The purge in Oakland continues, as the club announced Sunday that they had traded starting pitcher Sean Manea to the San Diego Padres. In addition to Manea, the Padres will also receive minor league player Aaron Holiday.
In return the Padres will be sending pitching prospect Adrian Martinez, and minor league infielder Euribiel Angeles. Manea, 30, had career highs in starts, innings pitched, strikeouts, complete games, and shutouts in 2021.
The left hander posted 11 wins for Oakland, and finished with a 3.91 ERA and 1.22 WHIP for the year. Manea is the fourth high profile player the Athletics have traded thus far, joining Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Chris Bassitt as casualties of Oakland’s current rebuild.
Ironically, Manea was scheduled to pitch Sunday against the Padres in Spring Training. As a result, he swapped jerseys and made the start against his former teammates giving up one run across 3 ⅔ innings.
The acquisition now gives the Padres a multitude of arms in their starting rotation. Manea joins Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Nick Martinez and Blake Snell to form a strong starting 5. However the team also has Mike Clevinger and Chris Paddack on the injured list to begin the year, meaning another pitching related move could be in the club’s future.
San Diego finished a disappointing 79-83 last year following a busy offseason. With expectations amongst the Padres fanbase sky high, the team struggled down the stretch as the Dodgers and Giants made the NL West a two team race.
The Padres open the 2022 campaign with a 4 game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 7th.