The White Sox and Athletics have officially struck a trade sending infielder Brett Lawrie to Chicago, the teams announced. Young lefty Zack Erwin and righty J.B. Wendelken make up the return to the A’s.
It hurts, no doubt, for Oakland to part with Lawrie after he was one of the key pieces of the deal that sent Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays last year. But that seemed a near certainty after the A’s elected to bring back Jed Lowrie in yet another swap.
Soon to turn 26, Lawrie struggled to reach base consistently last year and still has not returned to the ceiling he showed earlier in his career. He slashed .260/.299/.407 with 16 homers and five steals over 602 plate appearances.
Of course, Lawrie has always been regarded as a high quality defender. But while he used to draw defensive metrics that supported that opinion, he’s seen his DRS and UZR numbers erode over the years. While a variety of injuries could be the cause for that falloff, it remains a major factor in valuing him as a player.
The Sox will get a player who can slot in either at third or second, both positions of obvious need in the organization. In spite of Lawrie’s age, he’ll only come with two years of control. But he is cheap, as MLBTR projects him to earn just $3.9MM in arbitration for the coming season.
It remains to be seen whether the South Siders will deploy Lawrie at the hot corner or up the middle, but that represents part of his appeal. Chicago can now retain some flexibility in assessing its other options, knowing that it can utilize him at either or both. Internal options include Mike Olt at third, Micah Johnson at second, and Tyler Saladino potentially at both. Of course, the team could still pursue a shortstop (if not yet another infielder) over the coming months.
In return for Lawrie, the A’s get a pair of pitching prospects, neither of whom factored among the top thirty prospects in Chicago’s system in MLB.com’s most recent ranking.
Erwin, 21, was just taken out of Clemson in the fourth round of the 2015 draft and signed for the slot bonus of $508K. He showed enough to earn a Class A placement to end the year, and had good results in his first forty or so professional innings. Entering the draft, Baseball America rated Erwin the 117th-best draft prospect, calling him a good athlete with the potential to harness three above-average offerings.
Meanwhile, Wendelken has reached Triple-A at the age of 22. He worked to a 3.81 ERA in 59 frames last year, most of them at Double-A, and put up a strong 10.5 K/9 vs. 2.4 BB/9 over that span. Wendelken came to Chicago in 2013 along with Avisail Garcia, Frankie Montas, and Cleuluis Rondon in the three-team Jake Peavy trade.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported (Twitter links) that the deal was nearing finalization and the return to Oakland (via Twitter). Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com tweeteds that the agreement is done.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Let’s hope the a’s get Trayce Thompson
LOL
There was NO chance of that happening….
Interesting couple of arms for 2 years of Lawrie. Not the wild overpay the White Sox normally give the A’s, but then again Lawrie only had a .706 OPS last year.
this deal makes sense for the Sox….kudos to Hahn
That’s an outstanding trade for the white sox, not giving up too much minor league pitching while preserving their main pitching prospects. And, they acquire a young 3rd basemen who might be a disappointment so far, but still has the potential to grow as well as two years of control.
Darn, I really wanted to see a Lowrie-Lawrie middle-infield combination.
You might be alone on that one.
he isn’t
So how many players did Oakland ended up with now out of the Donaldson trade?
Barreto, Graveman, Nolin and these two pitchers,
Watch Lawrie become the 2016 AL MVP.
k
good deal for the white sox, lawrie has potential, better ballpark for him.
Nice work Rick Hahn.
2 pitchers not even ranked in the white sox top 30 was the big hold up? Do the White Sox have an incredibly deep farm system or something?
They absolutely do not
Not especially.
Surprised that the A’s moved on from Lawrie so quickly.
He was causing locker room trouble
i heard he called billy beane “billy bragg” after beane slipped and accidentally called him lowrie. that’s really why they’re shipping him out
He’s a crybaby punk and will be terrified to face the Royals so many times now.
I like it! I’m not huge on Lawrie by any means, but he’s definitely an upgrade, and we really didn’t give up much value. Both can be looked at as “interesting arms,” but both are bullpen pieces at best. Nice move.
