White Sox acquire Padres ace Jake Peavy

White Sox acquire Padres ace Jake Peavy

CHICAGO — Jake Peavy has finally agreed to pitch for the Chicago White Sox.

The San Diego Padres traded their ace to the White Sox on Friday, barely beating the deadline to make deals without waivers.

The Padres got four young pitchers for the 2007 NL Cy Young winner — Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Dexter Carter and Adam Russell.

In May, the Padres and White Sox agreed to a deal for Peavy, but he turned it down. But this time, Peavy agreed to waive his no-trade clause and joined the AL Central contenders.

“He never said no, he just said ‘not yet,’” White Sox general manager Kenny Williams said.

“So those words ‘not yet’ for me meant just that. … If you are patient in your pursuit, then sometimes you can ultimately get what you want,” he said. “When we called back this time, he was better prepared — he and his family were better prepared for what lies ahead. We were all able to make it work.”

The 28-year-old Peavy is 6-6 with a 3.97 ERA in 13 starts with the Padres this season but has been on the disabled list since June 13 with a strained tendon in his right ankle. Williams said the White Sox didn’t expect Peavy to pitch until the end of August and that he could go on some rehab assignments in the middle of the month.

“We’re going to still be conservative with our approach. In our division this thing is going to go down to winning games in September,” Williams said. “We want to be as strong as we possibly can in September. That’s what we’re focused on.”

Over eight major league seasons with the Padres, Peavy is 92-68 with a 3.29 ERA and 1,348 strikeouts in 212 starts. He was a unanimous selection for the Cy Young Award in 2007 when he went 19-6 with a 2.54 ERA and 240 strikeouts in 34 starts.

He will give the White Sox a top starter along with lefty Mark Buehrle, who pitched a perfect game in July. When he is healthy, Peavy will join a rotation that includes Gavin Floyd, John Danks and Jose Contreras.

Until then the White Sox will have to mix and match to find a fifth starter with Bartolo Colon injured and Richard off to San Diego.

Williams said he called Padres general manager Kevin Towers on Friday morning and got talks rekindled. Peavy’s agent, Barry Axelrod, went to Peavy’s house and Williams said the deal was completed mere seconds before the 3 p.m. CDT deadline.

Williams said he’d been interested in Peavy since the trade deadline a year ago and then was close to landing him in May. This time he worked on the trade with few people even knowing about it.

“I was shocked,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “We got better and now we got one guy we wanted for a long time.”

Williams said he had a good talk with Peavy when the White Sox first tried to acquire him. He was convinced that Peavy’s real reason for blocking the trade was that he was not ready.

“At the time the Padres were in just as good a position as we were (and) to have it sprung on him without all the information,” Williams said. “I got it. I understood. It was a little disheartening to hear some of the insinuations about him not wanting to pitch in the American League or pitch in our ballpark. I got none of that when I spoke to him. It was simply about him being surprised.”

Richard, who pitched well in his past two starts, was the scheduled starter Friday night against the Yankees before the trade was announced.

The 25-year-old lefty was 4-3 with a 4.65 ERA in 26 games, including 14 starts, with the White Sox this season.

“Pretty surprised,” Richard said, sitting in the dugout after the trade was announced.

“Because I really just thought he didn’t want to come over here. He turned it down and it was put to rest. Then, out of nowhere, it happens again. But I’m excited to go over there. We’ll see how it goes.”

Poreda, 22, went 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 10 relief appearances with the White Sox before being optioned back to the minors on July 21. The 6-foot-5 lefty was a first-round pick by Chicago in 2007.

Russell was 4-0 with a 5.19 ERA in 22 relief appearances for the White Sox last season and has spent this year at Triple-A Charlotte. Carter is 6-2 with a 3.13 ERA at Class A Kannapolis.