Luis Arraez was traded to the San Diego Padres just minutes before he was supposed to lead off for the Miami Marlins.

But one of the prospects he was traded for learned of the news when he was actually playing.

Nathan Martorella entered Friday night as a prospect for the Padres, trying to make a name for himself with the San Antonio Missions, San Diego’s Double-A affiliate.

The trade seemingly came out of nowhere. There had been no rumblings of any move, and considering that Arrzez and Martorella were both in their respective lineups, they obviously didn’t know much was coming either. It’s also not like we’re near the July 31 trade deadline.

But one could tell that Martorella was extremely surprised.

In the top of the third inning, not exactly when a pinch-runner would be used, Martorella was taken out of the game while standing on second base, but he looked around and even pointed at himself to make sure it was he who was supposed to come off the field.

Martorella jogged off the field, still confused, but it seemed like he got word once he entered the dugout.

Nathan Martorella, #39 of the San Diego Padres, bats during the eighth inning of a spring training game against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch on February 28, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona.  (David Durochik/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

YANKEES’ AARON JUDGE GETS EJECTED FOR FIRST TIME IN CAREER AFTER ‘BULLS–T’ CALL

He and another player, Jakob Marsee, then grabbed their gear and made their way to the other side of the field where the clubhouses were.

Marotella and another player hugged several players and coaches on the walk, and exited the field.

The prospects, along with two others, were sent to Miami for the two-time defending batting champion. Arraez hit an MLB-leading .354 last season during his first year with the Marlins, who acquired him from the Minnesota Twins after he won the American League batting title in 2022 with a .316 average.

The Venezuelan infielder boasted a .400 average into late June, a feat no one had accomplished since 2008. (Ted Williams remains the last player to hit .400 in a season, way back in 1941.)

Miami Marlins’ Luis Arraez (3) flips his bat after hitting the go-ahead run to win the game in the tenth inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Sunday, July 23, 2023, in Miami. The Marlins defeated the Rockies 3-2.  (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Arraez finished in eighth in NL MVP voting last year and 13th in the AL vote in 2022, earning a Silver Slugger Award at second base each season.

This season, so far, he is “only” hitting .299.

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Joc Pederson might not remember the full trade package.

But the former Dodgers slugger won’t soon forget the first time he saw Andy Pages’ swing.

A couple months ago, while watching a Dodgers spring training game, Pederson took immediate notice of Pages, the club’s top outfield prospect. Coming away so impressed, Pederson texted some old friends in the club’s front office.

“I said, ‘That’s different,’” recalled Pederson, now the designated hitter for the Arizona Diamondbacks. “That was the first time I’d ever seen him. … It just looked right.”

What Pederson didn’t realize then, and was only reminded of recently: Pages was once almost traded by the Dodgers, reportedly part of a nixed 2020 deal that would have sent Pederson, Ross Stripling and a then-teenage Pages to the Angels.

“I had no idea,” Pederson said, somewhat stunned, “that kid was in the trade.”

Four years later, it’s a trade that never happened for the Dodgers that just keeps on giving.

Pages not only stayed with the organization after the trade fell apart — the result, largely, of impatience from Angels owner Arte Moreno — but is now blossoming in his first MLB season

Since being called up on April 16, the 23-year-old is batting .333 with three home runs and 11 RBIs. He has a nine-game hitting streak that has raised his on-base-plus-slugging percentage to .921. He produced his best performance yet on Friday, punctuating a four-hit game against the Atlanta Braves with an 11th-inning walk-off single.

“It was really special because I haven’t been here for that long and I was able to accomplish that,” Pages said through an interpreter postgame.

“He wasn’t going to let anyone else win that game for us tonight,” manager Dave Roberts added. “We trusted [his] head, trusted the talent, and, obviously, he just rose to the occasion.”

That has been the story of Pages’ journey, starting from when the Dodgers signed the six-foot-tall Cuban prospect for $300,000 in 2017.

Always known for his natural athleticism and powerful swing, Pages hit 10 home runs in his first year of pro ball at the club’s complex in the Dominican Republic — “which, in those parks, and at that time,” Dodgers director of player development Will Rhymes recalled, “was pretty unique.” Pages’ production only improved in 2019, when he had 19 home runs and an OPS over 1.000 in rookie ball with the Dodgers affiliate in Ogden, Utah.

By then, Pages’ advanced mental approach —-a trait just as signature as his pre-swing leg-kick and bent-over posture at impact — was impressing Dodgers staff as much as anything.

“In one of the first conversations I had with him back in 2019, I asked him about his leg kick, and we started talking about Justin Turner,” Rhymes said, recalling how Pages compared his timing mechanism to that of the then-Dodgers star. “And he gave me this incredible breakdown of Justin Turner’s swing, how it functioned.”

Rhymes’ takeaway?

“Wow, this guy thinks about [the game] at a different level than most 19-year-olds.”

In a loaded Dodgers farm system full of more seasoned prospects, Pages wasn’t always their biggest-name talent. In 2020, Baseball America ranked him as the No. 22 prospect in the organization. MLB Pipeline pegged him at No. 14.

It was then that Pages’ name surfaced in trade talks between the Angels and Dodgers — who, on the verge of acquiring Mookie Betts and David Price from the Boston Red Sox in February 2020, were trying to create some salary relief.

While the key pieces of the deal were Pederson and Stripling, Pages was also reported to be heading to Anaheim, in exchange for infielder Luis Rengifo and multiple Angels prospects.

For a week after the news surfaced Feb. 4, the move was believed to be all but official.

“I was going to [salary] arbitration,” Pederson recalled, “and we didn’t know what team was going to show.”

On Feb. 9, however, it all broke down in a strange series of events.

Initially, the Angels trade was held up while the Dodgers finalized Betts’ acquisition from the Red Sox.

In what started as a three-team transaction also involving Minnesota, Boston was supposed to get reliever Brusdar Graterol, but balked upon a review of his medical records. That forced the Dodgers, Red Sox and Twins to reconfigure the deal, with Graterol ultimately coming to Los Angeles and the Dodgers sending two other prospects — Jeter Downs and Connor Wong — to Boston instead.

While all that was worked out — the Dodgers-Angels trade was contingent on the Betts deal going through — Moreno, the Angels owner, started to grow frustrated.

And just as the Dodgers finally completed their blockbuster move for Betts, Moreno reportedly called off the Pederson/Stripling/Pages agreement, later confirming that, while there were other unspecified factors at play, the five-day delay had gnawed at his patience.

“It was a crappy feeling,” said Pederson, who helped the Dodgers win the World Series that season before leaving as a free agent. “But what are you gonna do?”

As Pages followed the situation, his emotions were similarly conflicted.

“It was really strange to see your name across the news,” Pages acknowledged.

“When the rumors were swirling,” Rhymes added, “he was pretty upset about it.”

The hurt feelings, though, didn’t last long. Pages continued his ascent up the minor-league ladder, hitting 31 homers in high Class A in 2021, and 26 more in Class AA in 2022. The club’s player development staff expressed their excitement about his future.

“It gave us all a chance to renew our vows,” Rhymes said. “He’s always been in the plans to be a big piece of this thing.”

Pages’ rise wasn’t entirely linear.

At times, he got too “uphill” in his swing mechanics, Rhymes said, leaving Pages vulnerable to pitchers who attacked up in the strike zone. Despite his 57 home runs in 2021-2022, he batted just .250 with 272 strikeouts.

Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages makes a catch at the wall during a game against the Nationals.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Last year, Pages suffered a serious shoulder injury, when a torn labrum in his first career triple A game required season-ending surgery in June.

“It was a tough blow, but from the moment it happened, he handled it extremely maturely,” Rhymes said. “He was on a mission before the injury. And if anything, the injury just put on more of one.”

