Deal or No Deal?
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jul 31, 2006 8:46PM
Baseball’s non-waiver trading deadline passed today at 3:00pm (CDT). The Cubs and Sox were both rumored to be players in possible deals, with the Cubs likely sellers of players and the Sox looking to add those missing pieces to help them right their ship and hopefully make a return trip to the World Series.
Since the Cubs fell out of the running, there had been rumors that Greg Maddux and Todd Walker would get shipped out. So did either move? The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Todd Walker will be joining the San Diego Padres. In return, the Cubs receive minor league right-handed pitcher Jose Ceda.
As trades continue to trickle out to the press even as the deadline has passed, we just saw that Greg Maddux was traded to the Dodgers in return for shortstop Cesar Izturis.
The White Sox saw the deadline pass without any deals. GM Kenny Williams maintained that things were quite leading up to the trade deadline. Turns out that wasn’t just one of his bluffs.
Last week, ESPN reported that the Sox were extremely close to acquiring Alfonso Soriano from the Nationals. Chicagoist wasn’t quite sure why. The Sox offense wasn’t their problem, and his defense was a liability, in anything. What the Sox needed was pitching. In smaller deals last week, the White Sox did bring back catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. for a third tour of duty and picked up former Royals closer Mike MacDougal. But As the deadline passed today, there will be no Soriano, Andruw Jones or Jason Schmidt sightings at the Cell – at least in a Sox uniform.
The biggest reason that the Sox were unable to land any big names is that most potential trading partners wanted pitcher Brandon McCarthy included as part of any trade. Smartly, Kenny Williams was unwilling to part with the future star.
While McCarthy has been coming out of the bullpen, it’s now time to get him into the starting rotation. Clearly, Javier Vasquez needs to be yanked from the rotation. McCarthy -- who’d been slated for that 5th starter spot until the trade for Vasquez – clearly deserves the opportunity to start in his place. Hopefully, Vasquez’s ginormous paycheck won’t compel Williams and Ozzie to keep him in the rotation.