Peavy to White Sox?

The big news today is that the Padres and the White Sox have agreed on a deal for Jake Peavy in exchange for 4 pitching prospects.  The deal awaits approval from Peavy, who has a no-trade clause.

The only two pitching prospects named so far are Aaron Poreda and Clayton Richard.  Poreda looks pretty good; Richard much less so.  Aaron Poreda is 22 this year and was the 25th player selected in the 2007 draft.  He went to USF in San Francisco for what it’s worth.  Last season and so far this season he has made 21 starts for Birmingham in the AA Southern Asoociation and pitched extremely well with an ERA well under 3.00.

Richard is 25 this year.  He was an 8th round draft pick.  He appears to be a control pitcher with not particularly impressive K’s to innings pitched ratios in the minors.  He’s pitched 74.2 major league innings with an ERA of 5.42 so far.  He’s young enough to develop, but he sure doesn’t look like one of the top two prospects you’d trade a Jake Peavy for.  However, a factor that now plays out in most trades is the salary commitment.  Peavy has about $60M guaranteed through the 2012 season, which is not particularly high for a pitcher of his caliber.  Still, unloading Peavy would save the Padres a ton of money as they rebuild their team.  If the trade is approved by Peavy we’ll have to see who the final two pitching prospects are before we can fully evaluate the trade.