White Sox trade veteran outfielder to division rival in exchange for two pitching prospects. South Siders will eat half of remaining salary for switch-hitter.
The Chicago White Sox traded veteran outfielder Melky Cabrera to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday in exchange for pitchers A.J. Puckett and Andre Davis. According to Ken Rosenthal of MLB Network, the Sox will eat half of Cabrera’s $5.1 million remaining salary for this season.
With the Sox looking towards the future, they were able to get a solid return for trading Cabrera to the Royals. On the season, Cabrera is hitting .296/.336/.455 with 13 home runs and 56 RBIs. This will be Cabrera’s second stint with the Royals as he played in Kansas City during the 2011 season. Cabrera will join a Royals team that is chasing the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central division.
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The Royals enter Sunday just three games behind the Indians for first place in the division at 54-48. Kansas City is making one last push to the postseason with its current core of players in Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer. Currently, the Royals are 2.5 games in front of the Tampa Rays for the second Wild Card spot in the American League.
Although the Sox parted with another veteran, they were able to get back the Royals 13th ranked prospect according to mlbpipeline.com in Puckett. Puckett was the Royals first pick in 2016 MLB draft from Pepperdine University. The Royals selected Puckett in the second round with the 67th overall pick.
This season, Puckett went 9-7 with a 3.90 ERA for the Wilmington Blue Rocks of Single-A Advanced. Puckett most likely will join the Winston-Salem Dash rotation and could be a fast riser throughout the minors according to scouting reports. The other pitcher the Sox will get in return for Cabrera is Davis, an eighth round selection of the Royals in 2015.
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Davis went 5-4 with a 4.83 ERA for the Lexington Legends of Single-A this season. With the trade, Davis should join the Kannapolis Intimidators starting rotation. With the trade of Cabrera, the Sox welcomed back Leury Garcia from the disabled list and put him in the starting lineup for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Indians.