Once fully recovered from the procedure, Pages was a standout performer in Dodgers camp this spring, going eight for 17 with two home runs and nine RBIs.

The day he was optioned, Rhymes said, was equally telling. Pages, who has developed into a plus center fielder defensively, went to minor-league camp and took 10 live at-bats on a day coaches suggested he take off.

“I knew going into the season how difficult it was going to be [to crack the majors] with so many talented players on the roster, so many superstars,” Pages said. “I knew how much work was ahead of me.”

That translated to a blistering start to the regular season in triple A, with Pages batting .371 in 15 games.

And between Jason Heyward’s back injury and James Outman’s early-season struggles, the Dodgers saw the opportunity to give Pages an early call-up.

His performance in the three weeks since have surpassed all expectations. Pages has ranked seventh in the National League in batting average since his arrival, and has almost as many RBIs (11) as strikeouts (13).

“He’s checking a lot of boxes,” Roberts said. “He’s creating his own opportunities.”

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman hasn’t lately indulged in recollections about the abandoned Angels trade.

“Not much,” he said when asked how often he has thought about it amid Pages’ rise.

Instead, he noted the seamlessness of Pages’ big-league transition.

“We saw him make adjustments at the major league level his first week,” Friedman said. “Teams were beating up top with fastballs. And now he’s either clearing those out or at least fouling them off. He gets another pitch. He just competes in the box.”

Veteran teammates have echoed similar compliments.

“Today he showed that he’s made for the big moments,” Teoscar Hernández said in the wake of Pages’ walk-off hit Friday night. “He’s not afraid to go out there and have success.”

And when there was once a time it looked like Pages never would don a Dodgers jersey, his electric start has him seemingly poised to stay with the club, as a key contributor in the outfield, for the long haul.

“I know how great this team is,” Pages said. “I always wanted to be a part of this.”

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Sam Salz emerged from Texas A&M’s Bright Football Complex at dusk in early February, eager to explain how he got here.

“Over there,” he pointed, patting down his yarmulke with his other hand. “That’s where it happened.”

The patch of land in the distance sat adjacent to where the Aggies football team practiced. Salz, just a student with a dream in the spring of 2021, would arrive at the field every day an hour before Texas A&M practiced and stay an hour after the practice concluded.

A 5-foot-6, 160-pound Orthodox Jewish student who had never played organized football, Salz intended to try out for the SEC program as a walk-on. He worked on getting into shape and getting faster, even if he didn’t know how. He used old shoes instead of cones for drills. He lined up trash cans to simulate the line of scrimmage. He had no cleats. He didn’t even have a position to practice. He just worked.

A graduate of Kohelet Yeshiva High School — a Modern Orthodox college prep school in Philadelphia with roughly 100 students that did not field a football team — Salz had an improbable mission. And, like always, he had a plan.

Salz thought if he showed up every day and worked out as if he were on the team, he’d be noticed. But he didn’t leave it to chance. That fall, he attended then-head coach Jimbo Fisher’s weekly radio show at Rudy’s Country Store and B-B-Q to meet the man who would determine his fate.

“I walked up to him and looked him in the eye and said, ‘I’m Sam Salz and I’m going to walk on to your football team,’” he recalled, ignoring a team policy requiring walk-ons to have played varsity football in high school.

Fisher looked back at the undersized Salz, being more gracious than serious, and replied, “I’d be honored.”

Salz kept returning to the radio show, the same way he would to that patch of land. He approached Fisher again and asked if he could attend practice to better understand what the Aggies did. Salz scribbled down what he learned and incorporated it into his independent workouts.

The field Salz used was separated from the Aggies practice fields by a chain-link fence.

“I told myself, ‘I’m on this team,’” Salz said. “They are practicing on that side of the fence, and I’m practicing on this side of the fence, but I’m on the team. That was my firm belief. I’d practice, and the energy was great. Guys would come out of practice and realize this guy in a yarmulke was working out every day, and they’d hype me up. Coaches would notice. I’d talk to the coaches.”

Salz didn’t realize the coaches were talking about him, too.

Salz, 21, became obsessed with playing college football at a young age, for reasons he can’t exactly pinpoint.

“People talk about ‘Rudy’ to me all the time,” Salz said of the popular motion picture about a Notre Dame fan willing to do anything to make the team. “It’s funny, I’ve never seen it.”

College football games largely fall on Shabbat — the Jewish Sabbath, observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. As a result, he didn’t grow up watching the sport.

For an observant Orthodox Jew, Shabbat is an entire day meant for communing with God, whether it be studying Torah, praying or being with your community. Judaic law limits distractions. There’s no work, no lifting weights, no cooking, no cleaning, no business transactions, no usage of electricity and no riding in motorized vehicles, among other rules.

And, obviously no playing football.

So, what drew Salz to Texas A&M?

While in high school, Salz — like many other kids — got swept into the Dude Perfect craze on the internet. A group of friends took the web by storm by recording trick shots and putting them on YouTube. Salz learned that the members of Dude Perfect — now headquartered in Frisco, Texas — were college roommates at Texas A&M. Salz became infatuated with the school, a former military institution known for big-time ambitions, revered traditions, oil tycoons and Midnight Yell on Friday nights and Aggies football games on Saturdays.

Sam Salz started out as a running back but is now a wide receiver for the Aggies. (Texas A&M Athletics)

He researched. The university has a total enrollment north of 70,000 students and there are an estimated 500 Jewish students on campus, according to the University’s Hillel website, less than 1 percent of the population.

He reached out to Yossi Lazaroff, the rabbi of the Texas A&M Chabad. He concluded College Station was the right fit.

“It was really about the culture, what the school represents and the alumni network,” he said. “It’s very different from any other school in America. It also has a strong Jewish community, even if it’s not large.”

Salz said he felt a desire to prove to himself — and to other Orthodox Jewish people — that religious beliefs don’t have to infringe on goals or pursuit of happiness. For him, for some reason, that involved football.

“I’ve always been a ‘see if I can do it’ type,” Salz said. “I don’t know how this got into my head. People think I’m BS-ing, but I always had this belief in my head, back to when I was a little kid, that I had to play college football or else I wouldn’t have done everything I could’ve — or should’ve — in life.”

When Salz was a child, his school held a fundraiser selling cookie dough. The student who sold the most won a flat-screen television. Salz became obsessed and, with the help of a family friend who was an accountant, devised a sales strategy.

“He won,” said his mother, Marianna Salz. “I’m of the mindset that if you want to try something, go ahead and do it. I know my son, so this wasn’t as big of a surprise and shock as it may have been for other people. He is a determined person. When he told me he wanted to do this, I was like, ‘OK, this is your next thing. Try it. Do it.’”

Even with all of Salz’s planning, he never realized Fisher could see him working out from his Kyle Field office.

“In the offseason, even on days we didn’t practice, he’d still come out there,” said Mark Robinson, Texas A&M’s associate athletic director at the time and currently the chief of staff at Florida. “There’s a balcony that overlooks the field. (Fisher) would see him out there and just say, ‘That’s the same kid who comes to the radio show. He’s always working out, and I love his drive.’”

When he first got to College Station in 2021, Salz took online classes at a Texas A&M system school and couldn’t try out for the football team until he became a full-time student on the main campus. And then before the 2022 season, Texas A&M had so many players in the program that it didn’t hold walk-on tryouts.

But during a difficult 2022 season — one that would include a six-game losing streak — Fisher wanted to make a statement to the locker room. He wanted someone like Salz, who wanted something bigger than seemed possible and was willing to work for it, on his roster.

“Halfway through the season, that’s when I got the text from Mark,” Salz said.

