Last night, the Red Sox made a three-team deal that landed them starting pitcher Jake Peavy from the White Sox and Triple-A right-handed-reliever Brayan Villarreal from the Tigers. They sent Jose Iglesias to the Tiger and three minor leaguers to the White Sox. The White Sox received outfielder Avisail Garcia from the Tigers.
My initial reaction to this trade was Really?
I’m not saying the trade for Peavy is bad. Peavy brings a veteran presence to the team, which will be beneficial in the next two to three months. To compete with the stellar Rays pitching, the Red Sox needed to obtain a starting pitcher with experience, and they did that by obtaining Peavy. Also, Peavy will be reunited with Red Sox pitching coach Juan Nieves.
Peavy won’t be a rental player, which is reassuring since the Red Sox gave up their best defensive infielder (in the entire organization) for him. Peavy is signed through next season with a vesting option for 2015, and the Red Sox are now responsible for that contract.
This season, Peavy has pitched 80.0 innings with a 4.28 ERA and a 1.138 WHIP. However, Peavy was also injured part of the season with a rib fracture and has only pitched two games since coming off the disabled list.
Last season, Peavy made the All-Star team and won the Gold Glove for AL Pitcher. He had an 11-12 record, but held a 3.37 ERA and a 1.096 WHIP.
In his career, dating back to 2002, Peavy has a 3.49 ERA, 1.177 WHIP, and won the NL Cy Young Award in 2007, when he was with the Padres.
So, obviously, my concern isn’t with obtaining Peavy because, as I’ve stated before, the Red Sox needed another starter. When Buchholz returns from the disabled list, they’ll have the option of going to a 6-man rotation to rest the pitchers for the playoffs.
My concern is with losing Iglesias. For the season, Iglesias was hitting .330 with a .787 OPS in 62 games. He showed amazing defense and versatility by moving to third base when Middlebrooks was out/demoted. For years, we fans had heard how amazing of a player Iglesias was and how he was the team’s “shortstop of the future.” Well, the future is now the past.
Iglesias was 5 for his last 43 at-bats, which sent his average into a tailspin since it was above .400 for so long this season. 24 of his 70 hits were infield hits, but that meant he had speed on the base paths. (If you watched the game last night and saw Iglesias’ terrible base running when he tried to stretch a single into a double, you may not consider him a threat on the base paths).
Just throwing this out there: since 2004, the Red Sox have traded away 11 shortstops (Garciaparra, Renteria, Vazquez, Lugo, Lowrie, Scutaro, Punto, Aviles, Navarro, Ciriaco, and now Iglesias). Other shortstops since 2004: Cabrera, Crespo, Pedroia (for 6 games), Reese, Cora, Gonzalez, Green, and Drew. The shortstop position really is a revolving door.
With Iglesias moving on to the Tigers, the door is now open for Xander Bogaerts in the future. If that doesn’t work out, there are still 2-3 more shortstop prospects in the organization that have great potential. My guess is we’ll see Bogaerts in September; and who knows, he may have the same effect on this team as Ellsbury had on the 2007 team. And, we know what happened in 2007…
Another possibility would be for the Red Sox to make a trade to get Michael Young. Young has been linked on and off with the Red Sox for weeks now. Earlier this week, it was reported Young would only accept a trade to the Rangers; but last night, there were reports that some Red Sox players had talked to Young and he would now accept a trade to the Red Sox. Young would be a rental player, but he could also be the bat the Red Sox are looking for this season.
Cherington said last night that someone will be called up from Triple-A to fill the void left by Iglesias, but he wouldn’t confirm who was coming up. Could this be a smoke screen?
For now, the Red Sox have the established starter they wanted in Peavy. Workman, who has pitched wonderfully in 3 starts and earned his first win last night, can now work out of the bullpen for the remainder of the season. Once the void at shortstop/third base is worked out, the Red Sox should have a roster that hopefully sends them into the playoffs (first place in the division is ideal).
If there are more trades made today, I’ll try and update the blog when I have some time. You may want to check back later today and/or tomorrow.
Another reminder, I will be on vacation next week and will not be posting during that time. I will still do Twitter Friday this Friday though.
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