Jake Peavy Rumors: Latest Buzz and Speculation Surrounding Star Pitcher

Adam WellsDec 10, 2014

Jake Peavy rebuilt himself following a midseason trade from the Boston Red Sox to the San Francisco Giants, making a strong case heading into free agency. The Dodgers were the first option to pop up on the hot stove, but the Giants, Marlins and Braves have also been recent mentions.

Continue for updates.

Peavy Drawing Interest From Three Teams

Peavy Piques Dodgers' Interest

Wednesday, Dec. 10

The 33-year-old veteran may have limitations, but in a pitching market that figures to be littered with big-money players too expensive for a lot of teams, Peavy can be a nice, cheap alternative.

Wherever Peavy ends up signing, we know that his market has started to take shape. According to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, the right-hander could have piqued the interest of at least one team:

This news comes on the heels of the Dodgers sending Dee Gordon to Miami for highly touted left-hander Andrew Heaney, per Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. Heaney presents obvious upside, but he doesn't provide the veteran leadership that someone like Peavy could.

Even though the final image of Peavy in 2014 wasn't a good one, lasting just 1.1 innings in Game 6 of the World Series against Kansas City, he was brilliant in 12 starts with San Francisco. His ERA was 2.17 with 58 strikeouts, 17 walks and 65 hits allowed in 78.2 innings.

There were rumblings before the World Series ended that Peavy had drawn up a list of potential destinations. According to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times, the 2007 NL Cy Young winner is looking at a package deal with Jon Lester, and the Cubs are atop his personal list:

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Peavy didn’t want to talk too much about his pending free agency with a title hanging in the balance, but the former Cy Young winner has the Cubs at the top of his wish list, according to sources close to him. [...]
And after winning a World Series with Lester last year in Boston, Peavy believes he and his friend can give any team a left-right impact.
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Suddenly, the Cubs have become everyone's favorite destination. It's not hard to understand in Peavy's case. The franchise needs starting pitching; he has experience in the city after spending nearly five full years playing with the White Sox; and the Cubs have an excellent young nucleus to build around thanks to a deep farm system.

As far as what Peavy offers, the numbers were still there after the trade to San Francisco, but his former manager in Boston, John Farrell, offered this take to MLB Network Radio:

There's no doubt that Peavy can get animated on the mound. It's also what's made him so successful, even as his stuff has regressed over time.

Aaron Gleeman of Hardball Talk noted in mid-September that two big reasons for Peavy's resurgence was throwing more strikes and being in a better pitcher's park:

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Peavy’s strikeout rate is actually down slightly since the trade, but he’s sliced his walk rate from 3.3 to 1.8 per nine innings and most importantly the league/ballpark switch has helped the fly-ball pitcher stop serving up homers. He allowed 20 homers in 124 innings for the Red Sox compared to just two homers in 67 innings for the Giants.
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While the need to pitch in a bigger park doesn't exactly make the Cubs an ideal destination, just getting away from the DH league is enough to transform a pitcher. Peavy doesn't have to be the one carrying a rotation anymore, like he was so often asked to do in San Diego.

Instead, any team that looks to sign Peavy can plug him in as the third or fourth guy and know that he will at least give it innings and depth. In this era of high-priced pitching for mid-level starters, he will look like a bargain by comparison.

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