Now that the Nationals have traded up, snagging starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez in a trade yesterday with the Oakland Athletics, the overhyping of the newest member of the local ball club’s rotation can begin.

Gonzalez, a 26-year-old left-hander, was one of the American League’s best young arms the past two seasons, posting a 33-21 record to complement an earned-run average of 3.17. In his four years in the majors, he’s amassed a career ERA of 3.93 (his first two seasons, spent mostly as a reliever, pad that number) and gotten a reputation as something of a strikeout ace, flirting with 200 strikeouts each of the past two seasons.

In exchange for Gonzalez, the Nats gave up a handful of minor league prospects. Their new acquisition is another in a long line of young A’s pitchers who have moved on from the Moneyball team, following players like Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Joe Blanton.

Of course, Gonzalez is also joining a rotation that sometimes includes the beatified Stephen Strasburg and more human Jordan Zimmerman, so already sports pundits are declaring Major League Baseball’s 2012 season the Year of the Nat.

The Post’s Thomas Boswell calls the trade a “superb present for fans” and that the Nationals “now have a playoff-quality rotation — on paper.” ESPN’s Buster Olney says that from now on visiting teams will arrive at Nationals Park “knowing they will be in for extremely difficult at-bats, facing guys with nasty stuff.”

Though Gonzalez doesn’t have Strasburg-like stuff—he left the American League in walks in 2011—he doesn’t have any history of injuries.

But perhaps the most promising feature of the Gonzalez trade can be found in what the City Paper’s Dave McKenna wrote this week about Jayson Werth: At least Gonzalez didn’t come from Philadelphia. (Then again, the A’s franchise history does begin in the City of Brotherly Love and Lusty Booing.)