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Padres Option JP Sears

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The Padres announced they’ve optioned JP Sears to Triple-A El Paso. They recalled reliever Sean Reynolds and will go with a nine-man bullpen in the short term. Sears will spend at least 15 days in the minors unless he’s brought up to replace a player going on the injured list.

San Diego acquired Sears alongside Mason Miller in last week’s massive deadline deal. The 29-year-old southpaw made his team debut last night. He allowed five runs in as many innings on 10 hits and a walk against the Diamondbacks. Sears took the loss in a 6-2 defeat. He’d carried a 4.95 earned run average over 22 starts with the A’s. Yesterday pushed his ERA to 5.12 across 116 innings. It’s a bottom 10 mark among pitchers to log at least 100 frames. Sears had the highest home run rate among that group, offsetting his nearly league average 20.3% strikeout rate and solid 6% walk percentage.

This is the first time in two and a half years that Sears heads to the minors. He broke camp with the A’s in 2023 and has been in the majors since then. Sears has also avoided the injured list for that entire time. As a result, he’s tied for fifth in MLB with 87 starts since the beginning of the ’23 season. The durability is the big selling point, as his production (4.62 ERA/4.56 SIERA) over that stretch is that of a fifth or sixth starter.

The demotion shouldn’t have any impact on Sears’ service trajectory. He has already surpassed the three-year mark and will qualify for arbitration next winter. He’s under team control for three seasons beyond this one. While he’ll probably be back up at some point this year, it may require an injury elsewhere in the rotation.

San Diego optioned Randy Vásquez over the weekend. They currently have a four-man rotation of Dylan Cease, Nick Pivetta, Yu Darvish and deadline acquisition Nestor Cortes. Darvish and Cortes will get the ball for the next two outings. San Diego is off Thursday and could turn back to Pivetta and Cease on extra rest for their first two games of the weekend series against the Red Sox.

That’d point to the series finale on August 10 as Michael King’s return date. King threw 61 pitches in what is expected to be his final rehab start on Sunday (via the MLB.com injury tracker). He’d be on six days rest for his first MLB appearance since he went on the injured list in late May with a nerve problem in his throwing shoulder.

Padres Outright Trenton Brooks

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The Padres have sent first baseman/left fielder Trenton Brooks outright to Triple-A El Paso, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. He has the right to elect free agency though the log doesn’t indicate if he has done so.

Brooks, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Friars in the offseason. He was selected to the big league roster in the middle of June and held a spot for about six weeks but without playing much. He stepped to the plate 43 times with 13 strikeouts and two walks, leading to a .146/.186/.268 line.

The Padres made a number of notable upgrades ahead of the deadline, adding Ramón Laureano, Ryan O’Hearn, Freddy Fermin and Will Wagner to the position player mix. Those moves bumped Brooks off the roster and onto the waiver wire, with no club claiming him. He was also outrighted by the Giants last year, which is why he has the right to elect free agency this time.

If he accepts his outright assignment, he could perhaps get more playing time in Triple-A but he wouldn’t have a great path back to the majors now that the San Diego roster has been bolstered. If he were to elect free agency, perhaps he could find interest from a club with more theoretical playing time available. His major league track record isn’t good but he has always hit in the minors. From the start of 2022 to the present day, he has a 14.5% walk rate, 15.3% strikeout rate, .292/.397/.501 line and 126 wRC+ in 1,540 Triple-A plate appearances.

Photo courtesy of Denis Poroy, Imagn Images

Buxton: Still No Plans To Waive No-Trade Clause

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With rumors of the Twins potentially operating as deadline sellers swirling amid this year’s All-Star break, star center fielder Byron Buxton publicly indicated that he had no desire to waive his full no-trade clause and looked forward to being a Twin for the rest of his career. Minnesota indeed went the route of the seller and did so with far more vigor than anyone might’ve foreseen. The Twins shipped out ten players, including shortstop Carlos Correa (signed through at least 2028) and a quartet of controllable relievers: Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland and Brock Stewart. Even after their aggressive roster purge, Buxton has doubled down on his full intention to remain in Minnesota.

“Just because we go through these tough roads … it is what it is,” Buxton told reporters two days after the trade deadline (video link via Twins.TV). “We’ll be better once we get on the other end of it and figure things out a little bit more. End of the season, we’ll talk a little bit more, but I ain’t going nowhere.”

Some may latch onto Buxton’s comment about talking “a little bit more” at season’s end, but Buxton was even more emphatic when chatting with Dan Hayes of The Athletic:

“It’s always good to be wanted. Don’t get me wrong. But the only place I want is Minnesota. All of my choices are easy. I ain’t got but one place on my mind. That’s how it’ll be.”

