The Oakland Athletics made the first major trade of the offseason only this time General Manager Billy Beane was the buyer, not the seller.

I was surprised to see this afternoon that the A’s were the team to acquire Matt Holliday from Colorado – and that they gave up two young players and former closer Huston Street in order to do so.

Based on the firesales Beane has held for his top starting pitchers in recent years – Joe Blanton, Rich Harden and Dan Haren the last two offseasons alone – along with his willingness to let players like Jason Giambi go in exchange for draft picks makes this look like a surprising move.

Add Holliday’s oft-contentious agent, Scott Boras, to the mix and it seems almost insane that the Athletics would give up the recently-acquired Carlos Gonzalez, pitcher-stud-to-be Greg Smith and Street for a superstar MVP runner up in 2007 who will be a free agent at the end of 2009.

Or was it just brilliant? Sportingnews.com this afternoon pointed out that the young-but-talented Athletics were just four games out of first place in the AL West in July before fading with a weak offense. Under the first of two scenarios offered by the magazine’s Web site, Holliday becomes an offensive catalyst that helps keep the A’s in the race all season.

After all, they still have several quality pitchers. Some offense and this thing could turn around fast. Failing that, the second scenario suggested is that the A’s fall out of the race and Beane uses Holliday as a trade deadline-or-before chip that can be used to add even more quality youngsters.

SN writer Ryan Fagan points out that with the impact Mark Teixeira, Manny Ramirez and CC Sabathia had on their acquirers this season, Beane is even likely to get fair market value in a pre-deadline trade.

Beane won’t likely often be the aggressive acquirer in such cases. But in this case he may have once again shown some brilliance. Or it could blow up in his face. Who knows.