Gavin Floyd joins Braves rotation
The Braves have a new starting pitcher, and it's 30-year-old, 2001 Phillies draft pick Gavin Floyd.
The Braves have a new starting pitcher, and it's 30-year-old Gavin Floyd. Floyd was a member of the mid-2000s Phillies purge that preceded the "Golden Era," and has since become the most average pitcher in the world.
The Phillies drafted Floyd in 2001 and put him on a major league mound for the first time in 2004. In 2005, as a member of the Phillies rotation, his ERA hit the ground running and by the end of the season had gleefully broken the 6.00 barrier (6.63).
Then, in 2006, came the trade to the White Sox. Floyd and Gio Gonzalez were swapped for Freddy Garcia, a deal that appeared to be in line with Pat Gillick's finest work as general manager. Gonzalez would go on to win 21 games in 2012 as a lynchpin in the Washington Nationals' rotation. Garcia would go on to give up 74 hits in 58 innings and leave the franchise before making his 12th start as a Phillie.
After a startlingly impressive 2008, Floyd embarked on a career with the White Sox that routinely saw him finish a game above or a game below .500 for four straight years, putting him at 70-70. He led the league in hit batsmen in 2012.
During 2013, he had Tommy John surgery for a torn flexor muscle and UCL, and the Braves, today, don't seem too worried about it. They signed him for $4 million, with another $4.5 million in incentives (Floyd made $9.5 million with the White Sox in 2013).
Floyd joins a litany of new faces in the NL East whom the Phillies will see more and more of, and who will be more welcome than a guy who was both a highly-touted draft bust and a part of one of the worst recent trades in team history.