Hayes reports that six or more teams reached out to Buxton’s agent to gauge the outfielder’s willingness to waive his no-trade protection as Minnesota embarked on a far broader-reaching teardown than anyone anticipated heading into the deadline. Both the Braves and the Mets had particularly strong interest, per Hayes. Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets that the Padres were also among the teams to inquire, as one would expect, given president of baseball operations A.J. Preller’s tendency to check in on virtually every high-profile name that hits the market. Obviously, Buxton was uninterested in pursuing a change of scenery.

Buxton, 31, is in the fourth season of a seven-year, $100MM contract extension that covers the 2022-28 seasons. He’s being paid $15MM annually, though the contract contains up to $8MM of yearly incentives based on MVP voting and a potential $2.5MM of annual bonuses based on plate appearances. Of course, if the talented but oft-injured Buxton were ever to stay healthy for a full season and max out those incentives with an MVP win, he’d still be a bargain even at the inflated $25.5MM in that given season.

The 2025 season is among the best of Buxton’s career to date. He’s hitting .282/.343/.561 with 23 home runs, 14 doubles, four triples, 17 steals (in 17 tries), an 8% walk rate and a 26.6% strikeout rate in 364 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+, he’s been 45% better than league-average from an offensive standpoint, and Statcast’s Outs Above Average (+4) views him as a continually strong defender (though Defensive Runs Saved has a -1 mark on him — the first negative of his career). Statcast measures Buxton’s average sprint speed (30.2 ft/sec) as second best in the game, trailing only Bobby Witt Jr.’s 30.3 ft/sec.

Perhaps down the road, Buxton will eventually soften his stance on that no-trade provision, but even in the wake of seeing nearly 40% of the major league roster traded elsewhere, he sounds intent on staying in the Twin Cities.

It’s still not clear how far the Twins’ roster teardown will span when the offseason rolls around. The Pohlad family, which has owned the team for four decades, is exploring a sale of the franchise. That clearly played a major role in the team’s deadline flurry — particularly in the move to trade away Correa (a move that trimmed more than $70MM off the long-term payroll). If there’s a new owner in place or an agreement to sell the club, perhaps the new group will be willing to spend and make a renewed push for contention next year. If the Pohlads remain in place, it seems plausible that veterans like Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Ryan Jeffers and Bailey Ober could all find themselves on the market with an eye toward further scaling back the financial commitments a new owner would be inheriting.

Padres “Made A Real Run At” MacKenzie Gore Trade

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There wasn’t much sense that the Nationals would be trading MacKenzie Gore, though that didn’t stop the Cubs, Yankees, and surely several other teams from at least checking in on the southpaw’s availability.  The New York Post’s Jon Heyman adds the Padres to the mix as a team that wasn’t just interested in Gore, but was perhaps at the top of the list of suitors.  As per Heyman, the Padres were “maybe the most aggressive pursuer” for Gore, and “made a real run” at trying to work out a trade with Washington.

Obviously there’s a lot of familiarity between the two sides, as San Diego drafted Gore third overall back in 2017 and the left-hander’s first 16 career MLB games came in a Padres uniform in 2022.  That same year, the Padres included Gore as part of a now-legendary trade package sent to the Nats in the blockbuster deadline deal that brought Juan Soto to southern California.  Gore, CJ Abrams, and James Wood have already broken out at the MLB level and Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana could still provide even more future help for Washington down the road.

Even with so much from this particular trade going right, however, the Nationals have yet to turn things around.  President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez were both fired in early July, and the team ended up moving some short-term veteran talent at the deadline, rather than pursue any bigger-picture moves like trading Gore.  Interim GM Mike DeBartolo said a couple of weeks ago that the Nats wanted to keep Gore and the rest of its young core together, and Heyman notes that there wasn’t any indication that even the Padres came close to getting Washington to actually considering moving Gore elswhere.

This year’s trade deadline saw Padres PBO A.J. Preller continue his reputation for bold moves, most notably the six-player swap that brought Mason Miller and JP Sears from the Athletics for a prospect package headlined by Leo De Vries.  As one of the elite prospects in the sport, De Vries is the kind of trade chip that could start a discussion on virtually any player, and moving the young shortstop was probably necessary to convince the A’s to part with a controllable young closer like Miller.  It could be that DeBartolo only would’ve budged on trading Gore if a true blue-chip young talent like De Vries was on the table, but it isn’t known if the Padres would’ve made such an offer.

