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The White Sox have made their second trade of the 2017-18 offseason, acquiring a pair of relievers from the Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Dodgers. The full details from Jon Morosi:
TRADE IS OFFICIAL: #WhiteSox acquire Luis Avilán, Joakim Soria and cash from #Dodgers for minor league INF Jake Peter; #Dodgers had acquired Soria and LHP Scott Alexander from #Royals for INF Erick Mejia and RHP Trevor Oaks. @MLB @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 5, 2018
Soria, 33, had a bit of a renaissance in 2017 after being plagued by the gopher ball in the year prior. The right-hander worked almost exclusively in middle relief, with a 10.29 K/9 and 3.21 BB/9, and lowered his HR/9 from 1.35 to 0.16. As a result, Fangraphs estimated him as worth 1.7 WAR, while Baseball-Reference gave him 1.1 WAR. Soria is owed $10 million: $9 million for 2018, with a $10 million option for 2019 with a $1 million buyout.
Avilan, 28, is a left-handed reliever who pitched in 61 games for the Dodgers last year (and only 46 innings, so he’s LOOGYish), with 10.17 K/9 and 4.30 BB/9. He has two years of team control remaining via arbitration, and made $1.5 million in 2017.
With this trade, the Sox receive a significant boost to a bullpen that had no proven relievers available. The cost is Jake Peter, a jack of all trades who hit .279/.344/.417 between Birmingham and Charlotte last year. He’ll join the Dodgers in the swap, as will Kansas City’s Scott Alexander.
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN initially reported the trade as it was developing, while Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times broke the Royals’ involvement.