Inbox: Was acquiring Garcia a good move?

What were your thoughts regarding the Jaime Garcia trade? — Janet B., Smyrna, Tenn.

Though there are legitimate concerns about the durability of the injury-plagued Garcia, the Braves really didn’t give up much to acquire a veteran who has proven effective when healthy. They parted ways with two pitchers (John Gant and Chris Ellis) who have ceilings as back-end starting pitchers and an infielder (Luke Dykstra) who produced a .696 OPS while hitting .304 with Class A Rome. This is the effect of drawing six walks and totaling 18 extra-base hits (no home runs) over 342 plate appearances.

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There’s certainly reason to be concerned about Garcia, who has made more than 20 starts just once over the past five seasons. And even though he started 30 games this past season, endurance seemed to become a factor as he posted an 8.58 ERA over his last seven starts and completed as many as four innings in just one of his four September starts.

Garcia will certainly have some extra motivation as he progresses through the final year of his contract. This can only take you so far if the body is not cooperative. But if the veteran southpaw gets off to a good start, the Braves could opt to trade him and allow Matt Wisler, Aaron Blair or one of their other rising prospects a chance to end the season in the rotation. This could be an option, but it would not be as easy to flip a pitcher with a $12 million salary as it was this past year to do so with Jhoulys Chacin, Bud Norris and Lucas Harrell.

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If the Braves reach a point where they are missing Gant or Ellis, that will mean …

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