The Padres ended up addressing their rotation by adding Sears and Nestor Cortes (who was activated today from the 60-day injured list) in separate trades, while dealing Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek to the Royals for catcher Freddy Fermin.  Impending free agent Dylan Cease was also heavily discussed in trade talks, and given San Diego’s interest in Sandy Alcantara and now Gore, Preller seemed to be exploring a scenario that would’ve seen Cease head elsewhere in one trade while another frontline pitcher with more control was added in another swap.  Given all of the moving parts in this two-pronged plan, the trade with the Athletics may have been the relatively simpler solution, as the Padres were able to instead focus their resources on bolstering their already excellent bullpen.

Gore is under arbitration control through the 2027 season, and there has already been speculation that he might not be a long-term candidate to remain in Washington.  Scott Boras is Gore’s agent, for one, but there’s also the possibility that the Nationals may not be ready to truly contend during Gore’s remaining two years, so trading him would be a logical move to add more pieces to the next competitive Nats roster.  More rumors about Gore’s availability figure to swirl for months, though that will be a decision for whomever the Nationals hire as their next full-time president of baseball ops.

Forrest Wall Opts Out Of Minor League Deal With Padres

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Outfielder Forrest Wall has opted out of his minor league deal with the Padres and is ticketed for free agency, according to a report from ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. San Diego signed Wall back in January and he’s been playing for the club’s Triple-A affiliate ever since.

Wall, 29, was a first-rounder selected by the Rockies back in 2014. A top-100 prospect back in 2016, Wall was traded alongside Cory Spangenberg to the Blue Jays for Seunghwan Oh. After years spent toiling in the Colorado, Toronto, and Seattle farm systems Wall finally made his big league debut in Atlanta during the 2023 season. He received just 15 plate appearances over a 15-game cup of coffee with the Braves, but in that time he went 6-for-13 with two doubles and a homer and walked twice against four strikeouts.

That sensational cameo earned Wall a spot on Atlanta’s 40-man roster headed into 2024, but he struggled when called up to help fill in for Ronald Acuna Jr. in June of last year. Wall was designated for assignment by the Braves, and his struggles continued after he was claimed off waivers by the Marlins. Wall hit just .250/.314/.250 in 35 plate appearances in that second taste of big league action. Wall was DFA’d by Miami late in the 2024 and claimed by the Orioles, who eventually outrighted him to the minor leagues. That allowed him to elect free agency and sign on with San Diego, for whom he’s played 69 games at Triple-A this year.

Wall’s struggles to establish himself in the majors could be due to relatively unimpressive numbers at the highest level of the minors. He’s spent parts of six seasons at Triple-A, and has a mediocre .273/.360/.391 slash line at the level across 450 games. While his numbers have improved in recent seasons, they still hardly jump off the page; Wall’s .298/.384/.429 showing for El Paso this year is actually good for only a 99 wRC+ due to the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League.

Still, Wall’s limited big league exposure has resulted in some success, with a 125 wRC+ in 31 total games. Perhaps that’s enough to catch the attention of a club in need of left-handed outfield depth as they gear up for the stretch run. If Wall doesn’t find an offer to his liking in affiliated ball, another option could be exploring overseas opportunities. At 29 years old with less than one year of service time under his belt in the majors, even if Wall did catch on in the majors he would likely be exiting his prime by the time he reached arbitration. That could make searching for a more immediately lucrative deal overseas a more attractive option for the outfielder.

Padres Designate Tyler Wade For Assignment

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The Padres designated infielder/outfielder Tyler Wade for assignment and optioned reliever Ron Marinaccio before tonight’s game. San Diego had already designated Martín Maldonado and Trenton Brooks for assignment last night. Wade was the final roster casualty to accommodate newcomers Freddy Fermin, Ramón Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn.

This is the second DFA of the season for Wade. He didn’t make the team out of Spring Training and was outrighted off the roster. Wade accepted a minor league assignment and was called back up a couple weeks into the season. He tallied 127 plate appearances over 60 games, hitting .206/.309/.252 without a home run. It’s very similar to last year’s .217/.285/.239 showing. Wade runs well and is a versatile defender but provides virtually nothing at the plate.

San Diego will place Wade back on waivers in the next couple days. There’s a decent chance he’ll clear, at which point he’d again have the right to elect free agency. He bypassed that last time around but may feel his path back to a roster spot with the Padres is more cluttered.

Getting Laureano and O’Hearn pushed Sheets into a backup role. Jose Iglesias remains ahead of Wade as the utility infielder. Today’s decision essentially came down to Wade or switch-hitting fourth outfielder Bryce Johnson, who is also out of options. The Padres stuck with Johnson, who is hitting .333 in 30 games.