The text from Robinson was simple: “Sam, do you have some time to come by the football offices today or tomorrow?”

As Salz responded yes and received more information about the walk-on process, he couldn’t contain himself.

He screamed, jumped up and down and fist-pumped as hard as he could.

Fisher and Robinson invited him on the team, even though he lacked the size and the experience necessary to compete in the SEC.

“I don’t want to sound arrogant or self-aggrandizing when I say this. But there was something that I was willing to do that most people were not,” Salz said. “I made human connections and made myself a known person to them. I think (Fisher) appreciated that persistence. It was something old-school coaches would appreciate.”

Salz never hid his faith, proudly wearing his yarmulke and tzitzit, the head covering and the knotted fringes or tassels on the Jewish prayer shawl that serve as reminders of the 613 commandments in the Torah. But he was initially worried that the coaching staff wouldn’t be understanding of the time constraints of his religion and his need to eat only kosher food.

Sam Salz attended a high school with roughly 100 students. Now he is on a team that plays in a stadium with more than 100,000 seats.

Texas A&M, though, accommodated Salz. He isn’t expected to participate in team activities on Jewish holidays. The first practice after he was invited onto the team fell on Yom Kippur, and he didn’t attend. Team nutritionist Tiffany Ilten makes sure Salz has access to kosher meals, which they get from a distributor in Cherry Hill, N.J. A microwave in the team facility reads “kosher food only.”

“Our main priority was making sure that all of our student-athletes are fed and nourished,” Ilten said. “It was a challenge at first, but not in a bad way. It was just something new we all had to educate ourselves on.”

Salz and Robinson, who is also Jewish, connected by wrapping tefillin, small leather boxes and straps, around their arms and heads, symbolically binding themselves to God.

Salz, who remains part of the program after Fisher’s November firing and the hire of Mike Elko, started out as a running back. He was brought along slowly, still lacking foundational football knowledge and the physical makeup to run between tackles. The longer he has been on the team, the more he’s been incorporated onto the scout team, where he’s likely to make his biggest impact.

He moved to receiver, where Texas A&M needed depth. He understands his physical limitations when matching up with elite athletes. But as he talked about it, he reached into his pocket and shared a clip of him running a drag route in practice and making a nice catch.

“He goes hard all the time,” Texas A&M strength coach Tommy Moffitt said. “There is a size discrepancy between him and the other guys, but he doesn’t let that discourage him. The players have embraced him, and he works his tail off.”

Added former A&M wide receiver Ainias Smith, a fifth-round pick of the Eagles in the 2024 NFL Draft: “We needed somebody like that on the team. Once people get here, it seems like everybody feels like they made it. His story motivates us to keep going.”

Salz believes he is the only Orthodox Jewish player in college football. It’s not something that is tracked by the NCAA.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for him is reconciling that no matter how good he gets, he will always have restrictions on game day. If the Aggies play during the day, he can’t attend because he’s observing Shabbat.

For night games, he walks more than a mile from his apartment to Kyle Field. There are workers by the entrance who let him into the building — he can’t use his thumbprint scanners on Shabbat — and he finishes out the sabbath in the team rooms. He studies Torah, eats a meal and then gets suited up while the sun goes down. In the middle of the third quarter, he runs out of the tunnel and joins his team in his No. 39 jersey, yarmulke and tzitzit.

“My teammates joke that in the new NCAA video game that my rating should be a 99 overall but I can only be used in the fourth quarter of night games,” he said.

Salz has yet to appear in a game. He couldn’t participate in Texas A&M’s all-walk-on kickoff team (which paid homage to the 12th Man Kickoff Team from the 1980s) during its win over Abilene Christian last November because the game was during the day.

So why does he put himself through this routine if there isn’t the payoff of eventually playing?

“I know why I’m doing it: for my Jewish brothers and sisters,” Salz said. “I knew I’d be in a position to inspire a lot of people.”

(Top image Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photo: courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics)