Sean Doolittle still remembers the day vividly.
A first-round pick in 2007, Doolittle was drafted by and brought up in the Oakland organization. "The As were the only team I had ever known," he recalled during his weekly 106.7 The Fan appearance Tuesday, presented by Lindsay Volvo Cars of Alexandria.
On July 16, 2017, Doolittle's future changed irreversibly with one trade, which sent Blake Treinen, and Nats prospects Sheldon Neuse and Jesus Luzardo, to Oakland in return for Doolittle and Ryan Madson. And, as Doolittle still remembers today, the deal went down with about two weeks before the deadline.
"Getting traded, it was a really whirlwind experience, because my trade came through about like two weeks before the trade deadline," he told Grant & Danny. "It was like mid-July of 2017. I had seen my name in rumors and I knew it was a very strong possibility that I was going to get traded, but I was trying to mentally prepare myself for that. I had seen my name linked to several teams, the Nats being one of them, obviously."
"When it happened, it was kind of a shock, because I didn't think it was gonna happen when it did," he said. "I remember the manager, Bob Melvin of the As, called me into his office one morning. We had a day game that day. He and I talked a lot. He called me into his office to talk about a number of different things, so that didn't seem like a red flag and no bells went off. But when we walked into his office, the GM was actually sitting in his chair, so I really put two and two together and I just said, 'Hey, where am I going?'"
"For me, it was a lot of mixed emotions, because the As were the only team I had ever known," he said. "I had been with the organization for 10 years. And, fortunately, I came over with a teammate. Ryan Madson and I got traded together, and that really kind of helped me settle into the clubhouse.
"There were guys that I knew from playing with before. There were some guys that he knew from playing with before. Not feeling like I was the only new kid at school really helped. But I'm really lucky to have ended up here where I did."
Washington has been good for Doolittle, who's earned 69 saves over the past two-plus seasons, with only six blown opportunities. He probably has nothing to sweat this time around, though the new one-time trade deadline this year could kick out some really unforeseen outcomes on the final day Wednesday.
"It's always an interesting time for us," Doolittle said. "We don't really get any more inside info than the fans do, so we check social media and we're looking online to see kind of what we might be doing, what other teams might be doing, and trying to read the tea leaves just like everybody else.
"I don't know if I'm in a position to really ask for anything, but I know Rizzo and the guys upstairs, they're always looking for ways to improve our chances and make the team better, so it'll be an interesting, I guess – what is it – maybe just over 24 hours until the trade deadline."
"I've learned not to kind of think along with them," he said of MLB front offices. "They have a whole team up there that is going through all of the analytics and their reports and stuff like that, and they're going to do whatever they can to help us here down the stretch."
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