Jed Lowrie and Francisco Rodriguez Traded

The Astros announced the trade of SS Jed Lowrie and RHP Francisco Rodriguez to the Oakland A's on Monday for 1B Chris Carter, RHP Brad Peacock and C Max Stassi.

Carter, 26, has played a total of 106 games over three seasons in the majors with Oakland, 67 in 2012 in which he hit .239/.350/.514 with 16 home runs and 39 RBIs.

According to the Astros press release, Carter's minor league resume has been impressive:

Carter (6-4, 244), who has played parts of the last three seasons (2010-12) with the A’s big club, has had an outstanding minor league career, twice winning Oakland’s Organizational Player of the Year Award (2008-09). In 2008 at Single A Stockton, he tallied 39 HR, 32 doubles, 104 RBI and 101 runs scored while posting a .569 slugging pct. In 2009, he hit a combined .329 at Midland (AA) and Sacramento (AAA) with 28 HR and 115 RBI with a .422 on-base-pct. and a .570 slugging pct. en route to earning Texas League Player of the Year honors. In 826 career minor league games, Carter has a .535 slugging pct. and a .913 OPS.

Peacock, 25, has only pitched in three games at the major league level (for Washington in 2011) with excellent results. In 28 appearances (25 starts) at AAA in 2012, he went 12-9 with a 6.01 ERA, 1.584 WHIP and 9.3 SO/9. In 2011, prior to his trade to Oakland, he was Washington’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year and also won Eastern League Pitcher of the Year honors. He was listed by Baseball America as the No. 4 prospect in the A's organization going into the 2013 season.

The 21-year-old Stassi, hit .268/.331/.468 with 15 HR and 45 RBI in 84 games at Single A Stockton in 2012 . He has seen limited playing time the last two seasons due to injury, but is said to be a good defensive catcher that profiles to have a respectable amount of pop in his bat.

Both Carter and Peacock have been placed on the 40-man roster. Stassi will be a non-roster invitee.

GM Jeff Luhnow will have to have some tricks up his sleeve in order to figure out where he's going to put his extra ration of first basemen. Between Carlos Pena, Brett Wallace, Nate Freiman and now Chris Carter, something is going to have to give somewhere even after factoring in the DH. The same thing can be said of right-handed pitchers who are competing for spots in the starting rotation. In addition to Bud Norris, Lucas Harrell and Jordan Lyles, you'll have John Ely, Phil Humber, Alex White and now Brad Peacock. And that doesn't even include up-and-comer Jarred Cosart and NRI Edgar Gonzalez. I do not envy Bo Porter and company in trying to find enough innings for everyone.