Wait, the A's Just Paid HOW Much For a New Starting Pitcher?

When the Oakland Athletics acquired starting LHP Brad Mills from the Brewers for cash, very few people expected his price tag to be this low:

#Athletics acquired Mills from #Brewers for $1. Expected to move into rotation shortly.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 17, 2014

Mills has a clause in his contract that lets him move to any other MLB team for free if they add him to their 25-man roster...and since $1 is better than $0, the Brewers jumped at the chance.

Mills, a 29-year-old with a 7.76 ERA in 15 major league games, clearly wasn't a piece of the puzzle in Milwaukee. The A's, enamored by his 1.56 ERA in Class AAA Nashville, seem to think they can turn him into something productive. Given Oakland's past success with reclamation projects, we'd expect him to improve on his past major league struggles...but since Milwaukee was about to lose Mills for nothing anyway, you can't fault them for pulling the trigger.