No Garcia Trade: Braves Balk At Twins’ Prospect’s Health

Kohl Stewart might've been the likely candidate, especially if the Braves were going to eat any salary (the Twins would want SOME of their draft investment back for a rental). Or maybe it was Lewis Thorpe. Maybe Glen Perkins (wait, he's not a prospect). Some of us hoped it would be Nick Tepesch or Yohan Pino.

Of course, pick a name of a Twins pitching prospect on the DL? Chargois, Reed, Jay, Burdi, Zack Jones...the lsit goes on and on and on it seems.

But it may also be a hitter.

That they wanted a prospect back would give one reason to think it was Stewart. His pecking order as AA prospect is probably behind the other three starters.  That they were rumored to want a prospect back indicates they still think highly of him. Romero would fit the same profile of pitcher with medicals.  I do not think they would ask for a prospect back if it was one of the many relievers with medicals that are currently pitching.

Thorpe makes the most sense based on the Braves strong interest in Australia. It wouldn't surprise me if it was Jay as well. Perhaps Brusdar Graterol as well.

Perhaps the surgeons forgot to attach Nick Burdi's new UCL on one end.  Could see why the Braves would have issues with that. 

If it was Thorpe and they balked, that would be a blunder by the Braves imo. There would have to be something really bad.

Not debating that, though there is the depth on the team to allow them to be picky.

I want nothing to do with Garcia if it cost thorpe. Stewart is fine. Thorpe has a chance to be an impact arm. You can have any minors bat not named Garver Gordon Royce Lewis. Pitching wins and stockpiling arms gives us the best chance of sustained sucks.

They probably looked at Stewart's numbers! 30bb to only 33k in 52 innings. I'd pass too. Nothing against him personally but I just do not get why this guy is rated so highly.

Rosenthal says Burdi...

Why not give them jake reed or someone similar? Weird that a trade would stall when we are talking about a prospect at that level

It will be interesting to see the return for Garcia.

Thorpe's value is difficult to gauge. He hasn't pitched many innings this year and will be limited next year. I think he needs to be put on the 40 man roster this winter. He has thrown just over 40 innings since 2014. When might it be reasonable that he is ready? September 2019? That is if he stays healthy. By then two options will be used. The window where he needs to show success in the majors before he runs out of options could be very narrow.

If I am the Braves, I think I would seek a better return with so many days left before the deadline.

If Burdi was the prospect I don't blame the Braves if they saw something in his medicals that scared them off.  Also if Twins are trading relievers for a rental I am fine with that. We have a surplus and I don't think we can keep all of them from rule 5 this coming year anyway.

Thank you Braves GM for not accepting Nick Burdi as part of the trade.

I would rather wait for Burdi to recover from Tommy John than have Jaimie Garcia for what 12 starts or less?

Talk to the Padres for one of their starters and keep Burdi out of any talks. We need to keep our power arms. Especially for a rental player.

With due respect to Ken Rosenthal's source, it makes no sense to get that close to a trade and have it hung up on medical issues in the case of Nick Burdi. I find it hard to believe they didn't already know he had TJS and what the potential ramifications of that were.

The Twins wouldn't trade Thorpe for Garcia. But it is a bit weird getting hung up over Burdi . . .