MLB Trade Deadline Retrospective: Royals Land Ben Zobrist
By Jason Burke
Last year a pair of trades went down that seem to be paying off for both teams, with the Detroit Tigers sending Yoenis Cespedes to the Mets for Michael Fulmer, and the Zobrist deal for Sean Manaea.
The 24-year-old southpaw was ranked as the A’s number two prospect before the season after lighting up Double-A Midland for a 1.90 ERA over 42.2 innings pitched after the trade was made. He went on to have success in the Arizona Fall League, started the Fall Stars game, and continued to impose his will on the opposition in Triple-A Nashville to start this season.
Manaea made his big league debut on April 29, and after a rough first six starts in the majors, has really seemed to figure things out. Over his last 35 innings, he has allowed eight earned runs for an ERA of 2.06. Six of those runs came against a Minnesota club that he dominated a month prior, and the other two came in an emergency relief appearance against the Blue Jays after scheduled starter Rich Hill was pulled with a blister and Andrew Triggs was hit with a liner, landing him on the disabled list.
He came in and tossed five innings, allowing just three hits, one of which was a two-run homer to Troy Tulowitzki, in what was supposed to be a bullpen day.
Selected in the supplemental round of the 2013 draft by the Royals, Manaea was thought to be a top talent in the draft, but he needed hip surgery coming out of college, so his stock dropped. Baseball America says that the biggest knock on him has been his injury history, and notes that he had just come back from an abdominal strain that kept him out of the first half of last year when the A’s acquired him.
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Since joining the A’s he’s been healthy and has shown flashes, even in his bad outings, that he can be dominant. His changeup is filthy. Manaea looks to have all the tools to be at, or near, the top of the A’s rotation for years to come. If Sonny Gray gets traded, Manaea would be the frontrunner to become Oakland’s new ace.