The non-waiver trade deadline came and went and Cubs hurler Matt Garza wound up staying put in Chicago. Cubs General Manager Jed Hoyer says that teams shied away in part because of the right-hander's tricep injury, tweets Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. Here's more on the Cubs..
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports writes that the Dodgers didn't wind up with Ryan Dempster because of the pitchers that they were unwilling to part with. GM Ned Colletti's four untouchables in talks for Dempster were right-handers Zach Lee, Allen Webster, and Rubby De La Rosa, and left-hander Chris Reed.
- The Rangers will pay all of Dempster's salary while the Cubs will pay all of Soto's salary, making it a virtual wash in terms of money, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
- Landing a solid prospect in Christian Villanueva was a reasonable return for the Cubs considering that their leverage to move Dempster was limited by his 10-and-5 rights, writes Keith Law of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req'd). Villanueva was blocked in the Rangers organization but should have a chance to shine with the Cubs.
Whats the likelihood of Garza being traded before waiver deadline?
zero that was today.
Today was the non-waiver deadline. The waiver deadline is August 31.
There is no way that Garza would clear waivers…… the Cubs will either have to negotiate a contract extension with him, trade him in the off season, or deal with his arbitration eligible contract in the winter.
He won’t make it past Arizona.
Depending on who claims him though, a trade could be made. The thing is, I doubt he makes it past Houston or San Diego, because he’d immediately become a serious offseason trade chip.
But those teams don’t want his salary.
You’ll take on the third of a season of salary to get 2-3 good prospects in the offseason. Not even the horrible Jeff Loria would pass on that.
I am a happy Cubs fan. I like the prospects we reeled in. I would have preferred Delgado, but I can’t complain. No hard feelings, Dempster.
I’m somewhat satisfied. They didn’t trade major players, but it kind of sucks that the best prospect we got came from Maholm and Reed Johnson (and that he’s coming off TJS, but that’s not a BIG deal). I really wanted to see Garza go and get this rebuild a move on. At least Soriano can be waived in August to maybe add one or two more players to the farm.
Personally, I am unsure with Villanueva, as Baez will probably be the long-term solution at third, and Vitters will likely beat both to the punch. That means we might have a guy as blocked now as he was in Texas, unless Vitters totally faceplants. Even then, Baez might beat him there, seeing as he’s playing better at the same level at a younger age.
The talent that the Cubs received was good, but having it at 3B and the LOW minors makes it risky and a LITTLE confusing. Granted, they were trading mostly back-end starts and bench players, but with Dempster, I would have liked to have gotten at least one guy from AA.
I want to point out a few things that I disagree with. Bare with me. You forgot to mention Kyle Hendricks, the other player the Cubs got from the Rangers. He has shown some good stuff (commands 5 different pitches) He may be a sleeper but he could turn out to be a great pitcher. Also, Vitters has awful, awful 3rd base defense skills. He should be turned into an OF. I do agree with Baez, but he is still young and has a way to go. I don’t see this trade as confusing, as we traded a rental pitcher for 2 prospects with a good upside, who have no rush to the majors, as the team won’t compete for at least 2-3 more years. I like what Theo/Jed are doing. Oh, and Garza will be traded this offseason, I don’t think he will be locked up.
“Bare” with you? You’re not asking me to do anything dirty…are you?
Anyway, I didn’t forget to mention Hendricks. I just think that he’s something of an unimpressive back-end starter at best. He’s not a strikeout guy, even at high-A, and he’s going to be 24 after this season. From him, you’ll get maybe another Maholm-like pitcher, which we established is a back-end starter on a crappy team. Villanueva’s older, but he’s not as far along at 21 as I expect Baez to be. He might beat Baez by 6 months, then get supplanated. Vitters might not be a good fielder by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s there and he’s about ready. No one else is handling 3B well, so you’re asking yourself if you want to put up with Vitters’ defense or Stewart’s offense. Pick your poison (unless the surgery totally fixes Stewart).
If you talk about Vitters in the OF, you have a different issue. For starters, you have to get him the work at AAA, which they haven’t started. Then you have to get Soriano moved, which we saw isn’t easy. They have LaHair and DeJesus hanging around as well, Campana is an OK player, and Jackson’s going to get a shot. So they have to convert Vitters and move at least one OF, maybe two. It’s not necessrily a TOUGH task, but it would take time.
