We’re now officially less than a week away from Opening Day, but that didn’t stop the Oakland Athletics from letting go of another key player, trading Sean Manaea to the San Diego Padres. In addition to the fan-favorite, Oakland also sent away pitching prospect Aaron Holiday, in exchange for infielder Euribiel Angeles and pitcher Adrian Martinez. To really understand this trade, you have to realize that the A’s are in a complete rebuilding phase – and will be for a couple of years to come. They have already disposed of Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Mark Canha, and eight other notable players. This is by no means a horrible trade but it does give a little more context as to why a valuable player such as Manaea was traded.
Here are grades for this trade between the Athletics and Padres.
Sean Manaea Trade Grades
Padres: A
With the acquisition of Manaea, the Padres boosted an already impressive rotation that already features Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Mike Clevinger, Joe Musgrove, and Chris Paddack. So that begs the question, is the former Athletics ace going to stay in San Diego? This could be a good opportunity, given the depth of the Padres rotation, to trade for a position player. With the absence of Tatis for the first three months, the Padres will look to fill that gap in any way. Offloading a pitcher could present a good opportunity to introduce Tatis’ temporary replacement.
Next, who is Aaron Holiday? Well, the answer is just another pitcher. Albeit a seemingly very decent pitcher. In fact, in his two appearances in the Minor Leagues last year, he put up an impressive 0.00 ERA in 5.2 innings pitched. Unfortunately for Holiday, it’s hard to imagine he’ll stay in San Diego for long. The Padres already have MacKenzie Gore and Ryan Weathers as young pitching prospects, so adding Holiday to that mix doesn’t really make sense.
Overall, the Padres put themselves in a good position. They now have collateral for a few trades while also letting go of a few unneeded prospects.
Athletics: B+
Now let’s take a look at Oakland’s side of the trade. Normally, you would take a look at the roster to see what holes needed to be filled, and then grade according to whether or not they filled them accordingly. But the Athletics essentially traded away their entire team so the roster is simply one large vacancy. This is probably why they were looking to get one position player and one pitcher. So who exactly did the A’s trade for? Adrian Martinez (RHP) has bounced around the minors since 2015. Unfortunately, he has little to show for it as he carries a 4.50 ERA (Minor and Foreign leagues). Euribiel Angeles on the other hand looks like a promising infielder. In 2019 and 2021, Angeles posted a combined .321 AVG in over 600 at-bats. The above-average hitter and fielder (.962 FPCT) is a solid addition to Oakland and could potentially be their next franchise player.
Simply because of this acquisition, the Athletics can call this transaction successful.
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