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The Padres are once again grabbing deadline headlines, as theyve swung a trade thatll bring star closer and lefty to San Diego while sending a four-player package led by top shortstop prospect back to the Athletics. The As will also add right-handers , and in the blockbuster deal. The deal is now official. Itll go down as one of the more stunning trades of the 2025 deadline. Miller is one of the sports most highly regarded relievers an All-Star and fourth-place finisher in American League Rookie of the Year voting just last season. Hes controlled for another four years beyond the current season. De Vries, meanwhile, currently sits as the No. 5 prospect in the entire sport . It also sets the stage for a fair bit of other dealing from the Padres, whove been discu sing current closer and righty in trade talks. Either or both could change hands now in trades that simultaneously net younger talent and free up payroll space for San Diego to pursue upgrades in left field, behind the plate and/or on the bench. Both Miller and Sears are still in their pre-arbitration years and thus earning just over the league minimum. USA Todays Bob Nightengale that there are no current plans to trade Suarez, though with president of baseball operations A.J. Preller at the helm for the Padres, nothing should ever be expre sly ruled out. ESPNs Buster Olney that both Suarez and Cease are still being discu sed. The addition of Miller strengthens what was already a powerhouse San Diego bullpen (though, as mentioned, could set the stage for a Suarez trade as well). San Diego relievers have pitched to an MLB-best 2.97 earned run average on the season and rank fifth with a collective 24.1% strikeout rate. Miller, despite carrying a fairly pedestrian 3.76 ERA, will provide a ma sive upgrade. The majority of his trouble this year came in a rough month from early May to early June. Hes rattled off 14 innings of one-run ball with 18 strikeouts and four walks since June 15 and, of course, was one of the most dominant bullpen arms in the game a year ago. Miller has pitched 136 2/3 big league innings and carries a 3.16 ERA with a superlative 37.3% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate. Hes saved 48 games and tallied one hold in his career to date and has blown only six opportunities. Certainly, the tools are there for Millers bottom-line results to align Tyler Wilson Jersey with the very best arms in the sport. No one in baseball throws harder than his average 101.1 mph four-seamer, and Millers 20.4% swinging-strike rate trails only and for the top mark among pitchers with even 10 innings pitched this season. Dating back to 2024, hes fanned nearly 41% of his opponents and kept his walk rate under 10%. Even in an era where power arsenals with premium bat-mi sing ability seem to proliferate the sport, the 65 Miller stands above the rest in a tier nearly unto himself. Its worth at least considering the po sibility that Miller could return to the rotation at some point down the road. Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin of The Athletic suggested last night that it was an idea the Padres had considered. Miller was drafted as a starter and made his big league debut in the Athletics rotation. Given the Friars lack of rotation depth and plethora of talented relievers, they could at least explore the idea of returning Miller to a starting role beginning next season, though theres obviously some risk in removing him from a role in which hes found such succe s. Regardle s of which role Miller holds in the long run, it seems likely hell work in relief for the balance of the current season. Hes not yet arbitration-eligible though he will be this winter and is controlled for four additional seasons, so its only natural that the asking price on the right-hander was exorbitant. The Padres have repeatedly rebuffed teams whove come calling for De Vries or top catching prospect , but San Diego ultimately relented in order to acquire four-plus seasons of arguably the games most dominant reliever and Sears a respectable back-of-the-rotation arm who can help solidify the staff for three-plus years in his own right. Sears, 29, came to the As alongside and in the trade sending and to the Yankees. Hes the only one of the pitchers (on either side of the deal) that has held up without a major injury. While Sears is a pure back-end starter, hes been a durable source of competitive innings for the As. The 511 southpaw started 32 games in both 2023 and 2024, and hes taken the mound 22 times in 2025. This years 4.95 ERA is a career-high, though like teammate , more of those struggles have come at home in whats proving to be a hitter-friendly setting at West Sacramentos Sutter Health Park. Sears has a 5.48 ERA and has allowed 14 homers in 47 2/3 innings at home, compared to a 4.55 mark and nine round-trippers in 63 1/3 innings on the road. Over Sears past 464 innings with the As, the lefty has worked to a combined 4.58 ERA. Hes fanned 20.1% of his opponents in that time and kept his walk rate to a strong 6.7%. Sears sits 92.2 mph on his four-seamer and couples that pitch with a slider that sits 79.5 mph and a changeup thats averaging 83.4 mph this year. Hes averaging just over five innings per start. Sears now slots into a rotation group that includes Cease (for now), , , and . Top starter has been out for more than two months but is expected to return before seasons end. Both Cease and King are free agents at seasons end. San Diego has been hopeful of re-signing King, though thats no guarantee. Next year, theyll get back from Tommy John surgery. A 2026 rotation could well include Musgrove, Pivetta, Darvish, Sears and one of Bergert/Vasquez/ , though the return of King or acquisition of other rotation arms obviously cant be ruled out. Regardle s, Sears adds some nice depth and will remain affordable. He also still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, giving