The San Diego Padres obtain OF Al Martin from the Pirates for OF John Vander Wal, and pitchers Jim Sak and Geraldo Padua.

On February 23, 2000 — The San Diego Padres obtain OF Al Martin from the Pirates for OF John Vander Wal, and pitchers Jim Sak and Geraldo Padua.

Neither of the two minor leaguers the Pirates got made the majors. Vander Wal was 33 years old at the time of the trade. He hit .272 in 1999 with the Padres, setting career highs in homers with six and RBIs with 41. Martin had hit .277 with a career high 24 homers in 1999. He had spent eight years with the Pirates, hitting .280 with 107 homers and 152 steals in 897 games. After the trade, Martin started off strongly for the Padres hitting .306 with 11 homers and 62 runs scored through 93 games before they traded him to the Mariners. His stats fell off greatly there, hitting .237 in 142 games through the end of the 2001 season. He didn’t play in 2002, then returned for 100 games with the Devil Rays in 2003, his last year in the majors. Vandel Wal had a breakout season in 2000 with the Pirates. He hit .299 with 24 homers and 94 RBIs. He had been used as a pinch-hitter often his entire Major League career but given the chance to start in Pittsburgh, he excelled. At the 2001 trading deadline, the Pirates sent him to the San Francisco Giants in the Jason Schmidt deal.

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