Matt Garza Trade Rumors: Deal Hits 'Snag'

It occurs to me that this is what's happened with many trades in the past -- two teams going back and forth, one team not liking a player's medicals so they renegotiate, then announce a final trade... without anyone knowing all the gory details.

Gory details are what splashed all over the internet Friday about the rumored Matt-Garza-to-the-Texas-Rangers trade, which many thought would be finished before the day was out.

Ken Rosenthal sums up what happened:

The Matt Garza trade talks between the Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs hit a snag Friday afternoon, leaving the Cubs with an opening to send Garza to another club, according to major league sources.

The Rangers were close to acquiring right-hander Garza on Friday morning for a strong package of prospects, sources said. The cause of the snag is unclear, but likely is related to the medical records of one or more of the players in the deal.

If the Rangers identified a problem with Garza, they might want the Cubs to accept a lesser package — and other teams, upon learning of the disruption in the negotiations, might not be willing to offer as much.

If you think this is something that's unique to Theo and Jed, or the Cubs, I submit that you're likely wrong. As noted above, in the pre-Twitter era, this probably happened to many trade negotiations. We just didn't hear about it every five minutes. Personally, I don't think this way is better.

In any case, another report had the Rangers wanting to complete this trade Friday so that Garza could start for them tonight against the Orioles. Now, that appears unlikely to happen, so I'd guess Garza will make his start Monday in Phoenix against the Diamondbacks, with still nine days from then until the non-waiver deadline.

Use this post for all your Garza trade discussion today.