the Friars plenty of flexibility with the composition of that staff. The As have been reluctant to move Miller, but San Diegos willingne s to include De Vries surely pushed things over the edge. Hes the best prospect moved at a trade deadline since the Padres gutted their farm system to acquire three years ago. Todays front offices are generally loath to part with prospects whove reached this level of acclaim, but the Preller-led Padres are the most aggre sive in baseball when it comes to the trade market. Still just 18 years old, De Vries is a switch-hitting shortstop with power whos having succe s in High-A despite his youth. More advanced and experienced opponents havent fazed him. Hes hitting .245/.357/.410 (116 wRC+) with eight homers and eight steals despite being one of the youngest players in the league. He draws above-average grades acro s the board in most scouting reports, with his raw power, in particular, generating plus marks. De Vries is listed at 62 and 183 pounds, although given his age, he could still grow into more bulk and tap more into his raw power. Baseball America describes him as a potential centerpiece of a big league club, touting an all-fields approach from the left side of the plate and a pull-heavy approach from the right side that lets him get to that power more frequently. is a bit more bearish, albeit only relative to his elite ranking at BA and at MLB.com ( ). Citing questions about his defensive aptitude and some swing-and-mi s, FanGraphs report calls De Vries only a top-40 or so prospect in the game and has him as more of a strong regular than a superstar. As with any prospect, theres a fairly broad range of outcomes, but De Vries ceiling is higher than most and hes on track to reach the majors at an uncommonly young age, giving the As more control over his peak physical seasons. A call to the majors in 2027 seems quite feasible, and in a best-case scenario he could even debut late next year. If De Vries incurs injuries or takes a bit longer to adjust to upper-level pitching, that debut could push back to 2028, but even then hed be in just his age-21 season. Regardle s, when the range of likely outcomes is generally agreed upon as something between above-average everyday shortstop to superstar centerpiece of a team, were talking about one of the games premier young talents. De Vries is the clear headliner of the deal, but the three arms headed back to the As are hardly mere throw-ins. Nett and Baez were in the second tier of a thin Padres farm system. Both are posting strong numbers in Double-A this season. Nett, 23, has started 17 games and pitched 74 1/3 innings. Hes logged a 3.39 ERA, 26.3% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 42.3% ground-ball rate. Nett signed with the Padres as an undrafted free agent in 2022 and has pitched his way into genuine prospect status. Baseball America ranked Nett seventh among San Diego prospects earlier this month. He sits third in their system at MLB.com and 12th at FanGraphs. He sits 95-97 mph with a fastball that can climb to 99 mph. Netts slider gets above-average grades from scouts and works with a cutter, changeup and curveball that could all use some additional refinement. Hell be Rule 5 eligible this offseason and will surely be selected to the As 40-man roster by November if hes not called upon for a major league look in the seasons final two months. Baez, meanwhile, ranked 16th in the system at BA, 13th at MLB.com and 27th at FanGraphs. Hes posted a 1.96 ERA in 20 Double-A starts this season but has averaged under five innings per outing. Baez sits in the low to mid-90s with his fastball and tops out around 97. He has better command than Nett but le ser velocity and mi ses fewer bats. He also features a curveball in the upper 70s and a mid-80s changeup. Baez was already on San Diegos 40-man roster and will thus go right onto the Athletics 40-man roster as well. The 26-year-old Nunez has already made his major league debut, to sing 4 2/3 innings out of the Padres bullpen this year. Hes a pure bullpen prospect who can step right into manager s relief corps, if the As choose. Hes sat 97.9 mph with his four-seamer in his brief big league look, and Nunez has sat even higher (98.8 mph) in Triple-A. He couples that pitch with an upper-80s slider and a seldom-used curveball in the low to mid-80s. San Diego signed Nunez as a minor league free agent over the winter, and hes made huge gains with what had been previously poor command in the Cubs system. Nunez walked 22% of his opponents with Chicagos Triple-A club a year ago. His 14% mark in Triple-A this season is still problematic but nowhere near as alarming. He also boasts a ma sive 38.6% chase rate in the minors and an outrageous 21.5% swinging-strike rate. If Nunez can even come close to replicating those rates in the majors, hed have the potential to be a high-end relief arm himself. That said, its worth bearing in mind that Nunez is already older than the elite reliever for whom he was just traded (Miller), and this is the first time hes really shown any semblance of command in the upper minors. Theres upside here, but Nunez is still very much a work in progre s. Theres rarely a dull deadline when it comes to Preller, and this mornings early and still fairly stunning swap of one of MLBs most coveted prospects for one of its best big league relievers leaves plenty of time for further dealing. The Padres have been connected to left fielders like Clevelands and Bostons while simultaneously exploring deals involving Cease, Suarez and other members of the current big league roster. More fireworks are surely on the way, but Preller and his Oakland West Sacramento counterpart, David Forst, have kicked things off with a bang. ESPNs Jeff Pa san the trade of Miller and Sears to the Padres and with the full details on the Athletics return. This post was originally published at 10:25am. Brooks Robinson Jersey
