The Cubs are weighing an offer they have received from the Dodgers for Ryan Dempster.
ST. LOUIS — Ryan Dempster is still scheduled to start against the Cardinals on Friday night for the Cubs, who are considering the latest offer from the Dodgers for the right-hander.
According to MLB.com's Ken Gurnick, the Dodgers have made an offer, but they won't get into a bidding war because they also need to add offense, preferably a corner infielder, even more than they need Dempster. The Dodgers' farm system also is a little thin in the kind of prospects needed to land All-Star caliber players like Dempster, the Padres' Chase Headley or the Phillies' Shane Victorino. Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein has said he's looking to improve on pitching in the organization.
That said, Dempster, 35, would be a pure rental for the Dodgers, which most likely is affecting the negotiations. Dempster is in the last year of his four-year contract, which is paying him $14 million this season. Players must be with a team for an entire season in order to qualify for Draft-pick compensation, according to the new CBA.
Not too surprisingly, Zach Lee will not be involved in the trade. The draft pick compensation is no doubt going to earn the Cubs less for Dempster than they'd have received a year ago.
I hope they don’t just take a sack of garbage for him. I don’t see the team getting fleeced or anything, but I also don’t see them coming back with a huge return. Ugh. Trade jitters.
Latest MLBTR blurb says the Nationals are really really interested in Dempster.
well then lets hope the Nats get super excited and hand us Alex Meyer
Thanks to OV, I now want extra avocado on my Subway sandwich.
Rice Cube:
The Force (of ads) has a powerful influence on the weak minded.
@ josh:
Or the weak of stomach since I’m bloody hungry right now.
rendon, please.
josh wrote:
I can’t argue with you today.
@ Rice Cube:
Cor blimey
@ Suburban kid:
Only when confronted with temptation.
The latest on Dempster is that a handful of teams are involved, the Braves aren’t pursuing him that aggressively as they’re looking for players who they can control beyond 2012, there’s a 50% chance a deal gets done with the Dodgers, Zach Lee is off the table, an anonymous GM (you know what I think of them) doesn’t think a Zach Lee type prospect will be traded this summer. It’s 5:18 and we’re less than 2 hours away from game time. Pretty sure Dempster is making his start tonight. Hopefully he gets that scoreless inning streak up to 40.
Red Sox are lagging behind in pursuit of Garza (not everyone in their front office thinks he’d be an improvement over what they have): http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/07/red-sox-still-eyeing-garza-ross-drawing-interest.html
@ mb21:
maybe the flakiest rotation in the majors. safe to say that anybody would be an improvement over aaron cook, and buchholz is probably never going to live up to his initial expectations.
Goodbye scoreless inning streak
Preview up
http://www.obstructedview.net/previews/series-preview-chicago-cubs-38-53-at-st-louis-cardinals-47-45.html