Seven player Padres/M’s deal includes Nola, Trammell

MLB Trade Rumors: The San Diego Padres are sending Taylor Trammell to the Seattle Mariners for Austin Nola, with Luis Torrens, Andres Munoz and Ty France and also going to Seattle, and Austin Adams and Dan Altavilla going to San Diego.

This is a bombshell, with Nola, who signed with Seattle as a minor league free agent after the 2018 season, having spent his entire career with the Miami Marlins without making the majors, suddenly having big value as a versatile player who can catch and play the infield and outfield. Though he is 30, he will have five years of team control after this year. Nola has a career .280/.351/.476 slash line and 2.2 career bWAR in 377 plate appearances.

The Padres are also getting a couple of bullpen arms in Altavilla and Adams in this deal. Altavilla, who turns 28 this month, has a career 4.08 ERA in 106 IP over 108 games. The righthander has had a rough past couple of seasons, and will get a chance to get things on track with San Diego.

The Austin Adams going to San Diego in this trade is the 29 year old righthander currently on the injured list as he rehabs from a torn ACL. He was acquired by Seattle for Nick Wells in May, 2019, and is a big righthander who has a 3.79 ERA in 38 career major league innings. It sounds like he should be ready to pitch again this year.

The big piece going to the Mariners is outfielder Taylor Trammell. The former first round draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds went into 2019 ranked in the top 20 prospects in baseball by Baseball Prospectus and MLB Pipeline, and #33 by Baseball America. He was dealt in the midst of a disappointing 2019 campaign at AA to San Diego in the three team deal that sent Trevor Bauer from Cleveland to Cincinnati, and Logan Allen, Franmil Reyes and Yasiel Puig to Cleveland.

Trammell didn’t improve post-trade, and ended the year with a .234/.340/.349 slash line in 514 plate appearances in AA as a 21 year old, and was ranked in the back half of top 100 lists coming into this year. With no minor league action, Trammell has not played in 2020, so its hard to say where his stock is now.

Luis Torrens is a catcher who the Padres drafted in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft from the New York Yankees when he had barely played above short-season A. Torrens spent all of 2018 and much of 2019 in the minors, and has had just 13 plate appearances in 7 games in the majors this year. He hit well in AA for San Diego last year.

Ty France is an infielder who was a 34th round pick out of San Diego State in 2015. The 26 year old has a career .251/.311/.426 slash line.

Andres Munoz is a hard throwing 21 year old righthander out of Mexico who appeared in 22 games in relief for the Padres last year, and regularly puts up triple digits with his fastball. He had Tommy John surgery in March, 2020, and so is on the shelf until sometime in 2021.

This is a complicated, convoluted trade that has the Mariners getting a couple of guys who have been well-regarded but whose values are down in Trammell and Munoz, as well as a couple of other nice pieces in France and Torres, while not seeming to be giving up a ton. There’s a lot of risk for Seattle because Munoz is rehabbing and Trammell hasn’t played this year, but its the type of deal that is a home run for someone like Nola, along with two relief arms.

San Diego now has two Austins to add to their current catcher, Austin Hedges, having traded Austin Allen to Oakland in December for Jurickson Profar. There’s another righthanded reliever named Austin Adams who has 68 games of major league experience and is at the Minnesota Twins’ Alternate Training Site right now, so maybe the Padres can get him, too.