Athletics Trade Sean Manaea To Padres For Two More Prospects

Image credit: Sean Manaea (Getty Images)

The A’s continued their offseason teardown on Sunday, trading lefthander Sean Manaea to the Padres for prospects Euribiel Angeles and Adrian Martinez. Relief prospect Aaron Holiday was also sent to San Diego in the deal.

Manaea gives the Padres another established starter after the club was sunk by its lack of starting pitching depth last year and sets the table for the Padres to move some of their excess pitching in another deal for a left fielder.

For the A’s, Manaea becomes the latest veteran traded away this offseason, joining Matt Olson, Matt Chapman and Chris Bassitt. The A’s also let Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison, Andrew Chafin, Jed Lowrie, Sergio Romo and Jake Diekman leave in free agency, beginning yet another rebuild.

Angeles was the Padres No. 10 prospect and Martinez was their No. 19 prospect.

ATHLETICS ACQUIRE

Euribiel Angeles, 2B/SS
Age: 19

Angeles hit .343 to win the Low-A West batting title last season and finished the year with a late promotion to High-A Fort Wayne. He is an undersized middle infielder with exceptional hand-eye coordination that allows him to make contact with almost any pitch. He primarily sprays balls from gap to gap and has a line drive-oriented stroke, but he could add more power as he matures. Angeles is extremely aggressive at the plate and will have to tighten his pitch selection against upper-level pitching. He is a reliable defender at shortstop, but his range and arm strength project better at second base long term.

Adrian Martinez, RHP
Age: 25

Martinez recovered from Tommy John surgery as a teenager to become one of the better pitching prospects in the Padres system. He went 8-5, 3.38 with 122 strikeouts and 41 walks over a career-high 125 innings at Double-A and Triple-A last season. Martinez’s fastball ranges from 91-95 mph with fade and run and his changeup is one of the best in the minor leagues. It’s a plus-plus pitch that has screwball-like action that dives down and away from lefties and is a true out pitch. Martinez’s fastball command is scattered and his slider is a below-average pitch, making him more likely to be a reliever than a starter. He is a reverse-splits pitcher who is more effective against lefties than righties.

PADRES ACQUIRE

Sean Manaea, LHP
Age: 30

Manaea missed most of 2019 after having shoulder surgery and posted the highest ERA of his career during the shortened 2020 season, but rebounded in a big way last year. He went 11-10, 3.91 and, most importantly for a Padres rotation that lacked durability last year, led the American League with 32 starts and tossed a pair of shutouts. Manaea is an efficient lefthanded starter who pounds the strike zone with his low 90s sinker and gets swings and misses with his changeup and curveball. He limits self-induced mistakes like walks, hit batters and wild pitches and keeps the ball on the ground to be consistently effective if not overwhelming. He pitched at least five innings in 26 of his 32 starts last year. Manaea will slot into the Padres rotation and give them another established lefty to pair with Blake Snell.

Aaron Holiday, RHP
Age: 21

The A’s drafted Holiday in the 13th round last year out of Old Dominion after he made four scoreless relief appearances in the Cape Cod League. He added 5.2 more scoreless innings with three hits allowed, two walks and eight strikeouts in his pro debut in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League. Holiday is a pure relief prospect with a fastball that sits 91-94 mph and touches 96 out of a vertical arm slot. He has an average changeup and a fringy slider, but mostly goes after hitters with his fastball. He struggled badly with his control in college, walking 32 batters in 28 innings at Old Dominion, but he has shown improved control in his limited action as a pro. He will make his full-season debut in 2022 and try to continue making enough control gains to emerge as a potential relief option.