With a little bit more than a week to go before the Major League Baseball trade deadline things are finally starting to heat up. The big deal that had been rumored for a month finally came to fruition on Monday with the Chicago Cubs trading Matt Garza to the Texas Rangers. Now that the best pitcher available is off the market where are teams in need of an ace going to go?
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports is reporting that the most coveted arm left on the market belongs to Jake Peavy of the Chicago White Sox. The Cardinals and Red Sox are said to be a couple of the teams interested in the veteran. Another team that could be a player for the Sox pitcher is the Arizona Diamondbacks. General Manager Kevin Towers has a very good relationship with Peavy from their days together in San Diego.
Peavy is 7-4 with a 4.19 ERA this year and is certainly not the dominating starter that he was back in San Diego. In a weak market for starting pitching, especially with it appearing as if the Phillies are going to hang on to all of their pieces, Peavy could get some major attention. One thing that may make Peavy a little extra attractive is the fact that he has one year remaining on his contract so he won't just be a rental player for a contender, according to CBS Sports.
The New York Yankees currently have an all-star team on their disabled list and really need to bring in some bats if they are going to continue to contend in baseball's toughest division. The New York Post is reporting that Alfonso Soriano might be returning to the Bronx. In order to make the deal work the Cubs will have to pick up the bulk of the $18 million he will be owed next year since the Yankees are terrified of being over the luxury tax limit.
Soriano is a shell of the player he was his first time in New York but he could provide some offense for a team that is struggling to put up any runs. This year he is hitting .259 with 17 homers and 51 RBIs for the Cubs. After starting the year slowly, as he seems to every year, Soriano has been playing well lately. A potential trade could be complicated by Soriano's no-trade clause and the amount of money the Cubs would still be paying the left fielder, according to CBS Sports.
So far the Boston Red Sox have been mentioned as potential buyers in a lot of trades but have yet to welcome any new players to Fenway Park. It's unknown when Clay Buchholz will return to the rotation and something seems to be wrong with staff ace Jon Lester, so it wasn't surprising when the team's assistant GM, Mike Hazen, told WBZ that the team was going to be aggressive at the trade deadline.
"It's got to be the right deal," Hazen said. "We're not going to just do dumb things for the sake of making moves. We have a really good team. That's because we have a lot of good players playing really well and we're not going to upset the fabric of that club, given what it's done to date. We're going to look to complement that club in any way that we can. So, from that standpoint, we'll be very aggressive in evaluating all opportunities."