Padres Acquire Mason Miller, JP Sears

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The Padres are once again grabbing deadline headlines, as they’ve swung a trade that’ll bring star closer Mason Miller and lefty JP Sears to San Diego while sending a four-player package led by top shortstop prospect Leo De Vries back to the Athletics. The A’s will also add right-handers Braden Nett, Henry Baez and Eduarniel Nunez in the blockbuster deal.  The deal is now official.

It’ll go down as one of the more stunning trades of the 2025 deadline. Miller is one of the sport’s most highly regarded relievers — an All-Star and fourth-place finisher in American League Rookie of the Year voting just last season. He’s controlled for another four years beyond the current season. De Vries, meanwhile, currently sits as the No. 5 prospect in the entire sport on Baseball America’s latest rankings.

It also sets the stage for a fair bit of other dealing from the Padres, who’ve been discussing current closer Robert Suarez and righty Dylan Cease in trade talks. Either or both could change hands now in trades that simultaneously net younger talent and free up payroll space for San Diego to pursue upgrades in left field, behind the plate and/or on the bench. Both Miller and Sears are still in their pre-arbitration years and thus earning just over the league minimum. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale suggests that there are no current plans to trade Suarez, though with president of baseball operations A.J. Preller at the helm for the Padres, nothing should ever be expressly ruled out. ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that both Suarez and Cease are still being discussed.

The addition of Miller strengthens what was already a powerhouse San Diego bullpen (though, as mentioned, could set the stage for a Suarez trade as well). San Diego relievers have pitched to an MLB-best 2.97 earned run average on the season and rank fifth with a collective 24.1% strikeout rate.

Miller, despite carrying a fairly pedestrian 3.76 ERA, will provide a massive upgrade. The majority of his trouble this year came in a rough month from early May to early June. He’s rattled off 14 innings of one-run ball with 18 strikeouts and four walks since June 15 and, of course, was one of the most dominant bullpen arms in the game a year ago. Miller has pitched 136 2/3 big league innings and carries a 3.16 ERA with a superlative 37.3% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate. He’s saved 48 games and tallied one hold in his career to date and has blown only six opportunities.

Certainly, the tools are there for Miller’s bottom-line results to align with the very best arms in the sport. No one in baseball throws harder than his average 101.1 mph four-seamer, and Miller’s 20.4% swinging-strike rate trails only Josh Hader and Fernando Cruz for the top mark among pitchers with even 10 innings pitched this season. Dating back to 2024, he’s fanned nearly 41% of his opponents and kept his walk rate under 10%. Even in an era where power arsenals with premium bat-missing ability seem to proliferate the sport, the 6’5″ Miller stands above the rest in a tier nearly unto himself.

It’s worth at least considering the possibility that Miller could return to the rotation at some point down the road. Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin of The Athletic suggested last night that it was an idea the Padres had considered. Miller was drafted as a starter and made his big league debut in the Athletics’ rotation. Given the Friars’ lack of rotation depth and plethora of talented relievers, they could at least explore the idea of returning Miller to a starting role beginning next season, though there’s obviously some risk in removing him from a role in which he’s found such success.

Regardless of which role Miller holds in the long run, it seems likely he’ll work in relief for the balance of the current season. He’s not yet arbitration-eligible — though he will be this winter — and is controlled for four additional seasons, so it’s only natural that the asking price on the right-hander was exorbitant. The Padres have repeatedly rebuffed teams who’ve come calling for De Vries or top catching prospect Ethan Salas, but San Diego ultimately relented in order to acquire four-plus seasons of arguably the game’s most dominant reliever and Sears — a respectable back-of-the-rotation arm who can help solidify the staff for three-plus years in his own right.

Sears, 29, came to the A’s alongside Ken Waldichuk and Luis Medina in the trade sending Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Yankees. He’s the only one of the pitchers (on either side of the deal) that has held up without a major injury.

While Sears is a pure back-end starter, he’s been a durable source of competitive innings for the A’s. The 5’11” southpaw started 32 games in both 2023 and 2024, and he’s taken the mound 22 times in 2025. This year’s 4.95 ERA is a career-high, though like teammate Luis Severino, more of those struggles have come at home in what’s proving to be a hitter-friendly setting at West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park. Sears has a 5.48 ERA and has allowed 14 homers in 47 2/3 innings at home, compared to a 4.55 mark and nine round-trippers in 63 1/3 innings on the road.

Over Sears’ past 464 innings with the A’s, the lefty has worked to a combined 4.58 ERA. He’s fanned 20.1% of his opponents in that time and kept his walk rate to a strong 6.7%. Sears sits 92.2 mph on his four-seamer and couples that pitch with a slider that sits 79.5 mph and a changeup that’s averaging 83.4 mph this year. He’s averaging just over five innings per start.

