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The Los Angeles Angels acquired starting pitcher Lucas Giolito from the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.
Here are the full details of the trade:
- Angels get: RHP Lucas Giolito and RHP Reynaldo López
- White Sox get: C Edgar Quero and LHP Ky Bush
According to Jeff Fletcher of SoCal News Group, the trade will push the Angels over the luxury tax.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the trade.
This deal comes just hours after Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated reported the Angels had pulled star Shohei Ohtani off the market, as the team was planning on being a buyer at the deadline.
Giolito, 29, is having another strong season for the White Sox, going 6-6 with a 3.79 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 131 strikeouts in 121 innings.
López is 2-5 with a 4.29 ERA in 43 appearances this season, and he has piled up 52 strikeouts in 42 innings.
Giolito, a 2019 All-Star, has been a steady presence in Chicago’s rotation across the past six-plus seasons. But with Giolito set to hit free agency this winter and the White Sox falling out of the postseason picture with a 41-62 record, it always seemed likely that he’d be on the move.
Not that he was pushing for a trade.
“I want to be here,” he told Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times in early July. “I’ve been with this organization since 2017. They gave me an opportunity to be in the big leagues an entire year [2018] when I probably didn’t deserve it. So I have a lot of loyalty there.”
But with free agency looming, he knew his time in Chicago might be coming to a close.
“I love all the guys in here; I’ve been around them for years,” he said. “And potentially my last year with the White Sox, I want to enjoy it.”
As for Los Angeles, adding a starter like Giolito will help solidify the rotation as they make a push for October baseball. Giolito isn’t an ace, but there’s no doubt that the Angels will feel much better about its rotation following this addition.
On the other side, Chicago appears to have gotten a solid return in exchange for a pair of rentals. Per MLB.com, both Quero (No. 2 prospect in Angels’ system; No. 65 prospect in MLB) and Bush (No. 3 prospect in Angels’ system) were among the best prospects Los Angeles had to offer.
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