Elephant Rumblings: Flurry of trades over the weekend before 2020 MLB deadline

Good morning, Athletics Nation!

The Oakland A’s are taking at least a few days off after receiving a positive coronavirus test among their ranks. First and foremost we wish the best health and safety to everyone on the club, from players to staff to anyone else involved. Fortunately, the first round of follow-up testing yielded no new positives, reports Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle, and the team is still in Houston getting a second round done.

In the meantime, with no A’s games to follow, we at least have the MLB trade deadline to keep us busy. Oakland has already identified itself as a buyer, acquiring infielder Tommy La Stella from the Los Angeles Angels in an absolutely perfect deal. They were further rumored to be looking for pitching, and they did just that by buying low on lefty starter Mike Minor from the Texas Rangers.

The deadline is at 1 p.m. PT today (Monday), but teams got busy early over the weekend. We pointed out a few such moves last Friday, and now the following new trades were completed over the last couple days. For original sources and more details, scroll through MLB Trade Rumors.

• Padres acquire RHP Mike Clevinger and OF Greg Allen plus a PTBNL from Indians (for RHP Cal Quantrill, C Austin Hedges, OF/1B Josh Naylor, and three prospects)
• Padres acquire RHP Trevor Rosenthal from Royals (for a prospect and a PTBNL)
• Padres acquire RHP Austin Adams, RHP Dan Altavilla, and C Austin Nola from Mariners (for four prospects, led by OF Taylor Trammell)
• Padres acquire C Jason Castro from Angels (for RHP Gerardo Reyes)
• Padres acquire 1B Mitch Moreland from Red Sox (for two prospects)

Oh wait that’s just the Padres, who apparently were so good that they needed an entirely new roster. (But seriously, gotta give some credit for recognizing an upstart contending opportunity and going all-in to grab it.)

The rest of the league:

• Braves acquire LHP Tommy Milone from Orioles (for two PTBNLs)
• Rockies acquire RHP Mychal Givens from Orioles (for two prospects and a PTBNL) (one of the prospects is Phil Nevin’s son!)
• Cubs acquire DH Jose Martinez from Rays (for two PTBNLs) (and a third PTBNL, Josh Phegley, was DFA’d by CHC to make room)

Love the oddity of seeing a National League team acquire a DH!

There are still a few hours left, so we’ll see what new trades are yet to come. There were fears that this deadline might be boring, with not enough sellers and not enough motivation for buyers to pay full price in a weird, short season, but that has not been the case.

A’s Coverage

• Slusser: Shortstop Marcus Semien’s side injury isn’t expected to land him on A’s injured list ($)
• Saturday first game: Game #33: Quiet 4-2 loss to open doubleheader in Houston
• Saturday second game: Game #34: A’s lose 6-3 for doubleheader sweep by Astros

MLB News & Interest

• Not today. Just trades.
• Today in Baseball History

Yesterday’s Game Highlights

Nope, they only played Saturday and they got swept in a weak, non-regulation doubleheader.

Best of Twitter

No time for tweets today. Just trades.

But here’s one classic video of Matt Chapman to keep us warm!