Jake Peavy was in a nice little groove until he twisted his ankle while running the bases against the Cubs on May 22. Including that victory over Chicago, Peavy compiled a 1.50 ERA during a 5-start stretch, striking out 47 and walking only 10. Opponents were hitting only .144 off him during that stretch. Though Peavy claims his ankle pain since then has been "managable," something was obviously different. Since it happened, he's had three starts. The results, other than somehow managing to go 2-1, were not pretty: a 6.28 ERA and 1.61 WHIP. Apparently, the ankle was bothering Peavy more than he cared to let on, because he's being placed on the 15-day disabled list -- and will miss at least a month.
A month? So, if my calculations are correct, he'll be back on the mound smack-dab in the middle of trading season. We don't know how the Padres will fare without him, but they are already 11 games out of first place and four games back of any wild card look -- and it's very early to look at that. We do know the Padres have been ordered by ownership to shed payroll. We also know Peavy makes a truckload of money, and will do so for the next several years. We also know Peavy's a hot commodity across the league. There aren't many 28-year-old-former-Cy-Young-winners readily available, you see.
The twist here is that a team trading for Peavy this season would likely be looking to make a serious postseason run in 2009. Teams won't want to deal as much for him if he doesn't seem healthy enough to upgrade their respective rotations. From the Padres end, they aren't dealing him unless they get back a healthy return. Another layer is that the Padres may only be able to agree to terms with teams Peavy won't want to join -- he's already snubbed the White Sox.
Simply put, this DL-stint is hardly garden variety. It adds unique intrigue to the trade deadline, which looms just over six weeks from now.
UPDATE: Or, maybe not ... according to Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Peavy has a partially torn tendon in his ankle and could miss up to 12 weeks. That means in the worst-case scenario, he would be returning in the middle of September; best case puts him back in the middle of August. If this is true, the Padres are stuck with Peavy's gargantuan salary for another season.
