Garza Pulled From Tonight's Start, Trade To Rangers Near

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 22, 2013 9:30PM

The moment most of Cubdom has been waiting for appears to be happening. Matt Garza has been pulled from his start against Arizona tonight, as strong an indicator as any that a trade for the highly sought pitcher is near and nearly 24 hours after manager Dale Sveum guaranteed Garza would start tonight.

According to Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal, Garza is heading to the Texas Rangers in exchange for a host of minor league prospects. Rosenthal's report was confirmed by Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan.

The Cubs will receive third baseman Mike Olt, pitchers C.J. Edwards, Justin Grimm and a player to be named later. Olt is the most major league ready player available with a .219 batting average, .318 OBP and .438 slugging percentage with 17 doubles, 12 homers and 34 RBI in 68 games this season across Double-A and Triple-A. But Edwards may be the most coveted player of the bunch. He leads the South Atlantic League in ERA (1.83) and strikeouts (122) in 931/3 innings, hasn't allowed a homer in 1601/3 professional innings and has been heavily scouted by the Cubs.

it's believed the two teams could have reached an agreement sooner but there were concerns by the Rangers about Garza starting the season on the disabled list. the players still need to pass physicals in order for the deal to be completed.