San Francisco Giants acquire Jake Peavy from Boston Red Sox

The San Francisco Giants have finally made a move and acquired right-handed starting pitcher Jake Peavy from the Boston Red Sox. The trade was first reported by Alex Speier of WEEI.com, a local Boston news outlet.

In exchange for Peavy, the Giants gave up their #2 pitching prospect, LHP Edwin Escobar (starter), and their #11 prospect, RHP Heath Hembree (reliever).

It is thought that the Red Sox will be kicking in part of Peavy’s remaining contract. Peavy is in the last year of a 5 year/$77 million contract, with the team owing him $14.5 million for this season. With the season more than half over, you could make a guess that the Red Sox owe him somewhere in the ballpark of $6 – $7 million. Peavy will become a free agent for next season.

Peavy spent the first half of his career playing for the San Diego Padres and Bruce Bochy. I would imagine their history has something to do with the Giants pursuing Peavy, but it could also help contract talks for next season if the Giant decide they want to re-sign him before he becomes a free agent.

With Matt Cain on the disabled list, and no sign of coming off soon, the Giants had turned their priority to finding a starting pitcher to fill the rotation. Yusmeiro Petit pitched Cain’s last start, and generally pitches okay enough, but without him in the bullpen to provide middle relief it taxes the bullpen a bit more as well. Peavy should be a better fit to pitch in the rotation on a regular basis than Petit.

Peavy has struggled this season, going 1-9 with a 4.72 ERA. However, he has proven himself to be a reliable veteran, even with his struggles in Boston. However, here is one piece of information that will make you not care so much about his 1-9 record: Jake Peavy pitches extremely well against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Oh yeah, he’s also expected to be here in time to start Sunday night’s game.

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