If he hadn’t just thrown five shutout innings Thursday for Triple-A Charlotte, Carlos Torres would have started Friday for the White Sox instead of Lucas Harrell.
A 15th-round draft choice in 2004, Torres is a late bloomer who is 7-7 with a 3.41 earned run average in 22 games at Charlotte this season. He still could get a call this season if the Sox need another starter.
“We’ve got tremendous confidence in this young man, and it’s just a matter of giving him the opportunity,” GM Ken Williams said. “We’ve always looked at him as someone who was part of our equation, and as (Friday’s trade) came about, we didn’t have to tap into him. We consider him somebody who can come up and do what he needs to do.
“I’m not afraid to put a young kid in a pennant race. We did that in 2005, and Bobby Jenks came in and did the job in a big way. So if a guy has the makeup and fortitude to go out there and compete at a high level at a very intense time, more power to him.”
Surprise, surprise: Even one of his closest friends is amazed that Freddy Garcia has 10 victories, second on the team behind John Danks.
That would be Ozzie Guillen, who is also Garcia’s manager.
“I bet (dinner) that before July we were going to put Freddy on the DL,” Guillen said with a laugh. “Thank God I was wrong. Freddy can pitch. As long as Freddy is healthy, he will go out there and give you a good quality start.”
Garcia missed most of last season with a sore shoulder, then struggled with a 10.38 ERA in six spring training starts.
“The type of spring training he had, there were a lot of ifs,” Guillen said. “But we know Freddy. That’s why we gave him the opportunity, and he’s doing pretty well.”
Door not closed: Deals can be made after the non-waiver trade deadline passes Saturday, although they would involve the waiver process.
“That’s how Alex Rios is here,” Williams said. “When the deadline comes and goes, teams that felt they were in it all of a sudden are not in it anymore a week later. All it takes is one homestand in some cases to run someone through waivers who is going to be there to possibly snatch those players up. We will be looking at that.”
