The Padres found their Heath Bell replacement, acquiring closer Huston Street from the division-rival Rockies for minor league left-hander Nick Schmidt. The Rockies have officially announced the trade. The Rockies are eating $1MM on Street's $8MM salary, tweets Joel Sherman. MLB.com's Thomas Harding tweeted the agreement, Joel Sherman tweeted when it became official, and Danny Knobler, Scott Miller, and Buster Olney contributed to the breaking story.

Street, 28, posted a 3.86 ERA, 8.5 K/9, 1.4 BB/9, 1.54 HR/9, and 34.9% groundball rate in 58 1/3 innings for the Rockies this year, saving 29 games in 33 attempts. The move to Petco Park should help Street's home run rate, and if he has a big year he could decline his $9MM player option for 2013 and test the open market. Street had a DL stint for triceps soreness in August, during which the Rockies realized Rafael Betancourt could be an effective closer. The move appears to be mostly a salary dump for Colorado, and the team now has more money to pursue a starting pitcher such as Hiroki Kuroda. For fantasy analysis of the deal, check out Bryan Grosnick's latest at CloserNews.

Schmidt, 26, was drafted 23rd overall by San Diego in the 2007 draft. The southpaw has yet to pitch beyond the high Class A level, posting a 4.61 ERA and an 8.00 K/9 rate in four pro seasons. Schmidt underwent ligament replacement surgery that caused him to miss the entire 2008 season.

This marks Josh Byrnes' second trade since taking over as Padres GM, as he acquired catcher John Baker from Miami in November.