Cubs Trade Pitcher
The Cubs made a move today to clear some much needed....minor league roster space? Rotoworld says the Oakland Athletics have acquired pitcher Rocky Roquet for the ever popular player to be named later.
Roquet, a 26-year old right-hander was always a favorite of Arizona Phil and was a non-roster invitee to camp this spring. He pitched in the Arizona Fall League the last two years and Scout.com had him at #18 in their 2008 prospect rankings.
I'm not sure why the move was made unless the Cubs felt they were full at the minor league levels or Billy Beane really liked Roquet and promised a decent return for the Cubs on that ambiguous future player they'll eventually receive. Or the Cubs know they're going to have to bite the bullet on Chad Gaudin's salary and the deal will just end up being for cash...an unlikely but possible scenario.
UPDATE: Muskat also says the Cubs have released LHP Ed Campusano. I believe over the last month the Cubs have cut ties with their top picks from 2003-2005 (Ryan Harvey, Grant Johnson and Mark Pawelek), plus pitchers Ryan Acosta, Campusano, Micahel Cooper, Jim Henderson, Jordan Latham, John Muller, Audy Santana, Harol Tolentino, catchers Mario Mercedes and Tony Richie, 1B Bryan Jost and SS Erick Almonte.
UPDATE #2: The Cubs VP of Player Personnel Oneri Fleita says the trade was simply due to a minor league roster crunch.
“He’s a great kid with a chance to pitch in the major leagues,” Cubs Vice President of Player Personnel Oneri Fleita said of Roquet.
“We were simply full and had to create (minor league roster) space.
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