The San Diego Padres traded away the #3 overall prospect in baseball today, Leo De Vries, along with three minor league pitching prospects. In return, they received flame-throwing reliever Mason Miller and starting pitcher JP Sears from the Athletics. Here is a breakdown of the deal and why it means more Padres are now likely on the move before the day is done.
In Miller, San Diego gets a closer who throws over 100 mph consistently and is under team control through 2029. Miller strikes out 39.1% of the batters he faces and currently has a 3.76 ERA. He has saved 20 games in 23 chances for the nomadic A’s this season. Sears is on a $770,000 expiring contract. He has a 7-9 record and 4.95 ERA this season with 97 strikeouts in 111 innings. Miller is just shy of his 27th birthday, and Sears is 29.
In De Vries, the Athletics picked up the Padres’ top prospect, a switch-hitting shortstop with great hand speed at the plate. The A’s are banking on that turning into power at the major league level. Currently, De Vries is slashing .245/.357/.410 in High-A ball, with 19 doubles, four triples, eight homers, 48 RBI, 46 runs, and eight steals in 82 games. They also received right-handed pitchers Braden Nett, Henry Baez, and Eduarniel Nunez.
Nett is 5-4 with a 4.00 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 74.1 innings across 17 starts in Double-A. Baez has been excellent at the Double-A level, posting a 4-2 record with a 1.96 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 96.2 innings over 20 starts. Nunez has spent most of the season between Double-A and Triple-A, striking out 56 batters in 35 innings and posting a 2.83 ERA while recording seven saves. Nunez has pitched in four games for the Padres this season. He has a 3.86 ERA in 4.2 innings with two strikeouts.
This move likely means that the Padres will now move starter Dylan Cease and closer Robert Suarez before the trade deadline. In doing so, San Diego gets younger and saves quite a bit of money. Cease will turn 30 in December and is on a one-year $13.75 million deal. While he has struck out 153 batters in 118.1 innings this season, his ERA has ballooned to 4.79. The addition of Sears, who could be re-upped for a cheaper price, and the return of Yu Darvish from injury freed up the Padres to trade Cease. San Diego will get Joe Musgrove back from Tommy John Surgery in 2026 as well.
Picking up Miller makes Padres closer Robert Suarez expendable. Suarez, 34, is under contract through 2027, but he can opt out after the end of this season. Suarez has saved 30 games in 34 chances this season, with a 3.43 ERA. He is making $10 million plus incentives this season, whereas Miller’s contract is worth $765,000. Miller will be eligible for salary arbitration after the season.
The A’s are in a holding pattern until their new stadium is built in Las Vegas. The hope is that the move to the desert brings in more revenue and helps them eventually be able to afford to increase payroll again. They have a solid young core of position players to build around in Lawrence Butler, Jacob Wilson, Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom, and Shea Langeliers. They hope to keep their payroll low until then. De Vries is projected to be a big-time player in a couple of years and will likely move Wilson to another position.
This is a good move for the Padres if they get a good return for Cease and Suarez. Yes, they save money and get younger. They also lose the closer atop the best bullpen in baseball and a starter who finished Top Four in the Cy Young voting twice in the last four years. Plus, they lose their top prospect at a position, shortstop, where they overpaid to get Xander Bogaerts on a long-term deal. Bogaerts’ production has fallen precipitously in San Diego. Ditching Bogaerts and keeping De Vries would have made more sense, but finding someone to take on the former’s bloated contract would not be easy.
The jury is still out on this move until the other dominoes fall, but Miller is definitely a good addition. Sears is a definite dropoff from Cease, but again, if the Padres were not going to be able to afford to re-sign him, the deal makes sense. Perhaps Cease and Suarez deals can get the Padres the left fielder they need. Perhaps the Padres hold on to one of these two, but they have shown that they do not want to take on payroll. So, it does not look good for them to keep either after the season.
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