A look at 'my bad/your bad' options re Soriano

I don’t want to see Garza anywhere near a deal that contains salary relief or Theo compensation.

After all, it’s just “spit ballin’” at this point.

But given that the Cubs are in the NL and just traded for a 1B, I think you can trim the list in several places.

To me, the most important factor is each team still needs a motivation to do the deal. Any team acquiring Soriano would be looking for RH power that might bounce back with fresher legs at DH while also ridding themselves of a bad contract. What do the Cubs hope to gain? We can look at these individually because if there’s nothing to gain… then there’s no motivation to move Soriano (other than just “ridding” yourself of him, which I don’t think is necessary… and that doesn’t mean I don’t want him moved).

IMO, you could pull Rios because the Sox would have to also trade away Dunn to let Soriano DH, unless they were going to play him in LF. And I don’t think Theo would have a lot of patience for his aloof attitude.

I could see the Cubs rolling the dice on Peavy, since we’re looking at sunk cost. But like with Rios, the Sox would have to move Dunn, too, for Soriano to have a position.

Dunn and Morneau are out since I highly, highly doubt Theo/Jed would trade for Rizzo and then plop an albatross in front of him.

What you wrote about Dice-K and Lackey makes sense, but I don’t think Theo would want to trade for either of those “mistakes”.

Burnett: low likelihood for the reasons you noted. However, if you could pull their top 3 prospects (B, B, & Montero who would presumably be flipped back to an AL team) for Garza, the Cubs probably ought to do that deal. That could open the possibility for a Burnett/Soriano swap. Burnett has been pretty bad, but I think he could really benefit from a move back to the NL.

Wells: I actually wouldn’t completely rule this out. Obviously the Angels would have to fork over at least the difference in dollars. But Wells could be a dark horse “bounce back” candidate. I’ve got to say I like his chances of being worth something for three years better than Soriano.

Figgins: I am awfully low on Figgins, but I agree I could see this deal being done. Two issues. One, would Soriano approve a trade to baseball Siberia? Second, the money has to come down… the Cubs shouldn’t be paying Soriano’s full salary in ‘14, and I’d argue the M’s shouldn’t get the full rebate for ’12 or ’13, either. Seattle should be picking up at least a little of that change.

Roberts: Makes sense I suppose, but I don’t think it ever happens.

So I’d rank them: Figgins (ugh), Burnett, Wells, PV!!!, Roberts. No on the rest.

But my first preference is to find someone who will pay ~$4-6M/year and send him out without taking “bad” back. As much as we lambaste Soriano, he makes sense for clubs at $4-6M / year.

are salary dumps tax deductible?

Unless it saves the cubs a good amount, which I’d imagine most Soriano trade scenarios would.

Roberts and Peavy.

Is Roberts a “bad deal” for BAL though? I haven’t had that impression, although he had the concussion and has missed a lot of the last two seasons. If he recovers his career OBP and OPS are good… wait, I see a pattern here.

Peavy is not a huge contract. He may have missed his success window though. Again, the injuries.

The other ideas are too pricey for veteran guys who seem more like Hendry deals than Theo deals, IMO.

Lastly, I hope the dude from last month who ran this similar idea (but listed every FA in North America) reads this and can understand why we picked on him. Just kidding little lamb.

If we’re willing to pay the majority of the $54,000,000, then I think there’s a few AL teams would consider it. This is a more realistic scenario than trading for another salary, simply because from the other team’s perspective, they’d still have to commit the same dollars to another player.

But, if he rehabs successfully, the Cubs can resign him after 2012. So, there’s some potential reward there, although he’s not under team control beyond 2012.

Dumping Soriano and his contract will allow ‘the suits’ and the Cubs move on from ridding of past huge mistakes to actually adding. It is a different approach, focus, and perspective. After Dempster, (who has produced at his contract expectation) everyone else on the roster is not contract immune from earning their place on the field or gaining playing time, even if the Cubs acquire a big contract in return.

It makes more sense – and is more in line with the way Theo’s been working – to simply eat most or all of the money owed and get a prospect back than to simply tread water by exchanging bad contracts. None of these players really fit with what he’s trying to do here.

I doubt the Mariners want a poor defensive left fielder who also hits mostly fly-balls in a park where you need defense and that suppresses home runs.

It’s sounding more and more like Morneau might not even play again, there’s continued pressure on the Twins to move Mauer over to first, and not many teams are going to be willing to try and grab someone who’s basically on his last string’s worth of head injuries. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me at all if Morneau calls it quits for good sometime this year, and it seems more and more likely by the day that he isn’t doing normal training…

does the team pay it all at the time of the trade freeing it up for the following season and beyond, or does it get paid out over the contract time?

example, they send Soriano and $45M to “x” team, do they pay that at $15M per season, or send all $45 which would in turn raise the salary of the season, just not the on field salary in the process?

i could see it going either way, just never heard how that part plays out

Montero’s bat is gone and Soriano could spend more time as DH. They just signed Kuroda which gives them 7 pitchers.

While we also have a SP pitching surplus, this would help rid us of our Soriano surplus.