Ben Cherington pulled the trigger on a three-team deal last night with the White Sox and Tigers, and landed a prize starter in former San Diego Padres hurler Jake Peavy.
Peavy comes to Boston, along with Tigers reliever Brayan Villareal, and the Sox send three single-A prospects to Chicago, and Jose Iglesias to Detroit. The Tigers also send outfielder Avisail Garcia to the White Sox.
This is a terrific deal by Ben. The Sox get a quality starter in Peavy, who is 32-years-old, with one more year left on his current deal (at $14.5 million). They give up Iglesias, who clearly isn't in the Sox' long term plans. Cherington sold high on him, as the Tigers will probably need an every day shortstop, with Jhonny Peralta headed to a suspension in the Biogensis scandal. Iglesias will probably not hit any better than he is now, as he leaves the Sox hitting .330, but his numbers have been rapidly declining over the past few weeks. He will probably be more like the one time Mets' shortstop Rey Ordonez: an excellent glove man who will make the occasional highlight defensive play, but not consistently high. In the stacked Detroit lineup, he won't need to hit all that much anyway.
The rumors about a possible Cliff Lee deal scared me, as the talk was the Sox would have to give up prized shortstop Xander Bogaerts and another big time prospect to get him. And the Sox would have to assume Lee's big contract as well. I'm glad that didn't materialize, as now it's clear that Bogaerts is the teams' franchise shortstop going forward. He's tearing up AAA right now, and should be up soon.
No word yet on when Peavy's first Red Sox start is. This move will probably send Brandon Workman to the bullpen. And speaking of the Work Man, he was terrific last night in gaining his first MLB win, an 8-2 win over Seattle. He went six innings, allowed one run, struck out nine, and got out of a bases loaded, one-out jam in the sixth. He was also aided by home runs by Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Love the poise this kid brings, and he could be a vital cog in the Sox pen in the final two months.
