As expected when he was scratched from his start for the Chicago White Sox earlier in the day, pitcher Jake Peavy was traded on Tuesday.
In less of a surprise, Peavy was dealt to the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were among a handful of teams rumored to be pursuing a deal for the 32-year-old right-hander. However, reports earlier on Tuesday had the Arizona Diamondbacks emerging as the favorite to land Peavy. Those rumors later developed even further into a possible three-team trade that would have brought the Los Angeles Angels into the fold.
Instead, Peavy is going to Boston in a different three-way transaction involving seven players, with the Detroit Tigers as the unexpected third component to the deal. The Red Sox sent infielder Jose Iglesias to Detroit, in exchange for outfielder Avisail Garcia and reliever Brayan Villarreal. Boston then traded Garcia — along with minor league infielder Cleuluis Rondon and pitchers J.B. Wendelken and Francellis Montas — to the White Sox. Got all that?
This season, Peavy has an 8-4 record and 4.28 in 13 starts with 76 strikeouts in 80 innings. He was sidelined for six weeks with a fractured rib. The 12-year veteran bolsters a Red Sox starting staff that's been weakened since Clay Buchholz went on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation.
With Peavy, Jon Lester and John Lackey, Boston again has a strong top three in its rotation to go with Felix Doubront and Brandon Workman. If and when Buchholz returns (expected to be late August at the earliest), the Red Sox will obviously have an even stronger rotation to compete for the AL East title or a wild-card playoff spot.
Villarreal could possibly help Boston's bullpen, though its relief corps is pitching strong right now. Consider that the Tigers have been looking for relief options all season, yet had Villarreal in the minors. He shows promising strikeout stuff, with a career rate of 10.3 Ks per nine innings. However, control has been an issue for him, with a rate of 5.5 walks per nine frames. In his short stint with Detroit this year, Villarreal walked eight batters in 4.1 innings. But at 26 years of age, he can still develop into an effective major league reliever.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect to this trade is the Tigers acquiring Iglesias. Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski claimed that his team was likely done making deals after getting reliever Jose Veras from the Houston Astros on Monday. Speculation was that Dombrowski would pursue one more reliever in any other potential trades.
But the cloud hanging over the Tigers was the status of shortstop Jhonny Peralta, who is reportedly one of the players associated with the Biogenesis PED scandal.
Detroit's front office put on a tough face, telling reporters that they weren't looking to get another shortstop. Yet according to CBS Sports' Jon Heyman, most of the players involved with Biogenesis are likely to accept the 50-game suspension MLB is expected to hand out this week.
That left the Tigers with a hole at shortstop. While Iglesias is currently hitting .330 with a .787 OPS in 231 plate appearances, he's not considered as strong a hitter as Peralta.
However, the 23-year-old will be a major upgrade defensively for a Detroit infield that hasn't had a strong glove at shortstop in four years. The Tigers shouldn't have to worry about that position for a long time, as Iglesias is under team control through 2018.
For the White Sox, this deal gives them possible building blocks for the future. Garcia showed promise in last year's playoffs, batting .261 — including a .455 (5-for-11) average in the ALCS versus the New York Yankees. In 152 plate appearances with Triple-A Toledo this season, he's batted .382 with a .963 OPS, five home runs and 23 RBI.
Yet the other prospects the White Sox received are in their early developmental stages. Wendelken compiled a 2.81 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 64 innings for Single-A Greenville. Teammate Montas carries a 5.70 ERA in 19 appearances, but racked up 96 strikeouts in 85.1 innings. Rondon had a .277 average and .681 OPS in 134 plate appearances with Boston's short season Class A team in Lowell.
It's too early to say whether the White Sox came out winners in this deal. Garcia certainly looks capable of developing into an everyday major league outfielder, but the other three minor leaguers are simply too raw to judge definitively. (It should also be noted that neither of those players were considered among the Red Sox's top 20 prospects, nor were they on Boston's 40-man roster.)
However, both the Red Sox and Tigers picked up key pieces that should make significant contributions to their respective playoff drives. Both Peavy and Iglesias should help their new teams for multiple seasons as well.
At the very least, this three-way deal provided some sizzle to what had been a slow penultimate day to the MLB trade deadline.
