On this date in 2011, the Cubs traded minor leaguer Hak-Ju Lee, Chris Archer, Robinson Chirinos, Sam Fuld ,and Brandon Guyer to the Rays for Matt Garza, Fernando Perez and Zac Rosscup. Garza would go on to post a 3.45 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 across two years and change (60 starts) for the Cubs. After finishing the 2013 season with the Rangers, Garza now finds himself as one of the top starting pitchers available on the open market. Here's a look at other significant moves that have gone down on 1/8..
- In 2010, the Astros signed Brett Myers for one-year and $5.1MM guaranteed. He rewarded them with a 3.14 ERA in 223 2/3 innings, so they rewarded him with two-year, $21MM extension.
- That same day, the Royals inked Scott Podsednik to a one-year, $1.75MM contract. He hit .310/.353/.400 with 29 steals in Kansas City before being traded to the Dodgers for a pair of minor leaguers before the deadline.
- Long-time Padre Trevor Hoffman agreed to a one-year, $6MM contract with the Brewers in 2009. He was fantastic in 2009, pitching to a 1.83 ERA with 37 saves in 54 innings, though 2010 didn't go so well and wound up being his final season.
- The Angels finalized their one-year, $6MM contract with Shea Hillenbrand on this date back in 2007. Not only did he hit .254/.275/.325 in 204 plate appearances for the Halos, but he also made some disparaging remarks about the team. He was cut that June.
- In 2005, the Indians signed Kevin Millwood to a one-year, $7MM contract. He led the league with a 2.86 ERA in 192 innings, but only had nine wins to show for it.
- The Tigers acquired Carlos Guillen from the Mariners on this day in 2004, sending Ramon Santiago and a minor leaguer to Seattle. Guillen has hit .299/.369/.480 in seven seasons with Detroit, while Santiago was released (only to re-sign with the Tigers) a year later.
- A three-team trade was completed back in 2001. The A's acquired Johnny Damon, Mark Ellis, and Cory Lidle, while the Royals acquired Angel Berroa, Roberto Hernandez, and A.J. Hinch. Tampa Bay walked away with former Rookie of the Year Ben Grieve. In hindsight, Oakland was the clear winner here.
- Some other players involved in transactions on this date: Rocco Baldelli, Mark Loretta, Doug Mientkiewicz, Braden Looper, Julio Franco, two different Juan Gonzalezes, Harold Baines, Darryl Strawberry, and Rich Aurilia twice.
Mike Axisa's post from 2011 was used in the creation of this post.
Hopefully Edwards, Olt, or Ramirez work out because Archer looked solid and Lee is still highly rated.
It was a desparate move, by a desparate man, desparately trying to save his job. But, three years down the line, it seems as though the Cubs came out on top, depending on how you look at it.
Guyer and Fuld held little to no value to the Cubs at the time, Chirinos was about even to Castillo at the time, and the Cubs made the right decision there, as Castillo is now one of the “core” and Chirinos may have a shot at having a journeyman like career. Then there’s Hak, who despite his name wasn’t and is not going to make it due to his offensive game, or lack there of.
Finally, there is Archer. Management also made the calculated risk of holding onto one top pitching prospect (McNutt) in hopes that he would flourish and traded away the other. Archer seems the most likely to succeed, but the prospects the Cubs got back for Garza far outweigh value Archer could have had.
Plus Russcup is looking like he may have a promising career in the pen. Though Perez only lasted 6 months with the Cubs in Iowa.
Archer has potential to be a stud and coming off of a good year but the package the Cubs got for Garza has a chance to be very good. If only they would have traded McNutt instead of Archer
yep. no one hits a thousand, but all things considered, i’m glad they kept castillo and mcnutt over chirinos and archer.
Hendry’s success rate was similar to Darwin Barney’s batting average
bu-dum-cha!
Castillo’s ceiling seems to be a slightly above average catcher and mcnutt is looking like a bust and hasn’t even hit AAA. Archer looked damn good this year and could be a front-end starter long term. Archer alone is worth more than Castillo and McNutt.
i disagree. McNutt may never pan out, but Castillo put defensive numbers up behind the dish that were barely beat out by yadier molina, his offensive production is above average with room to improve, his game calling has been excellent and other aspects of his game continue to improve as well.
Archer is far less of a sure thing than Castillo and i’d be willing to put money on Castillo bcoming a better player. Also while the Cubs system is/has been light on pitching, catching depth in the system is even furthr behind.
Rays are probably happy with that deal for the most part today
This January has been so slow for free agent signings and trades
Millwood that season beat out Johan by .01 for the ERA crown. I can’t help but think if he was just slightly worse would those narrow-minded voters might have voted in favor of Santana over Colon that year.
Considering the haul the Cubs got back from the Rangers the Garza deal doesn’t seem nearly bad as it did then though I imagine they regret trading Archer.
if I remember correctly the rays had a choice of castillo or chirinos. I hope lee does well, never good to see someone go down with an injury so young. so far I think the rays are winning, garza was injured a bit, fielded pretty terribly, couldn’t bunt either if I remember correctly. the fielding was very frustrating considering how much it seems like he wants to win, but had so many preventable mistakes. it’s great we could sell so high on him, so they do still have an outside shot of winning their garza shinanigans overall.
Garza was injured for the second half of 2012 but gave the Cubs a good 2011 missing a few starts due to a bone contusion, and first half in 2013. He gave the Cubs a total of 5.5 WAR. At the deadline the Cubs traded their remaining control for Olt, Edwards, Grimm and Ramirez, all with decent chances of being MLB players, with Edwards being the prized piece.
Hak-Ju Lee might be good but he missed almost all of last season with a torn ligament.
Archer- so far it looks like he’s the biggest loss finally coming around on his production. 2.1 WAR to date and still several years of control left.
Chirinos- provided .1 WAR and never worked out. He was traded for a PTBNL but that PTBNL was never sent. Most likely because they paid a little cash to settle up instead.
Fuld- pretty much a utility player. Not much to complain about losing.
Guyer- pretty much a bust, might have some future in a utility role.
So really the two main pieces are Archer and Lee. Garza gave us decent production while he was here, Grimm gave us 9 solid innings last year in relief. Olt’s a wild card, he could be worthless or he could get over his eye condition and be the top 15 prospect he was prior to the eye problems, Edwards has either solid TOR stuff or a solid closer if his body doesn’t hold up. Ramirez is a mid rotation type with a risk of injury. We also received Rosscup, who could be a solid reliever.
I definitely wasn’t a fan of the trade when this went down, especially since making a push was really Hendry’s last attempt at saving his job. But given the current circumstances, I’m not sure I reverse it. When we see what type of career all these young players end up having, then we can come back and judge on a later date.
Hey, how come Angel Berroa wasn’t given the “former Rookie of the Year” moniker that Grieve was?