When the White Sox backed out of the Jon Garland deal because of concerns over Taylor Buchholz's health, they came back to Tim Purpura with a counter-offer. They'd still do the deal in its original form--Buchholz, Jason Hirsh and Willy Taveras for Garland--if Purpura would also throw Hunter Pence into the deal. He passed.
Pence and Hirsh would have been a great haul for Garland. I would have dropped Taveras and Buchholz from the deal to get Pence. I doubt Purpura would have agreed to that deal either, but at least the Sox would have gotten two impact players instead of an impact player and two fringy ones.
Filed under: