OAKLAND -- The pain that the A's have felt this season from Jason Giambi's departure made Carlos Peña wince Tuesday.
For the second consecutive spring, an A's rookie touted as a fixture into the future felt the cold, present reality. Oakland ejected Peña from its starting lineup and into that of the Triple-A River Cats, a few weeks later into the season than Jose Ortíz was transformed from starting A's second baseman to Sacramento bust in 2001. Ortíz was eventually traded to Colorado.
Peña's demise is far more startling.
In December, the A's sent Texas four leading prospects for baseball's top young first baseman. They heralded Peña as Giambi's replacement for the next five years.
Three weeks ago, Peña was the American League Rookie of the Month. He had a .274 batting average with seven home runs and 16 RBIs in April, including a game-winning home run April 7 at Seattle.
But the man who last winter said that he wanted to become "the best player who ever played, if that's possible," will now try to become the best player on the River Cats. That's the result of batting 4 for 40 without a home run or an RBI while the underachieving A's lost 13 of 16 games.
A's general manager Billy Beane explained the jolt as a need "to do something."
"And it is in Carlos' best interests to get more at- bats at Triple A," Beane said.
The headstrong Peña disagreed.
"I can't worry about what this person thinks of me or that person," Peña told mlb.com. "I cultivate my own garden. I know in my heart that I'm not a Triple-A player. I'm a big-league player. But if I have to prove that, again, at Triple A, that is what I will do."
The A's would have kept Peña plugging through his problems in the majors if they were 10 games ahead of Seattle instead of 10 games behind.
"Because we're losing, we can't afford to carry him," A's manager Art Howe said.
When asked what Peña needs to do to get back to Oakland, Beane said, "Get more hits."
"I think we have to remember he is still 24 years old," Beane said. "The kid did great things his first month. But I think it's obvious he could use the time to work on other things."
