MLB Trade Rumors: Jaime Garcia to Twins “not probable”

Late Thursday, a report came seemingly out of nowhere, saying the Twins were close to acquiring 31-year-old veteran pitcher Jaime Garcia from the Braves. Several reporters claimed that the trade talks were in the “final stages.” It sounded like it was a done deal. I even started a blog post announcing the trade was official, darn it.

Come Friday morning, however, and there was still no trade. The teams were said to be haggling over the final details.

And now, there’s this:

Indeed, a trade no longer seems imminent. The Braves had pulled one of their Triple-A pitchers from his start last night, presumably so he could be called up to pitch in Garcia’s spot Friday night against the Dodgers. Now, however, it appears Garcia will start tonight for the Braves in LA after all.

So in the span of about 20 hours, we went from final stages of the trade talks to the trade being “not probable.” Cool.

What happened? We don’t know for sure, but MLB.com reporter Mark Bowman did rule out medical reasons. It appears the teams could not agree on the amount of money and/or what players to exchange.

You may be thinking, “Uh, isn’t that sort of like the beginning of trade talks? That’s the crux of a trade. Why was it reported that they were in the final stages of making the trade?” I don’t know for sure, but a good theory would be that when the news of the potential trade came out, other teams stepped in—such as the reported Astros and/or the Royals—and made offers that caused the Braves to reconsider. The Braves may have also used the other teams’ potential interest to go back to the Twins and demand more in return, and then they more or less said, “forget it.”

Or maybe Twins GM Thad Levine just slept on it and decided not to do the trade. Or maybe the trade talks were never actually that close, and the Braves front office was just leaking stuff to the media to get some movement on a deal.

Who knows.