For the second time this season, the Dodgers have traded the son of a manager within the organization. Per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
Don Mattingley's [sic] son Preston, a Dodgers Minor Leaguer, was traded to the Indians for outfielder Roman Pena.
On July 31, the Dodgers also traded Brett Wallach, son of their Triple A manager Tim Wallach, as part of the package sent to the Cubs to acquire Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot.
Preston Mattingly, a supplemental first round pick in the 2006 draft, has been a huge disappointment, hitting .232/.275/.334 in his minor league career and never advanced past Class A. This year Wallach hit a combined .218/.247/.291 with both Class A Inland Empire and the rookie ball Arizona League Dodgers.
Last weekend there were rumblings that the Dodgers were not happy with Preston Mattingly, who tweeted this the morning of September 17:
Big news coming today Donnie baseball......
The news that Don Mattingly would replace Joe Torre as manager in 2011 had not yet broken, and this cryptic tweet only stoked the flames of rumors surrounding the situation, especially before Torre had a chance to meet with his players to announce the move.
Was this trade a result of that tweet? Who knows? But it wouldn't surprise me.
Peña frankly isn't much better than Mattingly, if at all. He has been injured much of this season, and hit .148/.274/.328 in 21 games for Class A Kinston. Peña, a ninth-round selection in 2005, turned 24 on September 2, and like Mattingly, has never advanced past Class A.
This isn't quite Al Campanis trading his own son, Jim, in 1968, but it is kind of funny that the sons of two managers in the Dodger system have been jettisoned this year.