The San Diego Padres made a deal not too long ago to acquire star left-hander Sean Manaea from the Oakland Athletics.
The move was clearly designed to give the Padres some more depth in their starting rotation and have another guy to go alongside Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and Blake Snell.
So far, the move appears to be working out just fine for the Padres.
San Diego sits just two games back of first place in the National League West with a 7-5 record, and that is thanks in large part to the success Manaea has enjoyed since coming to San Diego.
Sean Manaea's three starts in a Padres uniform:
19 IP, 3 ER, 10 H, 19 K, 5 BB
That's a 1.42 ERA. A terrific start to his career in the brown & gold.
— Sammy Levitt (@SammyLev) April 19, 2022
Throwing Strikes
This is about as good as you can get if you’re Manaea.
To have a 1.42 ERA in your first three starts with a new team is super impressive.
To have thrown 19 innings, struck out 19 batters, and allowed just 10 hits and five walks is even more impressive.
Manaea is making a great first impression with the Padres.
Perhaps it’s his comfort of playing for manager Bob Melvin, whom he spent several years with during his time with the A’s.
That would certainly help any pitcher to have that familiarity with the manager.
But Manaea is looking super sharp early on and is ready to lead this Padres team to the postseason.
To have both him and Musgrove dominating early in the season could be a good omen of things to come as the season progresses.
This Padres rotation is among the best in all of baseball and could be the absolute strength of the ballclub in 2022.
We’ll see if Manaea can keep this up and continue to flash his Cy Young potential.
NEXT: Padres Become First MLB Team To Make A Modern Uniform Change