Yahoo's Gordon Edes has the lowdown:
The Chicago White Sox have agreed to ship four pitching prospects, including prized left-handers Aaron Poreda and Clayton Richard, to the San Diego Padres for ace right-hander Jake Peavy, but the deal is contingent on Peavy’s acceptance, a baseball source said Thursday.
Buster Olney and Peter Gammons give us the reaction of Peavy's former teammate Scott Linebrink, now with the White Sox:
Peavy called White Sox right-hander Scott Linebrink last night for his opinion about going to Chicago and got strong feedback, Gammons reported.
"Jake called me [Wednesday] afternoon to ask about what it's like here in Chicago," said Linebrink, according to ESPNChicago.com's Levine. "I think he's ready to move on, but I can't tell you for sure he's going to accept the deal. Losing 100 games, like they did last year, wears on a player.
"Right now, I'd say it's 50-50 as to whether he accepts it or not. He'll get with his family today and make a decision."
What does this mean for the Dodgers? In the short term it's great news, as they don't have to face the man who is 13-2 against them with a 2.27 ERA in 24 career starts. The Dodgers happen to face the White Sox next month, but they don't face them 19 times each year like they do the Padres.
Chad Billingsley will now move up the NL pitching leaderboards, as Peavy leads the league in innings pitched and strikeouts.
This doesn't sound like the start of a complete fire sale for the Padres, so don't look for Adrian Gonzalez to be traded anytime soon. Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune says a Peavy trade will get the Padres under their owner-mandated budget:
The Padres are about $5 million above the $40 million player payroll that Towers said the club's majority owner, John Moores, has mandated for this season and could hit that number by moving Peavy, who is due $11 million this season.
Here is the reaction of Gaslamp Ball, the SB Nation Padres blog. If you think I only linked to that because of the Flight of the Conchords video, you know me too well.