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Twins beef up infield, deal with A's for Cabrera

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Updated Jul 31, 2009 8:03 PM ET
     
 
The Minnesota Twins made a move to upgrade their middle infield, acquiring shortstop Orlando Cabrera from the Oakland Athletics for the stretch run in the crowded AL Central race. FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reported the deal Friday, just hours before the trade deadline. Midseason trades haven't been much a part of Twins history, but in the last week All-Stars Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan have pined for some action with the division title there for the taking and Mauer's future beyond next season unsecured. Minnesota was in second place, a half-game ahead of the Chicago White Sox and two games behind Detroit when Friday began. Shortly after the Tigers struck a deal with Seattle for starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn, the Twins completed their trade with the A's. Oakland sent Cabrera and cash to Minnesota for minor league infielder Tyler Ladendorf, a second-round draft pick last year who was recently promoted to the team's low-level Class-A affiliate. The Twins need more production up the middle with Nick Punto and Alexi Casilla struggling to hit this season, but Cabrera's .318 on-base percentage isn't ideal for what has been a big hole in the second spot in the batting order. Cabrera was batting .280 with four homers, 41 RBIs and 11 steals for Oakland. He wasn't expected to be at the Metrodome in time for Friday night's game against the Angels, one of his five former teams. Since July 1, Cabrera has batted .373 with eight doubles, two homers and 16 RBIs in 110 at-bats. He's a two-time Gold Glove winner, in 2001 and 2007, who has a career .274 average. In 2004, Cabrera was sent from Montreal to Boston at the trade deadline to take over at shortstop for Nomar Garciaparra and helped the Red Sox win the World Series.
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Cabrera signed a one-year contract for $4 million with the A's in March. The last time the Twins made a significant move in July, they acquired left fielder Shannon Stewart in 2003 from the Toronto Blue Jays and used his production and steadiness to rally in the race and win the AL Central. The recent focus of A's general manager Billy Beane has been to rebuild the franchise from the bottom up, and he's constantly working to improve the farm system. Ladendorf is a player the A's wanted to pick in the 2008 draft, an athletic infielder with good speed who is still growing. "He's a ways away," Beane said on a conference call. "He's a kid we really liked in the draft the previous year. In fact we were going to draft him with the next pick after the Twins selected him. We have some familiarity with him as an amateur." Beane said he talked to the Twins over the last 10 days, but their "reluctance" to part with Ladendorf was what held up the deal. "The Twins showed the most desire to acquire (Cabrera) and seemed to have the greatest need," Beane said. "It was an absolute pleasure to have him. If you look at his last month, he was playing great baseball for us with a lot of energy." Now, the A's will bring up Cliff Pennington from Triple-A Sacramento to be their everyday shortstop in place of Cabrera. Former AL Rookie of the Year shortstop Bobby Crosby is serving in a utility role. "We're going to use this as an opportunity for us to give Cliff a chance to see what he can do at the major league level," Beane said. "He's someone we think highly of. We're going to give him a long trial run. He's earned that." Oakland already unloaded Matt Holliday to the St. Louis Cardinals last week. The small-market A's have become known for trading away top talent. Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder — two-thirds of the former Big Three that also included Barry Zito — were dealt during a three-day span in December 2004. Ace Dan Haren, who came to Oakland from St. Louis in the Mulder deal, was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks in December 2007. Popular outfielders Nick Swisher and Mark Kotsay also were traded that offseason, as was super-sub Marco Scutaro — and almost all the players the A's received in those swaps were unproven minor leaguers. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tagged: Athletics, Orlando Cabrera, Twins

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