Twins trade Jaime Garcia to Yankees

The Twins have traded left-hander Jaime Garcia to the Yankees for minor-league pitchers Zack Littell and Dietrich Enns, as first reported by Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports.

Garcia, of course, was already traded once this month, heading from the Braves to the Twins last Monday in a three-player swap that sent prospect Huascar Ynoa to Atlanta. Since the trade, the Twins have dropped four of five games, causing the club to shift from buying on the trade market to selling off key assets.

Garcia pitched well in his Twins debut on Friday, earning the win against Oakland after allowing just three earned runs on eight hits in 6.2 innings. He is 5-7 with a 4.29 ERA on the season in 19 starts for Atlanta and Minnesota.

The addition of Garcia is not expected to take the Yankees out of the running for other starters on the trade market, according to Passan. New York is considered the favorite to land Athletics righty Sonny Gray and could get a deal done as early as tomorrow.

Garcia joins CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery in a Yankees rotation that recently lost Michael Pineda to season-ending Tommy John surgery. Garcia is a free agent after the year, making him a rental for the first-place Yanks if a deal is completed.

New York has been active on the trade market, acquiring Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle in a seven-player deal with the White Sox last week. The Yankees have been linked to top starters like Gray and Texas’ Yu Darvish, but were aggressive on Garcia when he was with Atlanta and became able to land him once Minnesota put him back on the market.

For Minnesota, the deal is the club’s first as a deadline seller this year and could lead to Brandon Kintzler, Ervin Santana, Brian Dozier and others being shipped out of town before tomorrow’s trade deadline.

Littell, 21, is a righty who was scratched from his start at Double-A Trenton on Saturday night. The North Carolina native, who was selected in the 11th round of the 2013 draft by Seattle, has been excellent this season, posting a 1.87 ERA and 8.5 K/9 in 115.1 innings split between Hi-A and Double-A. He was originally acquired in the deal that sent lefty James Pazos to the Mariners.

Littell was ranked as New York’s no. 22 prospect at the time of the deal by MLB.com, which cited his improved conditioning and strong curveball as the reasons he’ll make the majors as a back-end starter.

Enns, 26, was New York’s 19th-round pick in the 2012 draft. The southpaw has spent his season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, posting a 1.99 ERA and 9.3 K/9 in 45.1 innings. He wasn’t ranked among the Yankees’ top 30 prospects.

For Minnesota, the deals (without cash) effectively equals the club trading Ynoa for catcher Anthony Recker, Littell and Enns. The Jaime Garcia era has come and gone.