Kansas City Royals acquire Ben Zobrist from Oakland A's

The Kansas City Royals have acquired utilityman Ben Zobrist from the Oakland Athletics, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports. CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman adds that pitchers Aaron Brooks and Sean Manaea will head to Oakland in the trade.

It’s been widely reported this week that the Royals weren’t done making moves after acquiring Cincinnati Reds ace Johnny Cueto on Sunday, and those reports proved true on Tuesday with Kansas City picking up Zobrist. With second base being an area of weakness for the Royals and Alex Gordon out for an extended period of time in left field, Zobrist is essentially the perfect addition for Kansas City to help patch both holes. With Omar Infante currently in the midst of a mini hot streak, Zobrist could see his first action with the Royals in left, but will likely spend more time at second down the stretch.

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The Athletics, in turn, add two promising young pitchers to a deadline haul that already includes Casey Meisner from the Tyler Clippard trade.

Manaea is widely considered to be a Top 100 prospect in all of baseball, with Baseball America considering him the game’s #56 prospect entering the 2015 campaign. The 23-year-old was the 34th-overall pick in the 2014 draft, and has just recently made the jump to AA this month.

Brooks made his major-league debut last year, and has seen minimal big-league action again this year. But the 25-year-old has given up 16 runs in just 7.0 career innings with the Royals, meaning he could probably stand to have some more time in the minors before filling a role on the big-league club in Oakland. Perhaps transitioning into a bullpen role with the Royals was what threw Brooks off track, as he has much better minor-league numbers as a starter (6-5 with a 3.71 ERA with AAA Omaha this season).

With five quality pitchers now shipped off to other clubs, one would have to think this will be the last major move for the Royals, though they could still potentially add another pitcher or an outfield bat if a perfect storm presented itself. They would likely pursue a lesser starter like an Alfredo Simon (if the Tigers ultimately sell) or taking a chance on a struggling bat like Matt Joyce, but blockbuster deals are likely done in Kansas City.

For the Athletics, the two big trade chips they had to offer (Zobrist and Clippard) are now both gone. Whether the club continues to ship out more controllable assets (Josh Reddick and Sonny Gray have both been mentioned as less likely trade candidates) remains to be seen.

Next: New York Mets Acquire Tyler Clippard From Athletics

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