A’s get 4 Yankees prospects for Frankie Montas, Lou Trivino

The A’s hit a reset button this spring by trading away a handful of stars with an eye towards the future. Holding one of the marquee names of the 2022 Trade Deadline in Frankie Montas, the rebuild continued on Monday, with the right-hander going to the Yankees along with reliever Lou Trivino for four Minor Leaguers.

Montas, whose burgeoning trade stock took a serious hit after experiencing shoulder tightness just before the All-Star break, re-established his value with a pair of solid outings in his return. For the season, Montas is 4-9 with a 3.18 ERA in 19 starts and 109 strikeouts across 104 2/3 innings. His 1.14 WHIP ranks 10th among American League starters.

Montas is under team control through the 2023 season, which A’s general manager David Forst cited on multiple occasions as a reason why there was no rush to trade him. The A’s wanted a proper return for what they felt was arguably the top pitcher on the market, and they got a package headlined by left-hander Ken Waldichuk — a product of nearby Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga who was rated the Yankees’ No. 5 prospect and the No. 70 overall prospect in MLB Pipeline’s most recent rankings. Also coming over from New York are right-hander Luis Medina (Yankees’ No. 10 prospect), left-hander JP Sears (No. 20) and second baseman Cooper Bowman (No. 21).

All four enter the A’s Top 30 rankings on MLB Pipeline: Waldichuk at No. 3, Medina at No. 7, Sears at No. 19 and Bowman at No. 29.

“We got three pitchers who are very close to, if not already, Major League ready,” Forst said. “Sears has been in the big leagues and we saw him up close and personal in New York a couple months ago. All three guys we think are close to being in a Major League rotation, and Bowman is a guy that’s having a fantastic first full year out of the Draft. Excited to add all of them to our system.”

The A’s received heavy interest from several teams during Spring Training about Montas, who was viewed as Oakland’s next star on the move after Chris Bassitt, Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Sean Manaea were traded away in the span of three weeks. Despite an encouraging improvement of play over the past month, the focus is on continuing to bolster a farm system that now features several promising prospects expected to help guide the A’s back to playoff contention over the next couple of years.

Montas, 29, was originally traded from the Dodgers to the A’s in August 2016 and battled some ups and downs as a young pitcher before fully evolving from just a hard thrower to a pitcher with premier stuff. In six seasons with Oakland, Montas went 35-30 with a 3.70 ERA in 114 games (89 starts) and has developed a splitter that has emerged as one of the more dominant pitches in the game.

Trivino, who was drafted by the A’s in the 11th round of the 2013 MLB Draft, began the year as Oakland’s closer but eventually lost that role after a shaky start. He holds a 6.47 ERA with 10 saves in 39 relief appearances this season.

Waldichuk, 24, will report to Triple-A Las Vegas. He was was a fifth-round selection by the Yankees in the 2019 MLB Draft after starring at Saint Mary’s and holds a 3.00 ERA in 50 career…