3 Way Deal for Matt Garza Would Prove Costly for Red Sox
The Chicago Cubs have made it known that starting pitcher Matt Garza is available and the San Diego Padres have what the Cubs want. But while Garza may not appeal to the Padres, he does appeal to the Red Sox making a three team deal possible. With the Red Sox needing to improve their starting pitching before next April rolls around, acquiring Matt Garza from the Chicago Cubs would be heavenly, yet very costly.
It is funny to think about the possibility of the Red Sox, Cubs and Padres hooking up in an inter-twined deal when you consider they all have a recent history with each other. Boston acquired Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego last year, Chicago lured Theo Epstein from Boston and then Theo took Jed Hoyer from San Diego. Familiarity goes a long way, even when trading baseball players. As my old professor would say “don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone and explore the unknown.”
As part of the aforementioned Gonzalez deal last winter, San Diego received highly touted prospect and first baseman, Anthony Rizzo. The former Red Sox prospect has been tearing the cover off the ball in AAA putting up an statistical line of .331, .404 & .652 in 413 plate appearances for Tucson. He also hit 26 home runs and drove in 101 RBI in just 93 games. But suddenly Rizzo has been made available when the Padres acquired Yonder Alonso from the Cincinnati Reds on the weekend.
Cue the Theo Epstein entrance.
Since taking over the Cubs, Epstein has been rumored to be a major player in this year’s star-studded free agency pool. While reports surfaced that he did put an offer in for Albert Pujols, his long awaited interest has always been on Prince Fielder. But with the Fielder camp wanting a deal similar to that of Pujols in both length (10 years) and money (around $250 million), Epstein is proceeding with caution. His game plan is rumored to be a five or six year deal to Fielder and it is here that Epstein finds himself suddenly interested in the much younger, much cheaper and much available Rizzo.
Jordan over at Cubbies Crib does a great job of breaking down the potential need for Rizzo as a cornerstone for the Cubs to build a team around. He doesn’t feel they will be competing for a playoff spot next season in 2012, so parting ways with Garza to acquire Rizzo makes sense to him.
There is no denying that the Red Sox could use Garza to help bolster their starting rotation. Given his track record against fellow AL East opponents when he pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays and the fact that he’s under the team’s control until 2014, Garza would be a vital piece to the Red Sox success next season. But it is what the Padres would want as their compensation that will hurt the Red Sox.
Prospects, prospects and more prospects. That’s all we’ve heard since the World Series ended and free agency began. The bar has been set thanks to the Reds unloading a pile of talent for one proven arm in Mat Latos and then consider the asking prices for Andrew Bailey and Gio Gonzalez. The Padres don’t want a Kevin Youkilis to be a part of the package. Rather they’d insist on guys like Ryan Kalish, Will Middlebrooks and Ryan Lavarnway.
Luke Blaize, a writer at the same Cubbies Crib mentions that other highly sought after prospects are already said to be in the mix. Names such as another former Red Sox pitching prospect Casey Kelly along with prospect Simon Castro and Jedd Gyorko have all been tied to this scenario. Clearly the asking price is going to be steep as the Padres are in full fledge re-building mode.
So why would the Red Sox want to unload more prospects and further deplete their farm system. It doesn’t make sense to get involved in this one, besides, the Texas Rangers are apparently interested in making it a three-team deal and they have some depth in the farm system that they could use as leverage.
With an in shape and lighter Josh Beckett, a healthy Clay Buchholz, a revamped Jon Lester and a wild card in Daniel Bard, the rotation may not need a Matt Garza. A solid fifth starter will suffice until Daisuke Matsuzaka can return and hopefully salvage whatever is left in his multi-year deal. If he can’t then a deal for Gio Gonzalez at the trade deadline may be necessary to salvage a season at that point if he’s still available.
Save the prospects, at least for now. Let’s just hope that Garza stays in the National League so we don’t have to watch him dominate the Red Sox lineups again.
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