The Cubs made many trades before this week's non-waiver deadline, but Alfonso Soriano stayed put. Soriano wasn't dealt Tuesday despite some interest from rival teams. However, Cubs GM Jed Hoyer acknowledged on ESPN 1000 yesterday that "there is a chance” Soriano will be traded in August.
Two things would have to happen for the 36-year-old to be moved. He’d have to be placed on waivers and he’d have to approve the trade. Soriano is now hitting .273/.322/.499 with 19 home runs and 22 doubles, so he’d represent an offensive upgrade for many teams. Yet he earns $18MM per season through 2014, so there’s an excellent chance he’ll clear waivers this month. He also has a no-trade clause, which limits the Cubs' options. If Soriano does clear waivers, the Cubs can trade him to any team with his permission. In the unlikely event that he gets claimed, they can let him go for nothing but salary relief or work out a trade with the claiming team — as long as Soriano consents. How do you think it'll play out?
Obviously the waivers won’t be an issue, and I’m sure Soriano would accept a trade to a contender. It’s going to come down to the Cubs being willing to eat enough salary to appease the other teams.
He’s already said he won’t approve a trade to the Pirates, the team that probably needed him most.
Can we have Walker? If he gets to play 81 games in Wrigley, he’ll be the MVP.
Soriano will be with the Cubs forever and ever
and ever
and ever and ever . He will be Jaime Moyers age and still be playing in left for them.
Soriano is not a bad player, especially offensively, he’s just grossly overpaid. The Cubs know that. I think they get it done.
I hope the Cubs will not just be looking to move Soriano for salary relief. They have less than $35M on the books for next year, probably around $50M if you include some arb cases (Garza, Castro) and cost-controlled raises (Barney, Castillo, etc.). Soriano’s salary is not going to be prohibitive to any spending the Cubs want to do, and at any rate I imagine the Cubs will have one more offseason of Maholm/DeJesus type additions vs. going after guys like Greinke should he be available.
Soriano clearly has some value (and has actually played a passable LF for a while), so if the Cubs are eating $12M-$15M/year for the remainder of his contract, I would hope for at least one single-A arm with some upside.
A team like Detroit could use him and will be in “win-now” mode for at least this year and next (especially with their owner), and would easily get $5M in value for him annually. Someone like Bruce Rondon from their system, maybe?
paying 12 million a year for a guy to play for someone else is the lessor of two evils I guess.
Had to edit my post, should read as it does now “I hope the Cubs will NOT just be looking to move Soriano for salary relief”, which the subsequent points in the post argue.
Soriano is going to come awfully close to playing to his contract this year (if you trust Fan Graphs and about $4.5M per WAR. With Jackson honestly at least another year away from being ready a boatload of freed up money… Soriano doesn’t need to be moved.
The Cubs do not need salary relief. In fact, his value increases because of this. I hope they eat ALL of his salary so they can get the best possible prospect(s) they can.
I agree they don’t need salary relief, that was pretty much the point of my post.
Oops, read the first sentence wrong and just skipped the rest.Sorry!
Assuming that The Cubs really are willing to eat around 95% of his salary and accept a modest return, surely they can find a taker. Theo seems to love rolling the dice on reclamations like Stewart, Volstad, and Cardenas who were once top prospects but are still young enough that they could be helpful. The Cubs should be able to get one of that ilk as well as a low level or fringe prospect or two. Maybe they could add a fringe prospect of their own or try to sneak Camp, Baker, or Corpas through waivers as a dash of sweetener to the pot. Soriano’s been a lot better then people give him credit for this year, but he’s 36 and clearly not a part of the ultimate plan, so it’s time to cash in that chip while there’s still some chance of getting anything for him.
95%? Way to go out on a limb. There would be 29 teams willing to take him on for $900k a year.
hows those 3 guys working for Theo and Jed, I’d rather have Z than Volstad
for once – the voice of sanity. Thanks Bob.
sorry, duplicate post
He says he’ll accept a trade yet he already blocked a trade at the deadline to San Fran! So, i dont see him going anywhere unless its a team he pre approved! But the waiver trades dont work that way! As much as i wish he’d leave…..im chance!
It only doesn’t work that way if a team claims him, which no team will, as they’d be on the hook for $36M over the next two years plus the remainder of his salary this year.
He’ll clear waivers, meaning he can be traded to anyone, the only restriction being Soriano’s ability to block any trade.
