The San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates have agreed to a trade involving second baseman Adam Frazier, according to ESPN.com's Jeff Passan. Frazier and $1.4 million in cash will head to San Diego while the Pirates will receive infielder Tucupita Marcano, outfielder Jack Suwinski, and right-hander Michell Miliano in return, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal.
Frazier, 29, recently made (and started) his first All-Star Game. On the season, he's hit .327/.392/.453 (131 OPS+) with four home runs and five stolen bases (on nine tries). CBS Sports recently ranked him as one of the top dozen trade candidates this deadline. Here's what we wrote at the time:
The first of three Pittsburgh Pirates included on this list, Adam Frazier earned the start in the All-Star Game after hitting .330/.397/.463 (137 OPS+) with four home runs and five steals (on nine tries) in the first half. He's not an exit-velocity whiz (he ranks 132nd of 136 qualifying batters), but he does launch the ball in the 10-to-30-degree range as frequently as Aaron Judge, Ronald Acuña Jr., and some other high-quality hitters. Frazier is unlikely to keep up his current statline, yet he's attractive as a versatile defender and high-contact hitter who has another year of team control remaining.
Frazier may seem like an odd fit for a Padres team that already employs Jake Cronenworth, Jurickson Profar, and Hae-Seong Kim. But Profar has predominantly played the outfield this year, while Kim has provided below-average offense. It's at least conceivable that the Padres use Frazier at second base, with Cronenworth eating into Eric Hosmer's at-bats, or that they deploy one or another in the outfield as a way of getting them into the lineup.
Marcano is a 21-year-old infielder who has hit .182/.280/.205 (40 OPS+) in 50 big-league plate appearances this season. In Triple-A, meanwhile, he has batted .272/.367/.444 with more walks (27) than strikeouts (25). He doesn't offer much in the way of power, but the rest of his tools are at least average. Marcano's likeliest outcome is as a utility infielder; an individual high on his hit tool may foresee a chance he becomes a second-division regular.
Suwinski has hit .269/.398/.551 in Double-A this season, albeit with a bloated strikeout rate (27.7 percent) and without a ton of defensive value. Then there's Miliano, a 21-year-old right-hander with 25 walks in 30 innings this season.
