The Athletics acquired Jed Lowrie this week, taking on the higher-paid player in the trade.

Since they were eliminated by the Tigers in the playoffs last fall, Oakland has made three trades in which they took on more salary than they sent out.

That may seem to go against their usual course of action, but the A's aren't spending freely and their payroll for 2013 will be in the $60 million range.

"We won a very challenging division," Billy Beane said. "We wanted to do everything we could to make the team better."

What's interesting is that the A's traded away prospects in all three of the aforementioned deals.

"Our currency is not cash," Beane said. "Our currency is young players."