Remember when the Oakland A’s were trying to hold up the Cardinals in their trade demands for catcher Sean Murphy?
Remember how they wanted Laars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan and one of the Cardinals’ top young pitchers?
Those were good times.
After the Cardinals took a pass and signed free-agent Willson Contreras instead, the A’s worked a three-way trade with Atlanta and Milwaukee that landed them outfielder Esteury Ruiz from the Brewers, catcher Manny Pina from the Braves and pitchers Freddy Tarnok, Royber Salinas and Kyle Muller from Atlanta.
The A’s also sent reliever Joel Payamps to the Brewers while the Braves sent William Contreras, Willson’s younger brother, to Milwaukee along with minor-league reliever Justin Yeager.