This year’s MLB hot stove has gotten hot early as teams have been making trades well ahead of the July 30th trade deadline.
Another trade has been announced between the Tampa Bay Rays and San Diego Padres as the Rays continue to sell some of their biggest assets despite being in the hunt for the AL Wild Card.
FanSided’s Robert Murray was the first to break the news that the Padres are acquiring reliever Jason Adam from the Rays, with other sources confirming that prospects Dylan Lesko, Homer Bush Jr., and J.D. Gonzalez will be heading to Tampa in the return package.
Adam bounced around the league before coming into his own with the Rays and he has been one of the most dominant relievers in baseball over the past three years with the team.
He has made 170 relief appearances in those three years and posted a combined 2.30 ERA in 164.2 innings during that span.
The 32-year-old currently sports a 2.49 ERA this season and will surely tighten up the back end of a bullpen that has struggled at times to bridge the gap to closer Robert Suarez.
Even more beneficial for the Padres is the fact that Adam has two more arbitration seasons and will be under team control for very little money through 2026.
Adam could step in immediately as Suarez’s setup man and he’ll form a formidable back end of the bullpen alongside Yuki Matsui and Jeremiah Estrada.
San Diego is currently on a 7-game winning streak and is beginning to put a little pressure on the Los Angeles Dodgers at the top of the NL West.