Over a few months last season the Oakland Athletics trundled from dark-horse contender in the AL West to also-ran, and now over 13 days they have traded two of their better starting pitchers, and so begins yet another rebuild under Billy Beane.On Thursday they agreed to send 26-year-old left-hander and 16-game winner Gio Gonzalez to the Washington Nationals for four minor league prospects, three of them pitchers. The trade is pending physicals, so is not yet official. On Dec. 9, they traded Trevor Cahill, who won 18 games in 2010, to the Arizona Diamondbacks for three prospects, two of them pitchers.

So, while the A’s again charted a course for some future opening day in a ballpark they don’t know will be built in a city they don’t know they can live in, first the Diamondbacks and now the Nationals benefit from the fruits of Beane’s past rebuilding efforts.

In the NL East with the superpower Phillies, sturdy Atlanta Braves and emerging Miami Marlins, the Nationals gave up four of their top 10 prospects – right-handers Brad Peacock and A.J. Cole, left-hander Tom Milone and catcher Derek Norris (as first reported by ESPN.com) – in order to deepen their rotation with Gonzalez.

Ace Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gonzalez and John Lannan give the Nationals a competitive one through four and a youthful staff that complements a maturing core of everyday players, among them Ryan Zimmerman, Wilson Ramos, Ian Desmond, Danny Espinosa and, perhaps this season, Bryce Harper. Strasburg, Zimmermann and Gonzalez won’t be free agents until after the 2015 season.

When the A’s let it be known they again were stripping down, primary interest around the league turned to Gonzalez, 31-21 over the past two seasons. The talented left-hander does have a tendency to lose the strike zone – his 92 walks in 2011 led the American League – and it’s part of the reason he has been traded four times in six years.- http://sports.yahoo.com