Mason Miller Trade Was Good For The Sacramento A’s
today. Shout out to Danny Whmer. Um MLB trade deadline day. Yeah, the deadline’s at 3:00. So about five hours, 4 hours and 57 minutes. Uh the A’s this morning news came down at the A’s dealt closer Mason Miller. All world closer Mason Miller to the San Diego Padres’s. uh Mason Miller and JP Sears, friend of the program, got dealt to the San Diego Padres’s for uh Leo Dallas, the Padres’s number one prospect. He’s a shortstop. And then right-handed pitchers Braden Net, he was the number three prospect in the Padre system. Henry Bayz, the number 13 prospect in the Padres’s system, and Eduardiel Nunees, the number 17 prospect in the Padres’s system. I’m not going to dive deep on each of those players because uh frankly, I don’t care yet. Yeah, Dere is a is a great prospect. Uh depending on where you looked, he’s as high as number three in all of baseball. He’s an 18-year-old shortstop currently playing in high A. So, my guess is he will be assigned to Stockton. Um, look, I I don’t This is tough because when the A’s trade a good player there because and and this is not any fan’s fault. This is the A’s fault explicitly and only their fault. Mhm. They have spent the last 25 years doing this. This player gets good. We’re not going to be able to afford him. He’s gone. There’s a couple issues I have with this and and the reason I don’t think that the Mason Miller thing falls into that category necessarily. Um, one, he was still under team control for several years, for a long time, which is I which is which is part of the reason that people have such an issue that they traded him away. Like, not only is he one of the best closers in the sport, but you had him under team control. He wasn’t even expensive yet. No. But here’s here’s where I kind of land on this. You’re getting three pitching prospects and a really good shortstop prospect in this deal. Mhm. And a lot of times in a trade, I will go see how the other fan base is reacting. And Padres’s fans are melting down right now. Oh yeah. They are not happy that they gave away all of this for for Mason Miller and JP Sears. So, I don’t I personally I don’t view this as oh my god, look how classic cheap A’s like they are, but I I don’t I I’m separating this because they can’t get to Mason Miller right now. They can’t It’s nice to have a closer, but if you’ve given up nine runs, you’re not you’re very rarely going to need your closer. Yeah. So, this is this was an asset to me that if you’re going to move him for this kind of hall, teams don’t just trade away their their top three prospects like they don’t. Mhm. That is a that is a huge huge hall of prospects. Three of them are pitchers and the A’s put themselves in position to hopefully in a year or two have a better pitching staff than they have now. So, I get the consternation with like, “Oh my god, Mason Miller, he throws the ball so fast.” But hey, man, if somebody’s going to way overpay for a player like that, I kind of I I don’t I don’t I don’t hate it. Yeah. I mean, like, look, I the problem the A’s have right now is that they have all of these young bats that are coming up, all these position players, and they don’t have any pitching prospects at all. So, in this deal, you were able to get, you know, again, their number three prospect, which is Ned. Henry Bayz has pitched extremely well at the at the double A level this year. He’s got a 197 RA in 20 starts, man. So, that’s a guy who isn’t that far away. And to be honest with, he’ll probably be in the starting rotation before the end of the season. Yeah. I’d be pretty surprised if he’s not. Yeah. Ed man. Edarnil. Eduardo. Uh Nunes. Um he is a a pitcher who’s actually been up at the big club. He’s he’s pitched a handful of innings of four and two/3 innings. Like this is a guy who’s on the brink. The A’s just have this problem. They don’t have any starters at all. Mhm. and they don’t have any prospects of of getting starters. And so you went out in the draft and you drafted a couple of starters hoping that they might be able to make it up reasonably soon. But man, you have to figure that aspect of this out. If you’re not going to pay 20 million bucks a year for starting pitching, then you better have a pipeline like they used to, right? And so I I hate the the trade because I feel like Mason Miller is part of the young core of players. He’s got like less than two years of MLB experience. he wouldn’t be a free agent until 2030. Mhm. But at the same time, I understand especially with Sears, I’m just going to put him off to the side cuz like I like Sears. He’s a good dude. Good player, not an untouchable, but like he’s a fourth or fifth starter on a good team. And so that’s fine. But Miller is just lightning. And I think it’s easier to find a closer than it is to find a handful of starters. I agree. And uh so sometimes it’s going to cost something to get something. And I’m just, you know, it’s it’s a bummer cuz you like having the guy in Major League Baseball who has almost 300 pitches over 100 miles an hour. Sure. Sure. You know, he makes things fun. Uh, his ERA is up this year. His strikeouts per nine are down. His walks per nine are up. His walks and hits per innings pitch are up. His fielding independent pitching, FIP, is up. I don’t know that the A’s necessarily viewed him as like an ascending player and more like, yeah, he kind of peaked as a rookie. Guys start to figure him out and he’s a good player. He throws the ball really hard, but he’s not going to be one of these closers with an 086 erra. Yeah, that and he’s 26 going on 27, you know, for a guy who is, you know, only has a certain amount of years of experience, he still isn’t he’s not like a 22 23 year old prospect. So, yeah, I mean, I can see both sides of this one. Um I I definitely feel like when you’re when you’re an A’s fan, you’re conditioned to just like shake your head and go, I can’t believe they just traded another player. A thousand%. Yeah. And this is so Sacramento knows this is the full A’s experience. You