2008 in his fifth big league season after being the opening day starter in March against the Boston Red Sox in Tokyo.
"We've been attempting to upgrade our rotation and we feel like we've done that," Phillies assistant general manager Mike Arbuckle said. "We think Joe is a very strong, competitive pitcher that has the mental makeup to pitch productively in a pennant race. He pitches a lot of innings and takes some burden off the bullpen."
The Phillies are hoping to add consistency to their starting rotation, a weakness when compared to their otherwise solid bullpen.
The A's received left-hander Josh Outman from Class AA Reading and second baseman Adrian Cardenas and outfielder Matt Spencer from Class A Clearwater.
Outman, 23, was 5-4 with one save and a 3.20 ERA in 33 games (5 starts) for Double-A Reading. Cardenas, 20, was hitting .309 in 67 games for Single-A Clearwater. Spencer, 22, was hitting .249 with six home runs and 41 RBIs in 84 games for Clearwater.
A's general manager Billy Beane swapped Blanton a week after sending Rich Harden to the Chicago Cubs — and that's with his team very much in contention in the AL West, six games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels.
Last December, Beane dealt ace Dan Haren to the Arizona Diamondbacks. And he traded aces Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder in a three-day span in December 2004.
Beane and Forst said last offseason they are focusing their efforts on improving the club's farm system from the bottom up, and trading Harden and Blanton further backs that they mean it.
"We started this process last November or December and we said that we wanted to build a foundation and put together a group of players who were going to be here for a long time and sort of recreate what we did here at the beginning of the decade," Forst said. "We've made no secret that we're trying to build a longtime winner. We're trying to build something that's going to last. We want to be the ones who are being chased. We don't want to be doing the chasing."
Forst added that this doesn't mean the A's are writing off 2008, saying: "'08 still has a chance to be a good year. Beyond that is what we've done all this for."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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