Sears now slots into a rotation group that includes Cease (for now), Nick Pivetta, Yu Darvish, Ryan Bergert and Randy Vasquez. Top starter Michael King has been out for more than two months but is expected to return before season’s end. Both Cease and King are free agents at season’s end.

San Diego has been hopeful of re-signing King, though that’s no guarantee. Next year, they’ll get Joe Musgrove back from Tommy John surgery. A 2026 rotation could well include Musgrove, Pivetta, Darvish, Sears and one of Bergert/Vasquez/Stephen Kolek, though the return of King or acquisition of other rotation arms obviously can’t be ruled out. Regardless, Sears adds some nice depth and will remain affordable. He also still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, giving the Friars plenty of flexibility with the composition of that staff.

The A’s have been reluctant to move Miller, but San Diego’s willingness to include De Vries surely pushed things over the edge. He’s the best prospect moved at a trade deadline since the Padres gutted their farm system to acquire Juan Soto three years ago. Today’s front offices are generally loath to part with prospects who’ve reached this level of acclaim, but the Preller-led Padres are the most aggressive in baseball when it comes to the trade market.

Still just 18 years old, De Vries is a switch-hitting shortstop with power who’s having success in High-A despite his youth. More advanced and experienced opponents haven’t fazed him. He’s hitting .245/.357/.410 (116 wRC+) with eight homers and eight steals despite being one of the youngest players in the league. He draws above-average grades across the board in most scouting reports, with his raw power, in particular, generating plus marks.

De Vries is listed at 6’2″ and 183 pounds, although given his age, he could still grow into more bulk and tap more into his raw power. Baseball America describes him as a potential “centerpiece of a big league club,” touting an all-fields approach from the left side of the plate and a pull-heavy approach from the right side that lets him get to that power more frequently. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen is a bit more bearish, albeit only relative to his elite ranking at BA and at MLB.com (where he’s ranked third in the game). Citing questions about his defensive aptitude and some swing-and-miss, FanGraphs’ report calls De Vries “only” a top-40 or so prospect in the game and has him as more of a strong regular than a superstar.

As with any prospect, there’s a fairly broad range of outcomes, but De Vries’ ceiling is higher than most and he’s on track to reach the majors at an uncommonly young age, giving the A’s more control over his peak physical seasons. A call to the majors in 2027 seems quite feasible, and in a best-case scenario he could even debut late next year. If De Vries incurs injuries or takes a bit longer to adjust to upper-level pitching, that debut could push back to 2028, but even then he’d be in just his age-21 season. Regardless, when the range of likely outcomes is generally agreed upon as something between “above-average everyday shortstop” to “superstar centerpiece of a team,” we’re talking about one of the game’s premier young talents.

De Vries is the clear headliner of the deal, but the three arms headed back to the A’s are hardly mere throw-ins. Nett and Baez were reportedly among the more sought-after prospects in the second tier of a thin Padres farm system. Both are posting strong numbers in Double-A this season.

Nett, 23, has started 17 games and pitched 74 1/3 innings. He’s logged a 3.39 ERA, 26.3% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 42.3% ground-ball rate. Nett signed with the Padres as an undrafted free agent in 2022 and has pitched his way into genuine prospect status.

Baseball America ranked Nett seventh among San Diego prospects earlier this month. He sits third in their system at MLB.com and 12th at FanGraphs. He sits 95-97 mph with a fastball that can climb to 99 mph. Nett’s slider gets above-average grades from scouts and works with a cutter, changeup and curveball that could all use some additional refinement. He’ll be Rule 5 eligible this offseason and will surely be selected to the A’s 40-man roster by November — if he’s not called upon for a major league look in the season’s final two months.

Baez, meanwhile, ranked 16th in the system at BA, 13th at MLB.com and 27th at FanGraphs. He’s posted a 1.96 ERA in 20 Double-A starts this season but has averaged under five innings per outing. Baez sits in the low to mid-90s with his fastball and tops out around 97. He has better command than Nett but lesser velocity and misses fewer bats. He also features a curveball in the upper 70s and a mid-80s changeup. Baez was already on San Diego’s 40-man roster and will thus go right onto the Athletics’ 40-man roster as well.

The 26-year-old Nunez has already made his major league debut, tossing 4 2/3 innings out of the Padres’ bullpen this year. He’s a pure bullpen prospect who can step right into manager Mark Kotsay’s relief corps, if the A’s choose. He’s sat 97.9 mph with his four-seamer in his brief big league look, and Nunez has sat even higher (98.8 mph) in Triple-A. He couples that pitch with an upper-80s slider and a seldom-used curveball in the low to mid-80s.

