Josh Reddick swapped numbers with Billy Butler for a winch. Seriously, a winch.

More than your name or Twitter handle, nothing defines your identity as a baseball player quite like your uniform number. And when a player joins a new team and his preferred number is in conflict with a new teammate, there are three options to resolve the matter: 

1. The new player decides to drop the issue and find a new number. Of course, he soon finds himself waking up in the middle of the night with a horrible gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach. 

2. The two players battle it out in a top secret skills competition that no one outside of the baseball circle has ever dared reveal to an outsider. 

3. The new player must trade something of value in exchange for the number. 

The most common of these is option three, usually in the form of an expensive watch or a Babe Ruth autographed baseball. Though when Billy Butler joined the Athletics and his No. 16 clashed with Josh Reddick's preferred number, there was some talk of a wrestling match and/or eating competition. 

Eventually though, Reddick acquiesced. And all he wanted was a winch. You read that right: a winch.  

Hey @BillyButlerOAK thanks for the winch! Fair trade for a number I believe! pic.twitter.com/8FbrrrcGWB

- J-Red (@RealJoshReddick) December 3, 2014

If you, like me, are an indoor person, you may not know what a winch is. Well, according to Wikipedia, it is: 

Not a bad return except, you know, when compared to a Babe Ruth autograph. Or really anything that's not a mechanical device used to pull in or let out tension in a rope or cable. 

(h/t SB Nation)