Sitting inside a hotel room in Little Rock, Ark., Sean Manaea glanced at his cell phone and saw a familiar phone number flash across the screen. The moment came last July. The call came from a member of the Royals’ office. The day changed the life of a top prospect and altered the course of baseball history in Kansas City.
On that day, Manaea, 23, had been traded to the Oakland A’s for second baseman Ben Zobrist, a deal that would bolster a first-place Royals team and set the stage for a raucous postseasons run in 2015. Manaea didn’t see the deal coming, of course, because you never do.