The Oakland Athletics’ firesale continued on Sunday morning as they traded one of their remaining aces, Sean Manaea, to the San Diego Padres, as first reported by MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.
While the Padres are also getting minor-league pitcher Aaron Holiday, the Athletics are receiving a pair of prospects in Euribiel Angeles and Adrian Martinez — both of whom were ranked outside the organization’s top-10.
San Diego continues to add to its deep stable of starting pitchers as Manaea will be placed within a group that already features Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Mike Clevinger, and Chris Paddack. Such a staff is needed to keep up in a loaded NL West division that boasts the high-powered Los Angeles Dodgers and a San Francisco Giants team coming off a 107-win season.
Manaea put together a career year in Oakland last season, posting an 11-10 record with a 3.91 ERA and 194 strikeouts in 174.1 innings of work — the latter two figures career bests. He also led the majors with two complete games and two shutouts, as well.
It was a strong bounce-back campaign for him considering there were some question marks regarding his longevity.
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He was limited to just five starts in 2019 after undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery in September the year before (he no-hit the Boston Red Sox in 2018), going 4-0 with a 1.21 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 29.2 innings. A shortened 2020 season also saw his workload limited to just 54 innings.
Manaea was slated to be featured near the top of Oakland’s rotation alongside Frankie Montas, but the Athletics have all but disbanded a team that won 86 games and just missed the playoffs.
They lost key contributors such as Starling Marte and Mark Canha to free agency while trading away foundational stars like first baseman Matt Olson (Braves), third baseman Matt Chapman (Blue Jays), and starting pitcher Chris Bassitt (Mets).
Manaea and the Athletics avoided arbitration last month by settling on a one-year, $9.75 million contract, but the franchise’s purging of money made the pitcher a key trade piece — especially for a team whose payroll now ranks near the bottom in baseball at an estimated $33 million this season.
