Trade Talk: Garza, Baker Not for Sale

The Boston Red Sox have reportedly inquired about the availability of Matt Garza and Jeff Baker, at least according to posts at MLBTradeRumors.com. They are certainly attractive trade deadline properties. Garza is under team control for several more years, he’s pretty cheap as far as front line starters go, and he is relatively young. The Red Sox need pitching, so who would not take a shot here.

From the Cubs viewpoint, though, a trade like that makes relatively little sense. The Cubs just traded away three or four of their Top Ten prospects for Garza during the off-season in the mistaken belief they were serious contenders. They are hardly going to go for a deal where Boston ships them a couple of prospects. This would amount to simply trading our prospects for yours, and, since the Red Sox shipped off arguably their best prospects to obtain Adrian Gonzalez, you don’t have to be a genius to determine which team would obtain the best value here.

Nobody has ever described Jim Hendry as a genius, though, but the best guess here is he will not bite, and that it the wisest strategy is to hold on to Garza. On the subject of Hendry not being a genius, though, the Cubs apparent reaction to the Baker rumors are a real head-scratcher. FoxSports reports he is close to untouchable.

Baker at best is a useful role-player for a contending team that needs a little right-handed pop. Historically, he has killed left-handed pitching and has been middling to just plain awful against righties. He plays a lot of positions not very well. So he’s a good fit for a predominantly left-handed hitting team that needs a quick, cheap fix from the right side for the stretch run. A team, as a matter of fact, like the Red Sox.

For the Cubs, he is a bit of a luxury. First off, the Cubs are a predominantly right-handed hitting team. They are also fairly rich in infielders at AA and AAA level, all of whom are effectively blocked from major league experience in a losing season by the presence of a player like Baker

The Red Sox reportedly have a pretty good farm system despite having traded top prospects for Gonzalez, so you would think the two teams matched up pretty well since, unlike Garza, Baker is probably worth just B or C type prospects. The fact that the Cubs evidently think Jeff Baker is an integral part of their 2012 plans tells you more about their stubborn mind set than fans probably care to know.

It tells me management isn’t thinking straight when they want to hold on to a player whose principal value is as a platoon replacement for left-handed hitters. In case Hendry is not aware, the Cubs only have two left-handed starters and that lack of balance is one of the major reasons they stink.

A version of this post is also posted at Bleacher Report.