The Chicago White Sox started this season with the hope and looked like promise to be contenders for not only the AL Central, but at the very least the playoffs. That almost quickly fizzled after the Sox horrid 15-21 start had them 6 games back of current AL Central leader and their rival Detroit Tigers. The Sox than went on a run where they won 9 of 12 games from mid-May until May 26th to get back to .500 while also regaining their confidence and gaining two games on the Tigers in the standings in the process.
In their next series is where things completely started to fizzle out for the Sox season and any slim playoff hopes they had when they lost their next three to their crosstown rival Cubs by a combined 24-6 score and never quite recovered, losing an astounding 19 of their next 27 games from that time period until the end of June. Also losing six games in the standings to start this month 10 1/2 games out of first to Cleveland, who briefly took the lead from Detroit by a half game in the division.
With the Sox quickly becoming sellers for today’s July 31st MLB non-waiver Trade Deadline that’s later this afternoon they quickly moved veteran lefty relief specialist Matt Thornton to the Boston Red Sox in the middle of the month before recently moving All-Star reliever Jesse Crain and now have pulled off another trade with the Red Sox. This time by completing a three-team trade with the Tigers and Boston that sent shortstop Jose Iglesias from Detroit to the Red Sox in exchange for outfielder Avisail Garcia and right-handed reliever Brayan Villarreal before Garcia was acquired by the White Sox for veteran starter Jake Peavy.
All three teams got what they wanted from the trade with Peavy immediately helping a pretty weak Red Sox rotation and now making it a strength to the point that Boston could not only compete in the very tough AL East with Tampa Bay and Baltimore and be possible favorites in not only their division, but in all of the American League. While Iglesias gives the Tigers extra insurance at short should they lose All-Star Jhonny Peralta to suspension, as anticipated, in the wake of the news with the current MLB Biogenesis investigation and Garcia giving Chicago a top prospect to help the overhaul of their farm system to make it respectable again.
At 22, Garcia, who hit .241 with two home runs and 10 RBIs in 30 games with the Tigers this year before hitting his current .382 with five home runs and 23 RBIs in 32 games with Triple-A Toledo is obviously a work-in-progress, but a five-tool one with a lot of potential at that.
“Garcia is a very young, five-tool player who already has spent time in the major leagues,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said in a press release released by the team. “Our scouts are extremely optimistic about his future and view him as a potential impact talent for many years to come.”
He was ranked the No. 2 prospect in the Tigers organization by Baseball America entering this season and was Detroit’s Minor League Player of the Year last year. Garcia has hit a combined .380 with six home runs, 27 RBIs and 32 runs scored, while also posting a .424 on-base percentage and .561 slugging percentage over 39 games between Toledo and Class A Lakeland this season.
The 22-year-old Garcia obviously has a lot of potential, but whether he can translate it to the majors has yet to be seen. If he does though this is a trade that could haunt the Tigers for years to come with him being in the same division and why Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski didn’t want to part with him unless he got a player with the talent level that Iglesias has.
It’s not a trade that will immediately turn around the White Sox or even a big impact one like they are used to trying to make around the trade deadline, but it’s definitely a start in the right direction and should be interesting to see how Garcia develops. Especially if he develops into the type of player that the Sox think he can here in Chicago at the more hitter-friendly U.S. Cellular Field. As we all know a change of scenery could always help players and playing in the same division against the team that traded you could always be extra motivation to.