Rumors and Notes from day 2 of winter meetings
December 8th, 2009 | by Mark |Another day and another “Cubs close to a deal for Milton Bradley” rumor, this time from Gordon Wittenmyer who Tweets “Source: cubs close to two-team deal with surprise AL team for bradley. Could happen tonight.” Wittenmyer later reported that the deal was “three quarters done”.
Once that got out, everyone was trying to figure out who the “surprise AL team” was:
- Tim Brown of Yahoo reported that the Cubs were talking to the Mariners about Bradley and Silva. (Yikes! Silva’s contract is even worse than Bradley’s). However, Wittenmyer reported that a Mariners official shot down that rumor.
- Carrie Muskat confirmed that the Mariners are not interested and said the Angels are not involved either, but indicated that an announcement could come Wednesday. Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald said no deal is imminent, but that a Cubs official stated that Wednesday is more likely.
- MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian also eliminated the Blue Jays from consideration.
So, keep your eyes glued to this site tomorrow as I will let you know if the deal goes down.
In other news, the Cubs lost out on one centerfield option as Curtis Granderson was traded to the Yankees in a 3-team blockbuster today, which also involved the Diamondbacks. Detroit received Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth from Arizona, as well as Austin Jackson and Phil Coke from New York, with New York receiving Granderson and Arizona receiving Edwin Jackson (from Detroit) and Ian Kennedy (from New York).
This was an excellent trade for Detroit and one that I doubt the Cubs could have matched, even with Starlin Castro involved. Basically, it would be the equivalent of the Cubs trading Castro, Carlos Marmol, Randy Wells and John Gaub for Granderson, which was not going to happen.
Finally, the Cubs continued to search for another bullpen arm. This time Fox Sports (link no longer available) reported that the Cubs expressed interest in free agent J.J. Putz. However, it appears that the White Sox may actually have the inside track as Matt Thornton is trying to convince his friend to join the Sox.
So, overall a pretty slow day for the Cubs. Hopefully things will pick up tomorrow and I’ll have a Milton Bradley trade to officially report.
Tags: Carlos Marmol, Curtis Granderson, J.J. Putz, John Gaub, Milton Bradley, Randy Wells, Starlin Castro
By Jim Neveau on Dec 9, 2009
Gil Meche would be an awesome player for the Cubs to try to acquire for Bradley. Yeah, he had a subpar year last year, but the previous two seasons he had an ERA of less than four, and his WHIP was right around 1.30, which isn’t too shabby at all.
He may not be an ace of the staff type, but the Cubs could certainly do worse in exchange for Bradley. Also, the money would probably be less of an issue with Meche’s remaining years on his deal being roughly equal to what’s owed Bradley.
As a side note, I actually really liked the Fox/Miles trade, just because we got a couple decent prospects in return for a guy who was never going to be more than a bat off the bench in the NL (Fox), and a guy who completely bombed out in his time here (Miles).
By Mark on Dec 9, 2009
Sure getting Meche for Bradley would be awesome, but I don’t think that’s going to happen (it’s already been shot down). The Cubs are more likely to get Silva for Bradley and I don’t think the Cubs would want to do that.
I agree with you on the Fox/Miles trade. Freed up some cash for the Cubs and Fox is a good candidate to DH.