Braves to Acquire Javier Vazquez

Javier Vazquez will be dealt from the White Sox to the Braves pending a physical, ESPN reports. The Braves also get reliever Boone Logan. The Sox get JoJo Reyes, former Pirate prospect Brent Lillibridge and another prospect who hasn't yet been named. Vazquez and Logan (who has pretty good stuff and an interesting minor league record, and could well turn into a decent reliever) are both valuable players, especially since Vazquez is signed to a relatively reasonable contract. (He'll receive $23 million for the next two years, which may not sound reasonable, but nonetheless...) There are only a few pitchers in baseball who are better bets than Vazquez to, in any given year, pitch 200 innings with good results.

So the third player the White Sox get had better be someone good. Lillibridge, as much as we loved him when he was a Pirate, hasn't done anything the past two years and has yet to really figure out the high minors. Reyes is a pretty good starting pitching prospect, he had big-time control problems last year. 

The Braves won 72 games last year and finished fourth, so I'm not sure where they're going with this, but unless the third player is Jason Heyward, Tommy Hanson or another really good prospect, they're getting pretty good value. As for the White Sox, well... who knows. I'll reserve judgment until the trade is official and the third player is announced, but if another shoe doesn't drop, I won't be surprised. The Nick Swisher trade didn't make much sense, either.

UPDATE: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Braves are also sending catcher/??? Tyler Flowers, which does make the trade better for the White Sox. Flowers is a huge dude who probably isn't very likely to stay at catcher, but his bat looks like it will play at a corner.