‘Upgrade’ is subjective. A better bat perhaps but his fielding at third was not good at 18 errors in 109 games. Now that it is a done deal, the Sox must hope that Renteria can work on him with his defense to improve.
I can’t find any info on the 2 pitchers going to the A’s
Erwin has pitched 40 innings in pioneer leage and class a very well era 1.43. a high upside lefty. Wendelken however struggled in class a+ and class a over 4 yrs, not a great prospect, righty.
Sox are still a lost cause
Duh
Anyone who doesn’t like this deal for the Sox obviously didn’t see the trainwrecks they threw out at 3B all season long…
Salidino did almost nothing offensively, but was an elite defender in the 1/3 or so of the season he played third. Not a trainwreck by any means, and he’s plenty young enough for his offense to have room to grow. The Sox were almost as inept defensively as they were offensively, so Lawrie’s gonna have to have his ish together on both sides of the ball to present a meaningful upgrade.
Mediocre player begets mediocre prospects. Fair deal.
The Reds wanted Tim Anderson for Frazier.
I’d do that deal in a heartbeat. A #1 positional prospect in the Sox system isn’t saying much. He’s far from a can’t miss prospect. Frazier is an All Star now, is very reasonable for the next 2 years, and hopefully Trey M is ready when his walk year comes around.
Do that deal, sign Upton – now you’ve got a team:
Eaton – OF
Melky – DH
Abreu – 1B
Upton – OF
Frazier – 3B
Lawrie – 2B
Thompson – OF
Avila/Navarro -C
Saladino – SS
Rotation: Sale, Qunintana, Rodon, Danks, Johnson
That should make up the 15 WAR deficit from last year easily.
A’s have an odd scouting department to be honest lets see what info I can find on them
Seems like a good move for the white sox team needs. I like Lawrie at second vs third. Defiantly need to investigate who these two pitchers are. White sox usually have good arms in system.
I agree. Lawrie at 2B, put a deal together for Frazier at 3B around Tim Anderson. Go sign Upton/Cespedes/Gordon.
Erwin is the white soxs 2015 forth round pick from Clemson! His scouting report is actually pretty good! He is four pitch pitcher from the left side, with a good changeup. Throws in the low 90s but he look like a sale build, so he might be able to throw harder. Wendelkin is a right handers you needs to figure out if starter or reliever. He throws in the low 90s but has a slow changeup. A’s scouting department usually does a good job. This doesn’t look like a bad move. Both we wont see for a few seasons though
Welp, there goes my Freese to the White Sox prediction. See it? It’s right there, going out the window.
Time to get excited Chi-Sox fans. The circus is coming to your town.
Have you seen the Sox manager? The circus is already here, and has been for the past 3 years.
Ventura is not a good manager at all, but circus is the wrong word to describe him. Something boring and uninspired and ultimately depressing and futile seems much more appropriate. Something like elevator music. Or a long family road trip. Or sitting through an entire low-scoring, 15-inning baseball game between two basement-dwellers where there’s plenty of baserunners, but neither team is competent enough for anyone to ever make it past second base.
Yeah, Robin Ventura is to baseball managers as the lingering sense of hopelessness and death is to a world that’s already often too cold, unforgiving, and painfully lonely to want to deal with. But a circus, he is not.
And it’s going to be in-tents 🙂
Solid sox move. Now get a shortstop and second baseman and shore up the outfield defense and they have something.
With the rotation the white sox have you’re always close to contending.
Well in a perfect situation the Sox can rid themselves of LaDunn and then move Cabrera into DH and Thompson to LF. Though Garcia should start the year in AAA if his bat and power do not show up in the Spring, and maybe Hawkins is up if he has a good spring. I think that Saladino is fine at short, and Sanchez is fine at Second, as both are good fielders and Sanchez figured out that hitting the ball to the opposite field usually means more base hits. Just hope that they do not try to pull a ‘Graffanino’ with Lawrie and move him all over.