From all reports he’d likely accept a trade to most contenders, who would be the only teams desperate enough to grab a bat his age anyhow.
Personally I don’t want the Cubs to just get rid of him, I only move him if I can get at least one worthwhile prospect in return. Soriano has value and his contract will not prevent the Cubs from making any moves.
In essence they can use Soriano plus around $30M to buy a prospect from a contender.
20 Mil wouldnt be enough?
Doubt it. He’s still owed like $6M+ for the rest of this season, and even if you just put that $20M to the next two seasons, the team that gets him would owe him $8M/year still. That’s probably closer to what he should make for the next two seasons… so I doubt anyone would surrender a worthwhile prospect for that.
If you, say, owe only $3M a year for a 25-30 HR guy and have a DH spot to put him and a need for a right power bat on a contender… that could be worth a high upside/class-A prospect.
Wow, 30Mil seems like a lot to spend just so you can get a low level prospect. What am I missing here?
reply is funky right now… so just in case this is in response to CowboyJames:
$30M is and isn’t a lot to spend on a low-level prospect. On the surface it seems like a lot, but considering the restrictions on draft and international spending, Soriano’s age/likely ability to contribute when the Cubs are ready to compete again and most team’s unwillingness to part with talent and take on millions for a mid-30 year old OF… you have to give something to get something. In this case you are giving money… something the Cubs have plenty of.
One of the few competitive advantages the Cubs have is cash… so they need to leverage that. No team would surrender a decent prospect AND take on a hefty portion of Soriano’s contract.
On the flipside, the Cubs don’t need the payroll room moving forward and Soriano can still hit .250-.270 with 20-30 HRs, so he does have value.
Hope that makes sense.
“One of the few competitive advantages the Cubs have is cash… so they need to leverage that.”
This is what I was missing I think. As a Braves guy I value the 30 Mil more than the Cubs. I guess essentially they are stuck with a pretty good player- but not superstar-at a superstar price. So essentially they would be taking the lesser of 2 evils. Also selling on Soriano while he still has some value left. Thanks for the Re:
Additionally if the Cubs did decide that 30 Mil was too much to spend for the prospetc-then they would be left with two options:
A) Let Soriano and his contract go for nothing
or
B) hold on to an aging/deteriorating player, who has no place in your future and watch his value disappear
I suppose after the money/time/resources you have already committed to Soriano, neither of these options is appealing. You would want to get *something* in return.
“buy a prospect” is right. their deep pockets are their only strength, they should follow the A’s model – get a couple of fancy FA’s in the offseason, trade them for prospects the next July, eat some salary to get a better return.
3 things need to happen… they also need to find a team willing to take him. If the Cubs agree to pay 75% of his salary for the remainder of the contract then I do think it would get done. But nobody is going to pay even half of that bloated contract.
He’s a spoiled baby. Rejected two trades to contenders. Probably would only accept a deal to one or two teams, and I hope they don’t want him.
Why is he a spoiled baby? He’s at the twilight of his career and has every right to reject teams he doesn’t want to go to. It’s not like Dempster where it’s two months in a new place (it’s over 2 years) and Soriano never said he’d go to a team then change his mind just as a deal was about to get done.
Soriano has been overpaid for a long time, but he’s also been a very good player on the Cubs and by all accounts a model teammate. He’s earned the right to play out his contract in Chicago or find a contender he wants to go to.
Soriano did say he’d waive his no trade clause if the Cubs wanted to trade him…and when they went ahead and made a move he rejeected the trade flat out! The only reason it wasnt made a huge deal was cause of the Dempster drama
Well that’s just not accurate. He provided the Cubs with a list of teams he’d waive his NTC for and the Giants and Pittsburgh by all accounts weren’t on that list.
You have to give Soriano credit for even making himself valuable this year. Last year, if anyone had even offered to take him, we would have laughed hysterically.
I think if Cubs take his contract Rays would be interested…not sure what we would give up for him…were pretty stingy with our prospects
We can take Chris Archer back
yea thats not going to happen lol
I can see an American League contender/pretender being interested.
Soriano seems too happy in Chicago to leave for just anyone and there are probably not enough teams that he wants to be on that also want to trade for him. For him, it appears that It’s not good enough for the destination to just be a “contender”, there are clearly other issues at play.
I think the best trade would be 25-27 million and a high level prospect for soriano