have good players, they get traded. Um but like Dere is is listed like Jeff Passen is calling him the number three prospect in baseball, right? This isn’t not just a Padres’s number one prospect, the number three prospect in baseball, an 18-year-old shortstop. Yes. Like that’s a very very nice player to get. Yeah. And then three pitchers that two of which are either at, you know, they’re they’re almost ready, right? And then one that isn’t going to be it’s not going to take that long for him to get to the bigs. It’s it’s kind of the same. And and and I I get they just extended Brent Rooker. Mhm. They just extended Lawrence Butler. You would think that while they’re here in Sacramento, Curts and Wilson aren’t going anywhere. You You’d at least think. Um that’s I just don’t this feels more like, oh, this is a this is a good front office move. This is good business considering the prospects you’re getting back for a You said he’s almost 27. Yeah. He’s 27 in three weeks. Yeah. So, I don’t I get like I get it, but this goes back to we talk about this with the Kings. Like, man, there’s players that you really like. Malik Monk, player you really like, best six-man in the sport, playmaker, scoring, does a little bit of everything. But, hey, you know what? For the the future of the franchise, maybe it’s better to to move him. And and again, I’m not saying, let me reel that in. Not saying you move Malik Monk just to move him to make you better. If you can move that player for assets that make you better down the line, eh, you do it. And I think that’s what the A’s are looking at here. They’re not looking at 2025. I don’t even know that they’re looking at 2026. No, no, they’re looking at whatever that date is a couple years from now when they think they’re moving to Vegas, whether that happens or not. I I would Yeah. I’ll also add this like the A’s are 15 games under 500. Yes. This is what happens when you’re a bad team. Your players get traded. And I know that’s uncomfortable and that’s crappy, but you become a minor league system for the teams who are successful. Correct. Like I I don’t the one year the A’s went out and at the trade deadline picked up Harold Baines from the White Socks, one of the great DHs of all time and Willie McGee from the from the Cardinals who was who won the NL batting title that year even though he finished the season hilarious on the A’s. We’ve batted over 350 won the NL batting title as a member of the A’s. But that’s you’re a minor league system for the rest of the league until you become a team that’s good enough that you’re not. And uh so this is what happens. You know, again, I I think like being an A’s fan, watching them for so long, I’m jaded by what happens at this time of year. But this this trade actually makes some sense. It it does. And that’s what I’m I’m like I said, I know that the A’s fan any trade you’re going to bristle, but dude, consider that at the next trade deadline, Mason Miller’s going to be almost 28 instead of almost 27. He’s his numbers are going the wrong way this year. If they continue going the wrong way next year, you’re going to have a 28-year-old closer that nobody wants anymore. You’re capital like this is this to me is good business. Now, this is not and I this is not the Mark Moulder trade. This is not the Tim Hudson trade or the Barry Zto trade or the Josh Donaldson trade. Uh I know I’m missing some in here. Um Danny Herren, Judo Gonzalez. Pick your Yeah, pick your Pick your favorite. This is not This is not Yeah. So I I don’t Like I said, I I get it. Mason Miller throw ball fast is fun to watch. His 104 mph strikeout pitch to Shawn Murphy was electric. Mhm. The strikeout numbers are good. the numbers of two strikes are out of control, but then you kind of start looking across the board like Yeah. And then I’ll bring up like Nunees who has pitched in the big year the big leagues this year. Uh between single I mean between double A and AAA this season. He’s got 56 strikeouts in 35 innings. U the dude throws gas. So I think this is going to be one of those those players who probably steps right in and maybe gets an opportunity. you might be able to replace your closer with a budget closer that again has a bunch of years of eligibility and uh start this thing all over again, but in the meantime, you got what could be two other starting pitchers like very close down the line. Yeah. And a phenomenal shortstop prospect. Yeah. Yeah. I think that means Jake they may say Jacob Wilson is a second baseman longterm. Oh, okay. I don’t know. Um, we can cross that bridge when we get to it in a few years. Uh, also the Padres’s real quick, just from their side, they are super going for it. Their bullpen is already sick. Now you throw Mason Miller there. That’s dangerous in October. That helps in October. If you’re going short rotation and you only need those guys to get you five, that’s big time. The trade deadines at 3 p.m. We’ll follow anything else uh A’s or Giants related. The Giants traded Tyler Rogers yesterday. Got got back a couple of top 15 prospects from the Mets. Uh good business there by by Buster Posey for a for a guy who’s going to be a free agent in the offseason. Uh so for the A’s, I think everybody I I think outside of Curts Wilson, maybe my Butler and and Rooker, you’re probably not everybody’s on the table, I would assume. Yeah. Yeah. They have a lot of guys that look like they’re um just ready to be traded right now. It’s going to be really really awkward if Luis Severino is still on the A’s at 3:01 p.m. Yeah, it might get a little weird. I think he’s been gearing up. His bags are probably packed right now. Yeah, but if I’m the A’s, I’m shopping Andar. Uh I’m shopping Urias, Uella, uh Springs, all these guys. If you can go get more pitching prospects, go get them. Yep. Absolutely. All right, that’s James Ham. from combats and Joe Brazil’s with us. We’re the insiders. We’re sponsored by Jify Loop. Uh speaking of roster moves, the 49ers made some of those.
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