While the 4 days without real baseball were relatively quiet for the White Sox, the last 12 hours have produced a number of reports about them shopping Freddy Garcia and possibly Javier Vazquez.
The New York Daily News reports that the Sox and Mets have talked, along with the Phillies.
The White Sox have been calling around to clubs - including the Mets - letting it be known that
Javier Vazquez or
Freddy Garcia would be available. The price: top-notch relief help, which would allow the Sox to fortify their bullpen leading to closer
Bobby Jenks, sources told the Daily News. Chicago has 23-year-old
Brandon McCarthy ready to step into its rotation.
The Phillies, also looking to add to their rotation in a thin market, are willing to give up closer Tom Gordon in a deal with the Sox, according to a source.
has to be the unnamed bullpen help coming from the Mets, because we know they're not giving up Wagner, and there's nothing else there that comes even remotely close to 'top-notch relief help.' The prospect of a bullpen consisting of Jenks, Gordon, Cotts and Thornton excites me.
Ken Rosenthal also weighs in on some of the Sox rumors, discounting the Jason Schmidt rumors as ludicrous but also floating the name Freddy Garcia. He doesn't offer anything solid, but informs us that the Sox did inquire about Dontrelle Willis and Andruw Jones before getting laughed off the phone. I found this quote to be very telling too.
The writing may be on the wall for Freddy. As for Vazquez improving, he's got only one way to go. I'd like to say he's unlucky, but he seems to create his own problems. His peripherals are encouraging, and if he can just stop allowing 4 and 5 consecutive 2-out hits he'll definitely improve in the second half.