I’m not saying the trades themselves are confusing in principal, just that we chose to take one offensive prospect, and it’s where our top minors hitter plays. I would have preferred a second baseman, catcher, or shortstop (a SS would mean letting Castro move to 2B).
I agree Garza will likely go this winter, but we just lost a playoff run of trade value, and that’s going to sting when we get to negotiations, especially if Philly changes course and puts Cliff Lee on the block.
Bear with me* I’m not going to even change it, hopefully that wasn’t a freudian slip. You make some solid points that I didn’t take into consideration. I still like the progress we made. Even if this deadline pushed us back a year of rebuilding.
I don’t think it really hurt the timetable. Soriano and Garza are the only REALLY movable pieces left who will have value maybe drop by not getting moved. Soriano will probably go in August, and if Garza gets close to his 2011 form down the stretch, he should still bring a nice package of prospects in the offseason, since he SHOULD be eligible for a pick, no?
Villaneuva has played some second base this year by the way. Kevin Goldstein also says that his greatest strength may be the lack of weaknesses he has.
Hendricks is most likely a up and down guy in 2 years or so, he doesn’t have the secondary pitch to get swings and misses that will let him stick in the rotation.
Hmmm, he has command over 5 pitches and has a 112k to 15walk ratio in high A. The guy has #4 or #5 stuff possibly. He is a prospect so he very well could be a bust but he has more than enough tools to make it to the bigs.
You don’t see a happy Cubs fan very often…
Well, until the team is expected to win again, and does not win games, then I will be an unhappy Cubs fan. I have no expectations for the next 3 years, what’s the point of being unhappy when you realize the team is expected to lose anyway? Check back with me in 3-4 years if none of these prospects pan out!
If Garza gets traded this season it will be to Arizona because they’ll put a claim on him for sure.
Garza won’t clear waivers through to AZ. I would be shocked if Garza got more than 2-3 teams deep in the process.
Gotta agree with this. I’d say offseason is our best bet. Let’s hope he finishes the season strong and we can entice a few teams, maybe lure Upton away from Arizona.
A projected lineup of Castro/Rizzo/Upton/Soler looks mighty fine to me.
Baez too
Yeah, too bad that lineup wouldn’t happen until about 2015, the last season of Upton’s contract.
Upton isn’t going Chicago. He has no trade protection
So he wouldn’t waive it? Other big market teams are on there. Guys put big market teams on there so they can work out an extension in return for waiving the NTC. NYY and BOS are on there too.
Villanueva is a solid pick-up, but I feel that Hendricks could actually be the real prize in the trade. They’re obviously a lot further off than Delgado would have been, but at the end of the day, its hard to not like how the whole Dempster fiasco ended up for the Cubs.
Prospect guru John Sickels’ midseason notes on Villanueva:
“Christian Villanueva, 3B, Grade B-:
Hitting .285/.356/.421 with 10 homers, 24 walks, 83 strikeouts in 375
at-bats in High-A, nine steals. He is playing very well defensively and
the bat has potential. Often gets overlooked in the Rangers system and
is blocked behind Olt, but if I were trading with the Rangers I would
ask about this guy.”
I just looked up Villanueva’s stats and he has only walked 24 times this year. Then I notice his OBP is like 70 points higher then his Batting average which was .285. I look at HBP and it turns out he has been hit 20 times this season and 12 times last season. Those are pretty high HBP numbers, like once every five games this year.
I can’t stand having high HBP players on a roster.
Not that they play dirty or anything… nothing wrong with standing your ground in the batters box…but eventually their luck is going to play against them and they will break their hands.
Carlos Quentin I believe had 42 HBP’s his first year in pro ball.
A somewhat disappointed Dodgers fan. Can’t argue with the Hanley Ramirez and Victorino upgrades, but the failure to secure Dempster is puzzling. The area in which “we” have depth is in #3 level starters, and I’m puzzled as to why a guy like Webster wasn’t considered expendable. Now the rotation is Kershaw, Capuano, Billingsley, …gets sketchy here…Harang, and….Barney Fife? Hopefully Lilly comes back strong in a couple weeks.
Agreed. Probably a lot to ask, but hopefully De La Rosa can quickly get into dominant form. He may turn out to be our secret weapon… otherwise, I think our hopes lay with Billingsley and Lilly pitching to their highest potential. Capuano seems to be struggling of late, and I don’t want Harang sniffing a playoff start.