Braves Trade Jackson Laumann for Cash

Dec 4, 2012; Nashville, TN, USA; Guests enter and exit the baseball trade show during the Major League Baseball winter meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Mandatory credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

According to a note on MLB Trade Rumors, and confirmed with an online article at the Chicago Tribune, the Atlanta Braves have traded minor leaguer, and rookie 1st baseman Jackson Laumann to the Chicago White Sox for cash considerations.

Laumann is a large guy at 6′ 3′, 220 pounds, but he hasn’t performed in a large manner in rookie ball.  In 34 games this past season for Danville, he hit on a dismal line of just .152/.208/.162/.369.  In the Gulf Coast League, Laumann hit a touch better in his first season in 2012, but overall over two seasons his line has been just .206/.258/.248/.505.

The trade was good for both clubs in the following sense:  Laumann is the son of the Doug Laumann, who is the Chicago White Sox director of amateur scouting, so Doug will get a chance to work with Jackson directly, and the Braves will get a little bit of something.

As our own Fred Owens pointed out, this may have simply been a case of Jackson’s father knowing he wasn’t doing well, and asking for the trade as a favor, thinking he could fix whatever might be broken with Jackson’s game.  Who knows, but the Braves probably got very little in the way of cash considerations for Laumann.  As Fred also noted, it could be nothing more than a few game tickets. (That was joke by the way, in case you’re slow on the uptake) 

The Braves drafted Laumann in the 31st round in the 2011 draft, and it’s always tough when you have any rookie in your system that doesn’t meet expectations.  However you spell it, it’s one less rookie for the Braves to develop.  We can only hope we’re not playing Chicago in interleague sometime in the future, and have Laumann’s bat come back to haunt us.  Hey, that’s baseball!