On Thursday night, the Twins were reportedly in the “final stages” of completing a trade with the Atlanta Braves for starting pitcher Jaime Garcia. It seemed like a done deal, but by Friday morning, the deal still hadn’t been made. Come Friday afternoon—less than 24 hours since the story broke—the deal appeared to be off.
What happened?
MLB.com reporter Mark Bowman said Friday the deal was not called off due to medical issues. On Saturday, Ken Rosenthal reported why the trade fell through: medical issues.
Sources: Garcia trade stalled due to #Braves’ medical concern on #Twins’ prospect. Still could revive, but both teams working alternatives.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 22, 2017
Jaime Garcia has struggled with injuries in his career, but apparently the medical issues weren’t with him, but with the Twins prospect, who Rosenthal also reported was the hard-throwing Nick Burdi. Burdi, of course, underwent Tommy John surgery in late May and is out for the year. Obviously the Braves would have known that, so it’s strange that the trade talks would have gotten to the final stages before this was brought up as an issue. Burdi has had some other injury issues in the past, so maybe that was the problem. And as MLB Trade Rumors suggests, there could have been another player involved whose medical issues caused the Braves to balk too.
Before going out due to injury this year, Burdi had a 0.53 ERA and 20 strikeouts over 17.0 innings pitched in Double-A.
Meanwhile, Garcia made his start for the Braves against the Dodgers last night in LA, and did nothing but up his potential trade value. He gave up only three earned runs over 7 innings, and most impressively, hit a freakin’ grand slam to provide his own run support. So it’s not all a loss, Twins fans—you can use the PAPASLAM promo code and get 40% off a Papa John’s pizza today, courtesy of Jaime Garcia!
Of course, it’s still possible a trade could happen, but I dunno. This whole ordeal may have left a bad taste in people’s mouths, like eating a Papa John’s pizza or something.
Poll
Would you have been okay the Twins trading Nick Burdi for Jaime Garcia?
This poll is closed
-
31%
Yes, we need starting pitching help.
-
19%
Yes, but only if it was a one-for-one deal with no other prospects included.
-
27%
No, Burdi could be an asset in the future. Wouldn’t have been worth it.
-
13%
No, Jaime Garcia isn’t that good. Not worth it.
-
8%
I don’t even know who either of these guys are.