I can see why fellow Sox fans want to play the conservative route. But, they should not go with a 2B and SS from inside the system. One or the other is fine, but They need a 2nd baseman or a 3rd baseman and move Lawrie to 2nd.
no, micah johnson should play second and not sanchez tho, sanchez doesnt have offensive potential despite what the previous poster said, they do desperately need a SS, asdrubel cabrera was their best bet on the free agent market. i can see them signing desmond now and moving him to second if tim anderson develops mid season 2017.
Micah Johnson was a sieve last year at second, and has been so in the minors, plus to make matters worse his bat disappeared when he was up at the major league level as well.. Again it is about trying to reduce the number of unearned runs allowed, not increase them. I think Sanchez would be fine at 2nd. He hit far better in the second half than the first last season. If Renteria could actually teach Saladino and Sanchez how to bunt more successfully I think both players could be fine in the lineup. Plus Sanchez is a switch hitter whereas Micah is a lefty. They need guys to get on base and be consistent. This is not the mid 2000’s where every player in the lineup hit at least .300 with 15 homers. Just need a guy at second that can get on base for the ‘boppers’. I think this spring could show in Sanchez learned anything from last season and I think he has.
Now all the White Sox need is a third baseman to cover the 90 days per year he spends on the DL…
Or a late inning replacement when they need to ensure good defense at third
Does Lawrie have any room left for a White Sox logo tattoo? Good deal for Hahn. The 2 pitchers have as much chance of being good players as Phegley and Semien do… Which is not much. Lawrie is young yet and will give them something from a position they had absolutely nothing at… no disrespect to one Mike Olt.
Lawrie gets to face the Royals 18 times next year, that should be, ummm, interesting….
We fans in Kansas City are happy for the trade to Chicago. We can boo him more often.
The Brett Lawrie deal was a Hanukkah gift given to Jerry Reinsdorf and Rick Hahn by Billy Beane, in return for the unexpected Christmas gift the A’s received last December for Jeff Samardzija. (lol)
Well, that 3-team trade at the 2013 summer deadline that kicked off the White Sox retool/rebuild might be looking a whole lot better than it did at the conclusion of this past season. As fans might recall, Jake Peavy was dealt to Boston and the Sox netted RF Avisail Garcia, P Frankie Montas, P Jeffrey (J.B.) Wendelken and SS Cleuluis Rondon.
The aging and oft broken Peavy had no future with the White Sox and his arsenal was always more suited to the N.L. and pitcher-friendly venues anyway.
Garcia has yet to live up to his promise as a top prospect in the Tiger organization, but he is still young and just only completed his first MLB season due to injury. He may also be packaged this offseason to help fill a remaining team need like a rhp starting pitcher, a SS or to bring in a better hitting corner OF who can actually protect Jose Abreu in the batting order.
Despite a brief and ‘mixed’ debut with the Sox last season, Montas still remains the White Sox #3 overall prospect and #54 in MLB’s top 100. He has the potential to be a top of the rotation starter or be a future closer with his 100 mph fastball.
Wendelken was recently added to the White Sox 40-man MLB reserve roster last month to protect him from Thursday’s Rule 5 draft. Instead, he’s now part of the package that finds the White Sox acquiring their new third baseman.
Mercy! Or perhaps, merci, should Brett Lawrie finally remedy the White Sox long standing dilemma at the hot corner. (lol)
What do you guys think of a possible trade to acquire either Jose Reyes or Hanley Ramirez? Both teams are looking to shed some contracts and we could give either team LaDunn and eat half the contract to entice the deal. That would give us a SS who is above average until Anderson is ready to come up.
I love Billy Beane but how many awful trades can someone make? Perhaps his 2 year strategy has been to acquire as many average minor league pitchers as possible and hope one overachieves. Frustrating.
There’s only room for one Lawrie in Oaktown. Wonder if he’s still scared of the big, bad Royals pitchers.
Nice pickup! I’ve always liked Lawrie. I think his power will play well at the cell.