The Chicago Cubs WANT Matt Garza

The Chicago Cubs have stepped up their efforts to try and trade for Starting Pitcher Matt Garza of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Chicago Cubs already announced the addition of one former Ray at the Winter Meetings as they announced the signing of Carlos Pena today, and they are hoping to have another former Ray on their team by the time the Winter Meetings come to an end tomorrow.

According to Bruce Levine, the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Rays have spent most of tonight discussing the parameters of a deal that would send Garza to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for a number of Cubs’ top prospects. The prospect as of this point are not known, but I can assure that neither Brett Jackson nor Chris Archer would go to the Rays in a trade for Matt Garza. With the Texas Rangers and Milwaukee Brewers focused on other targets, the Chicago Cubs have the strongest bid for Garza, and may be in a prime position to land the starting pitcher.

The addition of Matt Garza would leap the Cubs from non-contenders, to being a major contender to win the National League Central division crown. With the exception of his rookie season in 2006, Garza has been a very solid Starting Pitcher in the major leagues. This past season, Garza had a record of 15-10 with an ERA of 3.91 while going over 200 innings pitched and striking out 150. However, Garza to this point, is probably most remembered for his efforts during the 2008 campaign for the Tampa Bay Rays. While Garza only had a record of 11-9 with an ERA of 3.70 during the season, he put the Rays on his back during the postseason and led them to the World Series.

Like I said before, the addition of Garza would automatically turn the Chicago Cubs into playoff contenders. The one thing that I would love to know, is who the Cubs will be giving up in this proposed deal? While Archer and Brett Jackson are two of our top prospects, the Cubs have essentially made both untradeable. Bruce Levine was on XM Radio tonight with Mike Ferrin and Jeff Nelson, and he told them that the deal on the table does include Cubs top catching prospect Robinson Chirinos, and one of their top shortstop prospects along with two other top prospects in the Cubs organization. Considering that Garza is still under team control for three more seasons, the Cubs would not be overpaying to get Garza.

Matt Garza would be a great fit for the Chicago Cubs, as he would probably slide into the #2 spot in the Cubs rotation. Considering the strong numbers that Garza put up in the very tough American League East, you would have to think that Garza would be even better pitching in the mediocre National League Central.

In separate report, Bruce Levine mentioned that the Chicago Cub still have a lot of different scenarios that are floating around. The Cubs are still interested in deal with Texas for Chris Davis, and Darren O’day. The Rangers like Chirinos, but the Cubs are holding off on that trade considering that Chirinos is involved in a potential Matt Garza trade. Levine also notes that the Cubs are once again interested in trading for Jason Frasor of the Toronto Blue Jays, and they remain interested in free agent starter Brandon Webb. Obviously, as Levine mentions, the Cubs have put all these scenarios on hold as they focus on completing a trade for Matt Garza.