Is this on the level with the Ryan Dempster Trade Saga?
Alfonso Soriano has long told the Cubs – and the public – that he would consider accepting a trade to a contender, if it was a good team, in a good city. Like Dempster, Soriano has no-trade rights, so ultimately, accepting a deal is up to him.
According to Jim Bowden, Soriano has told the Cubs he won’t accept a trade to the San Francisco Giants. Based on that fact, although not a certainty, it’s fair to assume that the Cubs had put together the parameters of a deal with the Giants, not unlike the Cubs and Braves for Dempster.
But, whatever that deal might have been – how much money would the Cubs have saved? What would the Cubs have received in return? – we’ll never know, because it seems to have been squashed by Soriano in his infancy.
Are you angry? Does not knowing what might have been – unlike with Dempster, where we knew Randall Delgado would have been coming to the Cubs – make you less angry? If so, is that fair?
Initially, I wasn’t all that angry with Ryan Dempster. It was only after multiple reports said he’d originally told the Cubs and the Braves that he would accept the deal, and then changed his mind, that I grew perturbed (though I’m not sure I would say I ever reached “angry”). And, I can’t say I’m all that angry with Soriano. Yes, I’d like the Cubs to be able to move him if they want to move him. But, rejecting trades is his right, and he can do it for whatever arbitrary reasons he decides.
But it’s hard to argue that the Giants aren’t a good team (they’re in first place in the NL West), and it’s hard to argue that San Francisco isn’t a good city (though, candidly, I’m not a huge fan). So, I wonder what Soriano didn’t like? Does he not want to stay in the NL?
Multiple reports have the Cubs still in discussions with the Dodgers about Soriano, though, as a part of a Ryan Dempster deal. We’ll see what, if anything, happens.