San Diego signed Nunez as a minor league free agent over the winter, and he’s made huge gains with what had been previously poor command in the Cubs’ system. Nunez walked 22% of his opponents with Chicago’s Triple-A club a year ago. His 14% mark in Triple-A this season is still problematic but nowhere near as alarming. He also boasts a massive 38.6% chase rate in the minors and an outrageous 21.5% swinging-strike rate.

If Nunez can even come close to replicating those rates in the majors, he’d have the potential to be a high-end relief arm himself. That said, it’s worth bearing in mind that Nunez is already older than the elite reliever for whom he was just traded (Miller), and this is the first time he’s really shown any semblance of command in the upper minors. There’s upside here, but Nunez is still very much a work in progress.

There’s rarely a dull deadline when it comes to Preller, and this morning’s early and still fairly stunning swap of one of MLB’s most coveted prospects for one of its best big league relievers leaves plenty of time for further dealing. The Padres have been connected to left fielders like Cleveland’s Steven Kwan and Boston’s Jarren Duran while simultaneously exploring deals involving Cease, Suarez and other members of the current big league roster. More fireworks are surely on the way, but Preller and his Oakland West Sacramento counterpart, David Forst, have kicked things off with a bang.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the trade of Miller and Sears to the Padres and was also first with the full details on the Athletics’ return. This post was originally published at 10:25am.

Padres Acquire Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano

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The Padres’ frenetic trade deadline continued today, as they bolstered their offense by trading for first baseman/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn and outfielder Ramon Laureano from the Orioles.  Six 2024 Padres draft picks will head to Baltimore in return: Boston Bateman, Cobb Hightower, Tyson Neighbors, Brandon Butterworth, Victor Figueroa and Tanner Smith.

O’Hearn and Laureano stood as two of the more obvious trade candidates on the Orioles’ roster. The former is a pure rental earning an $8MM salary in 2025, while the latter is owed $4MM this year and has a $6.5MM club option for the 2026 season. Both are in the midst of productive seasons at the plate, and both will provide noted upgrades to San Diego’s lineup.

The 32-year-old O’Hearn was acquired from the Royals for peanuts three years ago. His stock was low enough after the acquisition that Baltimore even succeeded in passing him through waivers. O’Hearn was selected back to the majors mid-April in 2023 and never looked back. He hit .289/.322/.480 that season and has now slashed .277/.342/.454 in three years as an Oriole. Along the way, he’s radically improved his plate discipline and hit tool. O’Hearn walked in only 4% of his 2023 plate appearances while fanning at a 22.3% clip. He’s up to an 11.6% walk rate in 2025 and has fanned at a 14% clip and 17.5% pace, respectively, in the past two seasons.

O’Hearn doesn’t hit lefties well, despite holding his own in 2025, so the Friars will likely platoon him to the extent possible. Adding a right-handed bat like Laureano makes that goal easier. The 31-year-old is in the midst of a career year at the plate, hitting .290/.355/.529 (144 wRC+) with 15 home runs in 290 plate appearances. He handles lefties well enough to take some at-bats off O’Hearn’s plate, but Laureano’s production in right-on-right matchups this year (.305/.368/.563) should be robust enough that he’s in the lineup on a daily basis.

The Padres can plug Laureano in as their primary left fielder and install O’Hearn at first base or designated hitter versus right-handed pitching. O’Hearn and Luis Arraez give the Friars a pair of lefty-swinging first base/DH options with plus contact skills (though Arraez is in a class of his own in that regard). Gavin Sheets likely loses some playing time as a result of this, though pushing him to the bench with Laureano and O’Hearn in the starting lineup makes for a much deeper group of hitters all around. Sheets being pushed into a limited role probably reduces the opportunities for Bryce Johnson and Trenton Brooks.

Laureano has played primarily in the outfield corners for the Orioles this season, though he’s no stranger to center field, either. He’s drawn plus marks in both corners both this year and throughout his big league career. That’s an important element of the acquisition in and of itself; the Padres have been a roughly average team defensively in left field this year, but that’s due primarily to early contributions from the since-released Jason Heyward. Sheets has seen plenty of time in left field and posted below-average marks there. Laureano should be a boost both with the bat and with the glove.

Given next year’s $6.5MM option, Laureano seems quite likely to be more than just a short-term rental. He’ll give the Padres an option in left next year — and an affordable one at that.

For a Padres club that is bogged down by major financial commitments to Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth, Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Nick Pivetta (among others), that’s a notable perk. The Padres already have $166MM on next year’s payroll, not including arbitration raises to Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon and new acquisitions Freddy Fermin and JP Sears.

The Orioles will receive a heavy volume of lower-level prospects in exchange for the latest pair of veterans they’re shipping out. Bateman was the Padres’ second-round pick one year ago and took home an over-slot $2.5MM bonus. He’s a huge 6’8″ southpaw selected out of a California high school and has spent the 2025 season in Class-A, where he’s posted a 4.08 ERA with a 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate.

Baseball America ranked Bateman sixth in San Diego’s system. The lefty garners praise for a heater he runs up to 96 mph — which surely seems faster given the extension he can generate with his long levers — as well as an upper-70s curve with plus spin. He’ll have more work to do on his command as he continues to face more advanced hitters, and he’s still working to add a develop an average third pitch.

The 20-year-old Hightower was last year’s third-round pick by the Friars. He’s spent the season in Class-A and batted .239/.363/.314 in 190 plate appearances. BA had him eighth in the Padres’ system. Despite this year’s pedestrian output, he’s regarded as a bat-first infielder who may have to move off shortstop down the road.

Neighbors is a 6’1″, 220-pound righty whom San Diego selected in the fourth round out of Kansas State last year. He’s already climbed to Double-A and has pitched 43 2/3 innings with a 1.85 ERA, 37.6% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate in that time. Much of that success has come against younger competition, it should be noted. Baseball America calls Neighbors a no-doubt reliever with plus stuff and shaky command. He ranked 20th in the Padres’ system.

Butterworth was the Padres’ 12th-round pick last summer. The 22-year-old NC State product is having a nice year in High-A, slashing .267/.327/.455 with 11 homers, 17 doubles, seven triples and a 13-for-15 showing in stolen base attempts. He didn’t rank among the system’s 30 best prospects on BA’s most recent update. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen listed Butterworth as No. 38 among the 38 prospects he ranked in their system last month.

Smith was a 15th-rounder out of Harvard. He’s pitched out of the bullpen in the Padres’ system this year and logged a 3.46 ERA in 26 frames between the Rookie-level Complex League and their Low-A affiliate. The 6’6″ righty has missed plenty of bats but also walked 11.6% of his opponents. He’s not a ranked prospect in the system, nor is the 21-year-old Figueroa, whom the Padres took in last year’s 18th round. Figueroa is a first baseman and corner outfielder who’s hitting .318/.420/.588 between the Complex League and Low-A — impressive numbers on the surface that were primarily compiled against teenaged opposition in the low minors.

Padres Acquire Nestor Cortes

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The Padres and Brewers have agreed to a trade that will send left-hander Nestor Cortes, shortstop prospect Jorge Quintana, and cash considerations to San Diego in exchange for Brandon Lockridge.  Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the Padres will only owe Cortes the prorated MLB minimum salary over the remainder of the season, as the Brewers will be covering the remainder of the approximately $2.4MM owed to Cortes.

Cortes is on the move again after being dealt from the Yankees to the Brewers in December, and the southpaw’s Milwaukee tenure ends with just two starts in a Brew Crew uniform.  Cortes had a 9.00 ERA over his eight innings in 2025 before a left elbow flexor strain sidelined him for the bulk of the season.

With his rehab assignment nearing an end, the Brewers had to make a decision about activating Cortes or perhaps dealing him elsewhere, given the club’s crowded pitching situation.  The result was a trade to San Diego, as Cortes will now provide some depth to a rotation that was thinned when Ryan Bergert and and Stephen Kolek were dealt to the Royals earlier today in the Freddy Fermin trade.

However, the Padres didn’t move Dylan Cease despite multiple rumors and acquired JP Sears as part of the Mason Miller blockbuster, leaving the club’s rotation as Cease, Sears, Yu Darvish, Nick Pivetta, and Randy Vasquez.  Cortes and the injured Michael King should likely supplant Vasquez and Sears when they return from the IL, but the bottom line is that the Padres’ plethora of deadline moves has seen the team shuffle but not really overhaul its core rotation mix.

“Nasty Nestor” emerged as a relief weapon and then as a starter with the Yankees during the 2021 season, then seemed to fully break with a tremendous 2022 campaign that saw finish eighth in AL Cy Young Award voting.  Injuries unfortunately limited him to 63 1/3 frames in 2023, and he bounced back to toss 174 1/3 frames in the regular season before a late-season flexor strain surfaced.

Since Opening Day 2024, Cortes had a 4.09 ERA over 237 2/3 innings and good enough secondary numbers to make him still a solid rotation option, but New York opted to deal from a crowded rotation and sent Cortes and Caleb Durbin to Milwaukee for Devin Williams.  Cortes is earning $7.6MM in his final year of arbitration eligibility, and he doesn’t have a ton of time left in the season to re-establish some value heading into free agency.

Since the Brewers will end up eating pretty much all of Cortes’ salary, the Williams trade hasn’t worked out to date, yet the deal will ultimately be judged down the road depending on how Durbin and now Lockridge or Quintana develop as big leaguers. Lockridge has seen some time in the majors already, though with only a .210/.248/.280 slash line to show for 59 games and 107 plate appearances over the 2024-25 seasons.  He is 10-for-11 on stolen base attempts in the bigs, and he topped the 40-steal plateau in both the 2023 and 2024 minor league seasons.

Capable of playing all three outfield positions, Lockridge is an average-to-capable defender all over the grass.  His Triple-A numbers have perhaps been inflated by the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League over the last two years, but Lockridge has a .299/.398/.396 slash over 712 career PA with the Padres’ and Yankees’ Triple-A affiliates.  The Brewers seem likely to give Lockridge a look in the majors right away, as Jackson Chourio’s hamstring injury is probably going to result in a stint on the injured list.

Quintana is an 18-year-old lottery ticket of a prospect who was a member of Milwaukee’s 2024 international signing class.  He has hit .257/.355/.392 over 467 career plate appearances, all at the Rookie League levels.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was the first to report on the Cortes deal, while the New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported that Lockridge was heading to Milwaukee in the return and Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Quintana’s involvement.

Padres Designate Martin Maldonado, Trenton Brooks

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The Padres have designated catcher Martín Maldonado and infielder Trenton Brooks for assignment, per an announcement from the team. San Diego also optioned newly acquired infielder Will Wagner to Triple-A El Paso. Among the numerous trades the Padres pulled off before the deadline were a deal for catcher Freddy Fermin (link) and one for first baseman/DH Ryan O’Hearn and outfielder Ramón Laureano (link). That influx of position player talent to the roster meant cuts were unavoidable, and Maldonado and Brooks were (two of) the odd men out.

Maldonado’s reputation as a strong game-caller has kept him employed long after most statistics suggested he should hang up his gear. From 2012-20, he caught more than 700 games and produced 13.2 FanGraphs WAR, the 14th most among primary catchers. While his bat was a liability, his glove was valuable enough to compensate. According to FanGraphs, only five players racked up more defensive value than Maldonado in that span: Yasmani Grandal, Buster Posey, Yadier Molina, Andrelton Simmons, and Russell Martin. Yet, Maldonado’s offense has only gotten worse, and his defense has dropped off too – at least according to stats like Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), Fielding Run Value (FRV), and Deserved Runs Prevented (DRP). Over the past five seasons, no player who has taken as many or more plate appearances has a lower OPS or wRC+, and without Gold Glove-caliber defense to make up for his feeble bat, he ranks among the league’s 10 worst players in fWAR since 2021. With the Padres seeking every possible edge as they look to hold onto their postseason position, it’s no surprise they wanted to improve behind the dish. Fermin isn’t a star, but he’s an upgrade in almost every quantifiable way.

Maldonado will most likely clear waivers, reject an outright assignment, and return to the open market as a free agent. On the one hand, it might seem unlikely that he’ll find another major league job, especially with his 39th birthday fast approaching. On the other hand, one could have said the same thing before he signed with the White Sox in 2024 and the Padres this season. Perhaps it would be foolish to count out Maldonado just yet.

Brooks spent time in the minors with the Guardians and Athletics organizations from 2016-23 before he finally made his MLB debut with the Giants in May of 2024. The lefty batter went 3-for-25 over 12 games, playing first base and DH, before he was DFA’d in June. He spent the rest of the season with San Francisco’s Triple-A affiliate, where he hit well; he finished the minor league season with a .302 batting average and a 132 wRC+ in 94 games. Brooks then inked a minor league pact with the Padres and continued mashing Triple-A pitching in the early part of 2025. He batted .311 with a 133 wRC+ in 60 games before he had his contract selected in mid-June. Unfortunately, he did not have anywhere close to the same kind of success at the MLB level, as he hit .146 with a 26 wRC+ in 25 contests. If Maldonado’s DFA was unsurprising, Brooks’s may well have been inevitable.

Now 30 years old, and with a .136/.208/.212 career slash line to show for his two brief stints in the majors, Brooks is hardly a prospect. Still, his impressive numbers at Triple-A over the past two years (.306/.410/.508, 24 HR, 38 2B, 104 BB, 104 K) might convince a team in need of some left-handed depth to claim him off waivers in the coming days.

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