With Cliff Pennington coming down with a case of Bell's Palsy, the A's needed another infielder, stat. Adam Rosales was the obvious callup to either back up the four infield spots or perhaps to even start at short, depending on how Bob Melvin feels about him vs. Eric Sogard -- me, I've seen enough of Rosales's defense there, and I'm pretty happy letting Sogard continue to play. Can't hurt, right?

Designated punching bag was, well, designated to make room. As BlogBro ("Friend of the Blog" is so 2008) David Wishinsky has explained, the DFA happens because Blevins must be put on optional waivers before he can be optioned to the minors. (This is because Blevins was first called up more than three years ago.) Clearing optional waivers takes 48 hours, but the A's needed an infielder now. Thus, they designate Blevins for assignment, a move that clears him from the 25-man roster. Once he clears (and he will clear -- optional waivers are revocable, and, per Wishinsky quoting Bob Rose of the A's, nobody in baseball has ever been claimed on optional waivers), he'll be optioned to Sacramento like normal.

As unenthused as I am by Adam Rosales, by the way, and as much as the constant Twitter traffic raised every time Blevins is designated amuses me, I hope this seven-man bullpen is what the A's run with going forward. I don't particularly care who the seventh man is -- the A's can send down Blevins, Trystan Magnuson, Fautino De Los Santos, or whoever else they like -- but I do want a bigger-than-three-man bench. Despite having two gimpy LF/DHs (Matsui, Willingham), the A's basically cannot pinch-run or engage in defensive replacement because David DeJesus is also dealing with a minor injury. This is, frankly, absurd. There is no reason to have that many bullpen pitchers.