Elephant Rumblings: Royals trade LHP Tim Hill to Padres for OF Franchy Cordero

Good morning, Athletics Nation!

Major League Baseball saw a new trade on Thursday, something there hasn’t been much of since the coronavirus shutdown ended last month and Summer Camp training began. The Kansas City Royals sent lefty reliever Tim Hill to the San Diego Padres for outfielder Franchy Cordero and pitching prospect Ronald Bolanos, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN.

Hill was quietly strong in the rebuilding Royals’ bullpen the last two years, and he’ll now join a Padres pen that already features two stars in Kirby Yates and Emilio Pagan but recently lost lefty Jose Castillo to injury. The 25-year-old Cordero has only played in 79 MLB games so far due partly to injuries, but he’s considered a potential power threat amid strikeout concerns. Bolanos now slots in at No. 16 on the Royals prospect list at MLB Pipeline.

For more analysis on the deal, check out this writeup by MLB insider AJ Cassavell.

This trade is relevant to the Oakland A’s for two reasons. One is that the Padres are one of the nine opponents on Oakland’s abbreviated 2020 schedule, with three games in early September, so they may see Hill — or may not, considering the dearth of lefties in their lineup and the new three-batter minimum rule for pitchers.

The other is that Hill was an offseason trade target for the A’s here on Athletics Nation. Oakland already has two lefty relievers in Jake Diekman and T.J. McFarland, but the three would have been compatible together for various reasons. But that didn’t end up happening, and now Hill is in San Diego on an increasingly interesting Padres roster — not to complain about the A’s own pen, which turned out fine when all was said and done.

While the MLB trade market hasn’t seen much action during training camp, this isn’t the Padres’ first deal. They also acquired infield prospect Jorge Mateo from the A’s in late June.

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