Atlanta Braves still haven’t traded Jaime Garcia… yet

A funny thing happened on the way to the ballpark:  Jaime Garcia was accompanying the team.  Welcome to the age of twitter and trades.

For most of the last 28 hours or so, nearly everyone paying even casual attention was convinced that Jaime Garcia was moments away from being traded from the Atlanta Braves to the Minnesota Twins.

Not so fast.

We kinda kept waiting around on this story in the hopes that Something Would Be Done by now.  No such luck.

In an interesting insight this morning on MLB Network Radio (Sirius/XM), former Mets GM Steve Phillips noted that in his experience, when a trade is being leaked there’s about an 85% chance that the leak source is the side that’s getting the better end of the deal.

We know what the Braves were giving up – the arguably best rental starter available this Summer in Garcia.

We never fully learned about the other side.  That’s likely because Minnesota had one thing in mind – getting Garcia.  And there were some noises about that:

These guys cover the Twins beat.  You know where his sources originate.  But even so, it turns out that they had some conflicting reports:

Fred got wind of a more specific rumor – which frankly didn’t seem to fit:

That would have been a shockingly low return for Garcia, given both his placement in the pitching procurement pecking order and the competition we’ve heard about involving other teams.

But again – these rumors favored Minnesota… the likely source of the leaks.

After all, this is what the Marlins ended up with yesterday merely from trading a relief pitcher:

"10:40am: The Mariners and Marlins have reportedly agreed to a trade that will send right-handed setup man David Phelps from Miami to Seattle in exchange for a package of four prospects. Center field prospect Brayan Hernandez is the headliner, while the other names in the deal reportedly include right-handers Brandon Miller, Pablo Lopez and Lukas Schiraldi."

Yeah – four players.  Okay, yes – they aren’t really that good, but we are talking about a relief pitcher who has a 3.45 ERA in 47 innings this year with a 1.34 WHIP.  Good, but not exactly a “shutdown” guy.  Nonetheless:  four guys.

But Coppy Hasn’t Blinked Yet

All of Braves Country is conflicted over this, of course:  we’re all equally tensed about: (a) whether Garcia develops a hangnail tonight and is out for 3 weeks; or (b) the idea of Aaron Blair facing this Dodger lineup as his reward of being That Spot Starter.

SO HERE’S WHERE WE ARE NOW.

A few takeaways to consider at this hour:

• Nothing is close – with any team.  We know this because Garcia is still the starter tonight with under 2 hours to go until game time.
• Coppy thought it WOULD get there by now, and that’s why Blair is in town.
• Coppy never agreed to anything last night.  There have been no murmurs about broken promises, spurned overtures or anything like that.
• This is good for Atlanta – the Braves are not settling for less than they think they should get for Garcia.
• You might be thinking “gotta be better than a Qualifying Offer compensation pick”, and that’s probably been discussed (though the rules have changed – it’s likely an after-the-2nd round pick).  But there’s no way the Braves offer Garcia $18.1 million for another year.  He might actually take it.
• The sides – and there could be several sides – are still talking:

Next: But What About Matt?

For for those all over the deal last night (present company included)… we’re still waiting.  And that’s not a bad thing.