Matt Garza, who was acquired by the Cubs for 5 players during the 2010 offseason, has been sent by the Chicago Cubs to the Texas Rangers for three prospects and a Player To Be Named Later. Originally, this trade was supposed to happen last week before the All-Star break ended, but a medical question regarding one of the prospects involved coming to the Cubs from the Rangers threw that deal in jeopardy. The prospect in question at the time, Neil Ramirez, is no longer involved in the trade this time around. Instead, Justin Grimm has been thrown into the deal, along with Mike Olt and C.J. Edwards.
Olt could be considered the prize of this deal. He’s a left-handed hitting 3B that was ranked the #22 prospect in all of baseball prior to this season according to Baseball America. Olt is known to have plus power and could very much make Wrigley Field a fun place to play with the way that field has an uncanny ability to allow flyballs to turn into home runs. C.J. Edwards, a RH pitcher, is 8-2 with a 1.83 ERA and 122 Ks in 93 1/3 IP at Single A Hickory currently in 2013. Justin Grimm is 8-8 in his Major League career with a 6.78 ERA. He is only 24 years old and will be a cheap fill-in for the Cubs in the meantime. He still has a few years to turn things around.
Garza, who was 5-0 with a minuscule 1.24 ERA in his last 6 starts, showed some signs of life recently that put faith back in opposing team’s minds that he could once again be an ace of a staff. In all, this ends a season and a half of rumors regarding Matt Garza. He now heads to Arlington where he hopes to lead the Rangers to the postseason one last time before heading into free agency after this year.
