Oakland A's, SF Giants Swing an Actual Trade

The A's acquired former first-rounder Sean Newcomb for outfielder Trenton Brooks

The A's and Giants have been working towards this moment for the past few seasons, and it started when the A's acquired Burch Smith back in 2020 for cash. That was the first deal between the clubs in 30 years. Skye Bolt was claimed off waivers from the A's by the Giants in 2021 and then purchased back by Oakland a month later. 

This year the Giants traded cash considerations for outfielder Cal Stevenson and the A's traded cash of their own for reliever Sam Long. Both players were on waivers within days of each other, making it the closest a trade of two players has been between the A's and Giants since December 4, 1990 when Oakland received Ernie Riles and the Giants got Darren Lewis and Pedro Pena. 

Today that all changed--sort of. The two clubs came together and made a trade involving one player going each way, which is huge. The A's get 30-year-old lefty reliever Sean Newcomb (yes, that Sean Newcomb), while the Giants get 28-year-old outfielder Trenton Brooks, not to be confused with Brent Rooker. 

The only caveat with this deal is that both players are in the minors, neither has been in the big leagues this season and neither player is on the 40-man roster, which is how the trade was able to happen in the first place with the Deadline having passed a few weeks ago. 

As for the trade itself, Newcomb has a 3.15 ERA in 34 1/3 relief innings while striking out 45 (11.8 K/9) and walking 20 (5.2 BB/9). He was originally selected by the L.A. Angels in the first round (15th overall) of the 2014 Draft before being moved to the Atlanta Braves as part of the Andrelton Simmons deal. 

In his last outing against the Tacoma Rainiers his velocity was a little down from where it's been all season according to Statcast, with his four-seamer coming in at 92.3, two ticks down from where he has sat the past two seasons. He only threw four of them, so it may be nothing that should cause concern. His sinker was also down a tick to 91.5 and the one changeup he threw was also two ticks slower than his season average. The slider was fine velocity-wise. 

Last season with the Cubs he was also throwing a cutter and a curveball, which it looks like he has scrapped in favor of the slider while using his sinker more often. This has led to him being an extreme ground ball pitcher with the Sacramento River Cats with a 1.68 ground out to fly out ratio, or 59.4%.

The lefty will need to find a spot on the 40-man, but he'll likely get a look with the A's before the season is over. 

As for Trenton Brooks, the A's brought him in on a minor league deal last November and he is having the best offensive season of his career with the Las Vegas Aviators, batting .299 with a .405 on-base percentage and a .934 OPS in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He has 16 homers and five stolen bases, also career highs. 

He has also walked (13.8%) nearly as much as he's struck out (14.6%) which was one of the selling points that led to the A's signing him in the first place. Unfortunately for Brooks, the A's have had a slew of outfielders on the depth chart ahead of him all season, which has kept him in Vegas. The arrival of Lawrence Butler made it pretty clear that Brooks wasn't going to be getting a look in Oakland. 

Giants Baseball Insider believes that Brooks will offer the team more minor league outfield depth, which has been thin of late with recent promotions of some of their top prospects.