MINNEAPOLIS — The Oakland Athletics traded for Jeff Samardzija after the National League players had voted him to their All-Star team. On Monday at Target Field, Samardzija dressed in the N.L. clubhouse and wore an N.L. warm-up jersey with a generic All-Star cap. Then he watched the Home Run Derby from the American League side.

He is ineligible to play on Tuesday because of the odd circumstances, but he sounds as if he would not change a thing. The trade vaulted Samardzija from last place with the Chicago Cubs to first place with Oakland. He has six fellow All-Stars — and a roster full of like-minded teammates — on baseball’s best club.

“I’ve never heard baseball talked so much in my entire life — in the dugout, on the bus, on the plane,” Samardzija said. “They’re constantly always talking about how to get the Angels out, or the Rangers out, or the Seattle Mariners out, or how to hit those guys, how to hit Felix. Just a certain love for the game that definitely resonates through the team.”

The A’s arrived at the All-Star break with a 59-36 record and an urgency to keep striving. They are one and a half games ahead of the Los Angeles Angels and would never want to face a wild-card play-in game against Felix Hernandez and the Mariners.