Greinke traded to Angels

Milwaukee, WI – Zack Greinke is going back to the American League.

The Milwaukee Brewers traded Greinke to the Los Angeles Angels Friday for shortstop Jean Segura and a pair of Double-A pitchers - Ariel Pena and Johnny Hellweg.

Greinke, who is in the final season of a four-year, $38 million contract, is 9-3 with a 3.44 ERA in 21 starts this season.

"We greatly appreciate Zack's contributions to the Brewers," general manager Doug Melvin said. "He will be greatly missed on the field and in the clubhouse. We wish him nothing but the very best. We are also very excited about acquiring three good young players who are already on the 40-man roster. We look forward to them joining organization and their future contributions to the Brewers."

Greinke will serve as another formidable arm in a solid Angels rotation that includes Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Ervin Santana and Dan Haren.

"It should be fun. They've got a great team," Greinke said. "There's definitely a lot of talent there, great players good pitching. The pitching staff will be pretty incredible."

The Brewers reportedly made the decision to trade the 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner after an 0-6 road trip. That included three straight 7-6 losses at Philadelphia, when the Phillies rallied to win each game in their final at- bat. Milwaukee is 45-54, which is 14 games behind NL Central-leading Cincinnati.

Greinke, 28, was riding a 15-game home winning streak, the longest in Brewers franchise history. He is the fourth starting pitcher in modern major league history (since 1900) to win each of his first 15 home decisions with a team, joining Johnny Allen, LaMarr Hoyt and Kenny Rogers.

Earlier this month, Greinke made three straight starts for the Brewers, becoming the first pitcher to start three consecutive games since Red Faber of the White Sox back in 1917.

A first-round draft selection by Kansas City in 2002, Greinke broke into the majors with the Royals in 2004. He pitched for KC through the 2010 season before being traded to the Brewers. In 259 career games (218 starts), he has compiled an 85-76 record to go with a 3.79 ERA.

Segura, 22, was batting .294 with seven homers and 40 RBI in 94 games for Double-A Arkansas this year. He made his major league debut on Tuesday and went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts against Kansas City.

Pena and Hellweg are both 23-year-old right-handers, who were playing for Arkansas this year. Pena was 6-6 with a 2.99 ERA in 19 starts, while Hellweg was 5-10 with a 3.38 ERA in 21 starts.

The Angels made a few other roster moves Friday. They placed shortstop Erick Aybar on the 15-day disabled list with a fractured right big toe and called up infielder Andrew Romine from Triple-A Salt Lake.

Aybar was hitting .257 with four homers and 28 RBI in 91 games this season.

The Angels also activated outfielder Vernon Wells from the 60-day DL. Wells had been out since May 21 with a broken right thumb.