Mason Miller, J.P. Sears Reportedly Traded to Padres From Athletics At MLB Deadline

Having circled around blockbuster deals over the past week, San Diego Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller was able to get one done by acquiring Mason Miller and J.P. Sears from the Athletics.

ESPN's Jeff Passan first reported that Miller and Sears are going to the Padres.

The acquisition of Miller is especially intriguing because Rosenthal and Dennis Lin previously noted the Padres have interest in stretching him out as a starter, potentially as soon as this season.

Miller has been dynamite out of the bullpen for the A's since making his MLB debut in 2023. The right-hander has a 3.16 ERA and 201 strikeouts in 136.2 innings in three seasons.

Walks have hurt Miller at times, including this season. He's averaging 4.2 free passes per nine innings, which ranks 135th out of 169 qualified relievers, resulting in him having a 3.76 ERA in 38.1 innings.

Miller was a starter for most of his time in the minors, but he never had very long outings. He threw a total of 39.1 innings across 16 appearances (15 starts) coming up through the Athletics' system.

The inclusion of Sears does allow the Padres to hold off on stretching out Miller as a starter until next season when he can have a full offseason to prepare his arm for that type of workload.

Sears is a back-of-the-rotation starter who can eat innings, but he's not likely to be a big difference-maker for San Diego. The 29-year-old has a 4.95 ERA in 111 innings this season.

The Padres also have both players under team control for multiple years. Sears has three years of arbitration remaining before hitting free agency after 2028. Miller can't become a free agent until after the 2029 season.

San Diego did pay a steep price to make this deal. DeVries was ranked as the No. 3 overall prospect in MLB.com's updated top 100 released on July 1. The 18-year-old signed with the Padres in January 2024 as part of their international free agent class. He is hitting .245/.357/.410 in 82 games at High-A.

Braden Nett, who signed with the Padres in 2022 as an undrafted free agent shortly after dropping out of college, has had some injury issues that have limited him to 182.2 innings over the past three years.

When Nett does pitch, he has shown a lot of promise with a 3.79 ERA and 209 strikeouts in 54 appearances in the minors. Henry Baez and Eduarniel Nuñez are depth arms for the Athletics, with Nuñez able to slot into the MLB bullpen right away if they want him to.

It's a bold, aggressive move for Preller to make, but the Padres might sense an opportunity having closed the gap on the Los Angeles Dodgers to three games in the NL West.

The A's come out of this deal with two useful pieces, including an elite prospect who could move through the minors fairly quickly to join rookie standouts Jacob Wilson and Nick Kurtz in the lineup.