If you’d had your hopes set on Brett Anderson as a buy-low, upside play for the Cubs …
Ken Rosenthal reports that the Rockies and A’s have come together on a trade that will send 25-year-old lefty Brett Anderson to the Rockies for fellow 25-year-old lefty Drew Pomeranz and pitching prospect Chris Jensen. Clearly the A’s think they can “fix” whatever woes Pomeranz has had in the last couple of years (giving up fewer homers and walking fewer batters would be a start), because Jensen is a 23-year-old in High-A and Pomeranz has really struggled in his time in the big leagues. Obviously Anderson comes with the huge injury issues, but this is a nice move for the Rockies.
For the A’s, I guess it’s not that bad, given that Anderson is owed $8 million next year, plus a $1.5 million buyout on a 2015 option ($12 million). Getting a cheap flyer in Pomeranz and a non-zero prospect in Jensen is decent.
With Anderson off of the market, I wonder if some of the budget-conscious teams that were looking for pitching with upside turn back to the Cubs and Samardzija. The Blue Jays, for example, had been rumored fans of Anderson for a while.
Outside of that, there isn’t much impact here for the Cubs, who likely didn’t have any overlap with the Rockies’ pitching pursuits (other than Anderson, to whom the Cubs hadn’t been directly connected).
The deals are happening, though …