White Sox Acquire Brett Myers

MLB Trade Rumors reported a little bit ago that the Tigers biggest competition down the stretch, the Chicago White Sox, have acquired Astros closer Brett Myers. It seemed likely that Myers was going to be on the move all along because the Astros are playing terrible baseball right now and are looking towards the future. They also just acquired Francisco Cordero from the Blue Jays in a separate 10 player deal on Friday.

For the White Sox, acquiring Myers appears to be a strong move. Myers has experience as a starter and a reliever, though he has been a reliever all year for the Astros. The White Sox could currently use both, as they are essentially using 6 rookie relievers out of the pen right now, and have both John Danks and Gavin Floyd on the disabled list. My assumption for now is that Myers will be a reliever for the White Sox to add experience to a pen that has let them down recently.

Myers hasn’t exactly been outstanding in 2012 however, posting an ERA of 3.52 on the way to his 19 saves. That isn’t bad, however, he is striking out only 5.9 batters per nine innings, while walking just 1.8. Myers isn’t about to come over and blow American League hitters away.

In return for Myers, the White Sox gave up a pair of minor league starters and a player to be named later. The headliner for the Astros so far is Matthew Heidenreich, who is at AA currently and is only 21 years old. He is 9-4 on the season with an ERA of 3.95 across two levels. Lefty Blair Walters is 22 and has a 3.96 ERA across two levels, and was pitching in high A Winston-Salem when the deal was done.

Kenny Williams appears to have done it again. That is, acquire a very useful major league player for pretty regular minor league talent, though we might have to see who the PTBNL is. Myers at the very least should help out experience wise, and provide the White Sox some stability in the 8th and sometimes 9th innings. Not sure he is going to close, but is someone that can team with Jesse Crain to get the ball into Addison Reed‘s hands.

The White Sox continue to deal from the worst farm system in all of baseball, but have done so rather effectively.