St. Louis Cardinals Trade Jaime Garcia to Atlanta Braves
The Cardinals’ gamble to pick up Jaime Garcia’s 2017 option turned out to be an intelligent one.
There were quite a few complaints from St. Louis Cardinals fans a month ago when the team chose to pick up lefty starter Jaime Garcia’s option for 2017. Once again, though, the Cardinals’ decision looked intelligent on Thursday, as they dealt Garcia to the Atlanta Braves for three prospects (all of whom were part of MLB Pipeline’s list of the organization’s Top 30 prospects): pitchers John Gant and Chris Ellis and second baseman Luke Dykstra.
Madison Bumgarner was the only pitcher who really challenged Garcia as the second-best lefthanded starter in the National League in 2015. Over 20 starts, Garcia posted a 2.43 ERA and 1.05 WHIP while striking out 97 and walking 30 in 129 2/3 innings. He wasn’t able to replicate that success in 2016, though, posting career-worsts in ERA (4.67), WHIP (1.38), home runs allowed per nine innings (1.4), and losses (13). He lost his rotation spot late in the season after struggling through a disastrous second half.
With all of the potential starters the Cardinals have in the fold for 2017, they could have allowed him to walk and eliminated any chance of having to pay his entire $12 million salary. With this year’s historically bad free agent pitching market, though–see Edinson Volquez getting a two-year, $22 million-dollar deal–the Cardinals took a chance on Garcia having more value than his 2015 numbers might have indicated.
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Even without Garcia, the Cardinals still have an incredible amount of rotation depth. Barring a trade, they’re likely to enter 2017 with Mike Leake, Lance Lynn, Carlos Martinez, Alex Reyes, and Adam Wainwright as their top five starters. Marco Gonzales, Mike Mayers and Luke Weaver will probably begin the season in the Triple-A rotation, and guys like Trevor Rosenthal and Michael Wacha will more than likely start the season as relievers, though they could serve as depth starters. If and when he returns from injury, Tyler Lyons is also a guy who could be a long man or spot starter, and obviously Gant has major-league starting experience as well.
Gant is probably the only one of the three prospects who has a real chance to factor into the Cardinals’ major-league plans next year, as he already gained 50 innings of MLB experience in 2016, starting seven games and relieving in another 13. Ellis–the highest ranked prospect among the three, coming in at 17th on the Braves’ top prospects list–made 15 starts at Triple-A in 2016 but struggled significantly, posting a 6.52 ERA with a 1.77 WHIP over 67 2/3 innings.
Dykstra, who was ranked 29th on MLB Pipeline’s Braves prospect list, had an interesting 2016, hitting .304/.332/.363 with no homers while striking out just 31 times but walking on only six occasions. At 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, one would think that he might have at least a little bit of power potential, but it appears as if Dykstra will top out as a line drive-hitting, defensively-minded second baseman.
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Gant takes Garcia’s spot on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster, so the roster remains full after the trade.