The San Diego Padres have landed closer Mason Miller and left-handed starting pitcher JP Sears from the Athletics in a blockbuster trade deadline deal, CBS Sports HQ has confirmed. The return includes top shortstop prospect Leodalis De Vries, who ranked No. 3 on CBS Sports’ midseason rankings.
The big fish here as far is Miller, the flame-throwing reliever. He debuted in 2023 as a starter but emerged as an elite closer in 2024. He was an All-Star and finished with a 2.49 ERA, 28 saves and 104 strikeouts in 65 innings. This season, he’s got a 3.76 ERA and has converted 20 of his 23 save chances. He’s struck out 59 in 38 ⅓ innings.
Though Miller has excelled in relief, The Athletic reported earlier that the Padres were eyeing him for a starting role, as they have done in the past with relievers. Converting him in the middle of the season seems unlikely, but Miller is under team control through 2029, so the Padres could just leave him at the back end of the bullpen this season and begin converting him back to starter next spring.
If Miller does stick in the bullpen, he would join an All-Star cast. Literally. Closer Robert Suarez along with setup men Jason Adam and Adrián Morejón were All-Stars this season. The Padres lead the majors in bullpen ERA at 2.97.
As for the rotation, perhaps Sears can help if Miller isn’t headed there right away. The 29-year-old starter has a 4.95 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 97 strikeouts in 111 innings across his 22 starts this season, but getting him away from Sacramento (the Athletics’ temporary home) might do him a lot of good. He’s given up 14 homers with a 5.48 ERA in 10 starts there this season.
As things stand, the Padres’ rotation has Nick Pivetta, Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish, Randy Vásquez and Ryan Bergert. Frontline starter Michael King, one of those relievers-turned-starters, is nearing a return from his shoulder injury. Another complication is that Cease is rumored to be on the trade block. Perhaps he is dealt for offensive help and then Sears takes Cease’s place in the rotation before King returns.
The situation is fluid with the trade deadline a few hours away and mad scientist A.J. Preller at the helm for the Padres.
On the return for the A’s, Leo De Vries is a huge get. He was ranked as the No. 3 prospect in all of baseball by R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports last month. Anderson said the following:
De Vries is a switch-hitting shortstop with the kind of hand speed that ought to result in more in-game power. For now, you have to be willing to speculate about that component of his game because there hasn’t been much actualization. Almost all of De Vries’ slugging has come from the left side, despite his load featuring a hitch (he bounces his hands up and then brings them back down). I do find it encouraging that De Vries continues to produce at an above-average clip all the same. On any given day, I flip-flop between De Vries and Made. Today just so happens to be a day where I have Made ranked ahead.
In 82 games for High-A Fort Wayne this season, De Vries is hitting .245/.357/.410 with 19 doubles, four triples, eight homers, 46 RBI, 46 runs and eight steals.
The A’s will also receive righties Henry Báez, Braden Nett, and Eduarniel Nuñez in addition to De Vries. Baseball America ranked Nett the seventh-best prospect in San Diego’s farm system in their midseason update. Nuñez ranks 14th and Báez is 16th. It’s a significant prospect haul for a reliever, even one as great as Miller. Nuñez, 26, made his MLB debut earlier this season. Báez and Nett have both spent the season in Double-A and could debut in the big leagues reasonably soon.
