The San Diego Padres once again made a flurry of acquisitions at this year's MLB trade deadline. The Padres haul included trades bringing in Athletics reliever Mason Miller, Kansas City Royals catcher Freddy Fermin, and veterans Ramon Laureano and Ryan O'Hearn from the Baltimore Orioles.
So far, all of them have paid dividends since coming to San Diego, as has Nestor Cortes, who came in via a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Both O'Hearn and Laureano have made a lot of appearances since joining the team. O'Hearn has played in 20 games with the Padres, hitting three home runs with 10 RBI, and has spent time as the designated hitter and first baseman.
However, the veteran revealed he had asked Orioles GM Mike Elias to trade him somewhere else, via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
‘O’Hearn thought he would be traded to one of four teams — Boston, Milwaukee, Texas or Houston. He actually asked Orioles GM Mike Elias if he could be sent to one of the Texas teams so he could be closer to his home in Dallas, but knew his request carried only so much weight,' Rosenthal wrote.
So, O'Hearn wanted to join the Houston Astros or Texas Rangers to be close to home, but other teams he had envisioned were the Brewers. In fact, Brewers pitcher DL Hall texted O'Hearn saying that they had “put in a good offer” for him.
Ultimately, right before the deadline, O'Hearn and veteran pitcher Charlie Morton decided to stay in Baltimore instead of traveling with the team to Chicago, which made sense given all of the trade rumors that had been swirling around.
“There were so many rumors,” O’Hearn said. “I was thinking it could be Boston. Boston was right up the street. Why am I going to fly to Chicago? I was just like screw it, I’ll stay here.”
Now, O'Hearn is playing a role with a team right outside first place in the National League West, although he is set to be a free agent after the season.
