On Tuesday, the Chicago White Sox sent starting pitcher Jake Peavy to the Boston Red Sox in a 3-team, 7-player deal. The Detroit Tigers were the other team involved, sending Avisail Garcia to the White Sox and acquiring infielder Jose Iglesias from Boston.
The official deal:
Chicago White Sox receive – OF Avisail Garica (From Detroit), SS Cleuluis Rondon, P Frank Montas, P JB Wendelken (All three from Boston)
Boston Red Sox receive – P Jake Peavy (From Chicago) and P Bryan Villareal (From Detroit)
Detroit Tigers receive – SS Jose Iglesias (From Detroit)
On the surface, this seems like a pretty good deal for all three teams involved. Boston gets an immediate boost to their starting rotation in Peavy. Detroit receives a young, athletic, and defensive infielder in Iglesias who should be their future shortstop. In fact, he could be starting by the end of the week if Jhonny Peralta is indeed suspended due to his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. The White Sox add four prospects to their beleaguered farm-system, and are surprisingly sending no cash to Boston. It was speculated that the White Sox would have to eat at least some of the money owed to Peavy, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Of course, the White Sox likely received lesser prospects than they would have if they sent some money to Boston, but the good news is that they are now free of Peavy’s contract. Peavy was set to make $14.5 million next season, so the White Sox can now decide to use that money in other areas.
Now that the deal is complete, it is time to take a look at the players the White Sox have acquired.
Avisail Garcia, 22, is the “gem” of the package, and he immediately becomes one of the White Sox’ best young players. Garcia is no longer technically a prospect since he has lost his “rookie” status by MLB terms, but he was once considered a top prospect prior to this season. Before the start of the 2013 season, MLB.com had Garcia ranked as the 3rd best prospect in the Tigers’ farm system. Garcia has 130 at-bats in 53 career major league games, while batting .269 with two home runs and 13 runs batted in. In 561 career minor league games, Garcia has 2,183 at-bats, while hitting .289, with 43 HR, 269 RBI, 291 R, and 78 SB. In the end, Garcia projects to be an everyday right fielder with a very strong throwing arm, above-average power, and adequate speed. He should be a fixture in the White Sox outfield for at least the next several seasons, as he won’t become a free agent until after the 2018. Garcia has been assigned to AAA Charlotte to begin his career with the organization, but I would imagine that he would be up shortly (especially if Rios is either traded or misses time due to his most recent injury that occurred Tuesday night).
The other three players the White Sox received from Boston are all low-level prospects. I am not going to try and act like I know a lot about these players, so here is some quick info. Shortstop Cleuluis Rondon, 19, is spending his third season in professional baseball. At this point, he appears to be a defensive shortstop and remains at least a few seasons away from the big leagues. Pitcher Frank Montas, 20, might be the most intriguing prospect of the three; as he has reportedly hit 100-mph with his fastball on many occasions and has 96 strikeouts in 85.1 innings pitched. However, with a 5.70 ERA in Class A ball, Montas is still quite a ways from being a major leaguer. Pitcher JB Wendelken, 20, has a 2.81 ERA and 10 saves in 27 appearances. All three prospects are long-shots to be contributors at the major league level. If everything works out, Rondon is a utility infielder, and Montas and Wendelken are quality bullpen arms.
Overall, I think the White Sox did alright, but they could have done better. Don’t get me wrong, because I am a big fan of Avisail Garcia’s potential, but not paying any money to Boston may end up costing the White Sox more than they expected.
-Eric Tichelbaut
Follow me on Twitter @etichel07
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