We have a pair of major league trades around the league worth noting this morning
MLB Trade Rumors: The San Diego Padres landed Sean Manaea from the Oakland A’s, and the New York Yankees sent Joely Rodriguez to the New York Mets, as the transaction wire this morning lights up with some pre-Opening Day moves worth noting.
The move of real significance is the Padres landing Manaea, a solid lefty starting pitcher who is in his walk year. The Padres now have a pretty stacked rotation, and some flexibility to deal starting pitching to fortify some other area, should they choose. Manaea is under contract for $9.75 million in 2022, and the Padres were reportedly close to the luxury tax line, so it will be interesting to see if they make another move — such as pairing some of that surplus pitching with Eric Hosmer or Wil Myers — to shed salary.
The deal has been announced as Manaea and Aaron Holiday going to the Padres, and Oakland getting Euribiel Angeles and Adrian Martinez. Holiday was a 13th round pick of the A’s in the 2021 draft, a pitcher out of Old Dominion. Angeles, who turns 20 in May, in an infielder who had a very solid season at low-A in 2021. Martinez, 25, is a starting pitcher who split 2021 between AA and AAA. They were ranked 10th and 19th, respectively, in the BA organizational rankings for the Padres.
The other deal — Joely Rodriguez being dealt by the Yankees to the Mets for Miguel Castro — is worth noting for a couple of reasons. First, Joely was a Ranger, and we always want to acknowledge former Rangers. But second, it is that very rare New York-New York deal. The last trade between the teams was in 2014, when the Yankees purchased Gonzalez German from the Mets. The last actual swap of players was in 2004, when Mike Stanton was traded for Felix Heredia.