Rumors continue to fly regarding Matt Garza and the Cardinals.
The latest from David Kaplan of CSNChicago.com is that Texas, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toronto, and the Dodgers are the "strongest pursuers" of Garza, but that the asking price remains "exceptionally high".
Most of the teams listed above have extra motivation to make a big move before the deadline. The Rangers, whose window for winning the World Series may be closing, may want to make a big move to try to seal the deal this year.
Toronto, after spending big in the offseason, is clearly in "win-now" mode.
Per a former personnel boss, the Cardinals' GM John Mozeliak is motivated to win now because "if <he> can win another title after letting Albert walk that would be the
ultimate way to prove everybody wrong who doubted him after Pujols left
for Los Angeles."
The Pirates are motivated to make a big move to prove to their fan base that they are serious about winning.
Kaplan also compares the asking price for Garza to that of Zach Greinke last year, indicating it would probably take a similar deal to land Garza this year. By comparison, the Greinke trade landed the Brewers Jean Segura, who was ranked as the #43 prospect according to Baseball America last year, along with pitcher Johnny Hellweg and Ariel Pena.
Most of the prospects in a similar range as Segura, for the teams seeking Garza, are position players, such as Kolten Wong of the Cardinals. But, its likely that the Cubs would prefer young pitchers instead.
If that is the case, the Cardinals could offer up someone like Tyrell Jenkins, who is one of the Cards top 10 prospects, but is not considered a top 100 prospect. Or they could go with a quantity over quality approach.
However, Wong could still be of some interest to the Cubs, as they may not see Darwin Barney as their long-term second baseman (many within the organization consider Barney better suited as a utility infielder).
I'm sure that, if the Cardinals offered up both Wong and Jenkins, the Cubs would take it in an instant, but is that too much?
In any case, I do not see the Cards getting into a bidding war with any of the above teams for Garza's services and if the Cubs come asking for either Carlos Martinez or Michael Wacha, the Cardinals should politely say "no thanks" and walk away.
The clock continues to tic as the Cubs internal deadline to trade Garza (Saturday) draws ever nearer.
As a Cubs fan, I'd much rather trade Garza to the Pirates than the Cardinals.
ReplyDeleteI would try and resign Garza before I would ever trade him to the Cardinals.
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