Trade Watch: Alex Rios, and A Look at the Matt Garza Trade

Matt Garza is now gone. He’s moving to Texas to play for the Rangers. The Cubs, however, got some good stuff for Garza. The Cubs are building towards being a contender in 2015, and they obtained pitchers Justin Grimm and C.J. Edwards, as well as 3B Mike Olt and a player to be names later. Grimm is 7-7 in the MLB with a 6.89 ERA. Not very good, but he is only 24 years old, and the young pitching can really help the Cubs. 

Mike Olt used to be the biggest prospect in the Rangers organization, but an injury in Winter ball has hurt his eye vision. He’s like Mark Reynolds; tremendous power with a lot of walks, but a lot of strikeouts too. But who knows, he has shown signs of improvement and could be back up in the big leagues soon. 

C.J. Edwards is probably the centerpiece of the deal. Lightly scouted, he was drafted in the 48^th round from the Rangers. He throws a fastball in the lower 90’s, but can top at about 98. Only 21 years old, he is developing more and more in his command and power. In the A league, he’s 8-2 with a 1.83 ERA in 93 inings. He’s struck out 122 batters and walked only 34, and in his career in the league, he has yet to allow a home run. 

It’s a fair deal for both sides, but the Cubs probably benefit. Garza has been 5-0 with a 1.24 ERA in the last 6 starts, but they will only get about 12 starts from him until he hits the free agency market. With this Rangers rotation though, they have a very good chance to win their third AL West title in four years.

Today’s not about the Cubs, though. We continue our discussion with the other Chicago team, the White Sox! Two days ago before we heard about Braun, we discussed about Jake Peavy, but let’s talk about the other trade bait, OF Alex Rios.

Rios is bound to move in about the next week. The 32 year old has been putting up some good numbers in his career, having a career .278/.325/.444 with 155 homers, 675 RBI’s and 206 steals. Not bad. He is actually batting exactly like his average this year, batting .278/.333/.442. He’s made two all-star appearances and was on the MVP ballot last year. 

Last Friday, manager Robin Ventura benched Rios for what the manager said was a lack of hustle in a loss. Rios wasn’t very happy about that decision, but he had his revenge the next day, having 3 hits, including a grand slam, in a White Sox 10-6 victory over the Braves. 

His sabermetric stats are still pretty good. He has a .311 BABIP and a 2.1 WAR, but that’s not as good as his .323 BABIP and 4.2 WAR last year (all of these are according to FanGraphs). Defensively, he’s pretty good as well, having a 4.8 career dWAR, with a 2.1 dWAR back in 2008 with the Blue Jays.

So far from what I’ve heard, the biggest scouter on him is the Boston Red Sox. I don’t really see why, considering they have the third best OF in terms of WAR. They have Jacoby Ellsbury (.304/.369/.426 with AL best 37 steals), Shane Victorino (.284/.329/.395 but has dealt with injury) and switches with Mike Carp (.317/.378/.612 in 54 games) or Jonny Gomes (.242/.332/.434 in 71 games). Who knows that Boston will do though.

He might be gone from the Sox, but I’d honestly rather keep him. I don’t see any team wanting him that bad, and I don’t see much that they can get from him. He might be the best OF on the market, though. Some other OF’s on the market are Jason Kubel from the D-Backs, Raul Ibanez from the Mariners, and Nate Shierholtz from the Cubs. Also with the Cubs is Alfonso Soriano, but it seems like the Yankees are closing on a deal with him coming back home to New York. Raul Ibanez might be the best offer if a team is looking for power.

I’ll keep you updated with any trades going on in the next week. Hopefully there are more soon, this has been a boring year in trades. Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com with any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd