Sean Manaea Traded to the San Diego Padres

The Oakland Athletics have found their suitor for Sean Manaea, sending the likely-opening-day starter and RHP Aaron Holiday to the San Diego Padres from RHP Adrian Martinez and INF Euribiel Angeles.

The A’s opening day payroll drops to below $50 million.

While John Fisher and his accountant celebrate with complimentary club sodas at their luxury suite overlooking a traffic-jammed parcel in Vegas, A’s fans are scratching their heads at the return.

Manaea, who was acquired in the Ben Zobrist trade with the Kansas City Royals in 2015, had blossomed into a rotation mainstay. After making the switch to primarily a three-pitch mix including a sinker in place of his four-seamer, Manaea made even further strides at the top end of the rotation.

It seemed as though Manaea would be spared from the immediate fire sale prior to opening day.

While there was reported interest from a variety of teams—the Cardinals, Yankees, Twins, White Sox, Padres, and more—it didn’t seem out of the question that the A’s might hold onto Manaea at least through the first few weeks of the season.

Manaea has had some of his most success in the month of April, pitching to the tune of a 2.83 ERA—a full run lower than his career ERA—with a 0.964 WHIP, and his highest K/9 numbers compared to any other month.

In April 2018, Manaea went up against a hot-hitting Boston Red Sox squad and no-hit them in an A’s 3-0 victory at the Coliseum.

Holding onto Manaea at least through the first month of the season could have potentially given the Oakland A’s a chance to field a couple more calls and allowed interested teams to put together potentially better offers.

But, instead, Manaea will not log a 2022 regular season start with the Oakland A’s.

Returning to Oakland in the deal are the Padres 12th-ranked and 26th-ranked prospects.

Adrian Martinez, the latter of the two prospects, combined for an 8-5 record and 3.38 ERA in 26 games between Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A El Paso last season. Despite missing his entire 2016 season following Tommy John surgery, he struck 122 batters out in 125 innings.

He’ll be entering his age-25 season and could see time in the majors quite quickly due to a severe lack in pitching depth.

The “headliner” of the deal coming back to Oakland is Euribiel Angeles, a 19-year-old infielder who has seen time at third base, shortstop, and second base. In 105 games last season between Low-A and High-A ball, he hit .329 with 26 doubles, six triples, four home runs, 64 RBI, and 19 stolen bases.

The front office surely thinks high of Angeles, who now slots into the top-10 of an Oakland farm system that’s quickly getting a dramatic makeover.

“He has a bright future,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay told reporters. “His bat-to-ball skills are really good.”

Angeles profiles as a high contact hitter who uses his above-average speed to take an extra base. He’s already showing promise hitting against pitchers of the same handedness, batting .354 against righties in 2021.

Still, the return seems considerably light considering the number of teams interested and the fact that the A’s additionally parted ways with another young pitching prospect in the process.

“Angeles is a solid prospect…but you’d expect him to be to be more of a secondary piece rather than a headliner in a return for a top-of-the-rotation starter,” writes Melissa Lockard, MLB editor of The Athletic and resident prospect-expert for the Oakland A’s.

“Ultimately, this return could be a reflection of the market and perhaps an unwillingness by other potential suitors to pay Manaea’s full salary.”

Manaea is slated to make $9.75 million in 2022, which would have made him the highest-paid player on the A’s.

So, was this league-wide reluctance that forced the A’s to jump at an offer of lesser value?

There are some concerns that could be attributed to Manaea beyond his slightly larger contract and the fact that he is only under control for the 2022 season.

His peripheral stats rank his fastball and curveball spin rates and overall velocity in the lower third of the league. He gave up a hard-hit percentage higher than 70% of pitchers in the 2021 season. His average exit velocity allowed is worse than 82% of pitchers in the league.

Manaea has also shown himself to be relatively inconsistent over the course of a season.

While he has been predominantly resistant to injuries over the course of his career so far, he has seen some significant dips in velocity throughout the season. In almost every season of his career, he has seen a drop of between a half or full mile per hour on his fastball/sinker.

Possibly most alarming is the jump in his ERA after the 2021 All-Star break—inflating from a 3.19 ERA the first half to a 4.92 ERA to finish the season.

There may be some questions about what kind of pitcher San Diego is getting back in this deal, which might not exactly quell any concerns that might exist after another setback for Mike Clevinger, who is coming off of a season missed to Tommy John Surgery.

Despite this, Manaea led the league in overall starts last season and also threw two complete-game shutouts. Manaea, who reunites with manager Bob Melvin in San Diego, will likely become a clubhouse leader almost immediately.

Kotsay, like Melvin and so many others, describe Manaea as the “heart and soul” of the clubhouse.

“Sean is an integral part of what it means to be an Oakland A’s player,” pitcher Cole Irvin said. “The energy he brings to the ballpark every day is unmatched. He is one of the best guys you can have in a clubhouse.”

While the A’s ended up moving one of their two pitching candidates, it remains unlikely that Frankie Montas will be moved in the coming weeks.

Montas, who has an additional year of control in 2023, may have been one of the top starters in the second half of the 2021 season, posting a 2.17 ERA with 102 strikeouts across 87 innings pitched, while leading all American League pitchers with a 2.5 fWAR.

Montas will now be the opening day pitcher in Philadelphia.