The Oakland Athletics continued their fire sale on Sunday, this time offloading veteran left-hander Sean Manaea ahead of his potential date with free agency next offseason.
By sending Manaea to the San Diego Padres, it marked the fourth major trade for the A's since the end of the MLB lockout last month.
They had previously dealt first baseman Matt Olson to the Atlanta Braves, right-hander Chris Bassitt to the New York Mets, and third baseman Matt Chapman to the Toronto Blue Jays.
By most estimates, those moves and others have pared the A's payroll down to a paltry $33 million for the upcoming season -- their lowest since 2001, and, according to Audacy MLB insider Bob Nightengale, less than what some teams will be paying in player salary on a monthly basis this season.
Perhaps most damning of all, there are five star players who will earn more than the Athletics' entire roster combined this season, per Nightengale, including Max Scherzer, Corey Seager, Anthony Rendon, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Correa.
While relatively light payrolls are nothing new to the A's and their fans -- this is of course the franchise that gave us "Moneyball" -- the 2022 edition of the ballclub seems to be taking that approach to a new, extreme degree.
The A's have been competitive in each of the past four seasons, a run that included three postseason berths, following a three-year drought of losing campaigns from 2015-17. But after feverishly tearing down that roster amid late-opening spring camps, the odds would seem to be decidedly against the team and first-year manager Mark Kotsay this time around.
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