Cubs Close to Trading Zambrano to Miami?

January 4, 2012 By 43 Comments

According to a report from Ken Rosenthal, the Cubs are close on a deal that would send Carlos Zambrano to the Miami Marlins. Reports from Venezuela earlier on Wednesday indicated a deal could be in the works.

Carlos Zambrano would have to waive his no-trade clause in order for the Cubs to trade him to Miami.

Updated 5:49pm CST: According to a report from Enrique Rojas, the Cubs and Marlins are discussing a Zambrano for Chris Volstad swap. According to reports out of Miami, Matt Dominguez could be in the deal. David Kaplan is reporting the trade could be finalized in 24-48 hours. Carlos Zambrano has been pitching in the Venezuela Winter League but was reportedly shutdown recently due to a leg injury.

There has been no indication of what the Cubs could be receiving in return or how much of his contract that would have to eat. Zambrano is owed $18 million for 2012, the last guaranteed year of his contract. There is a vesting option for 2013 on Zambrano’s contract worth $19.25 million.

Stay Tuned …

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Filed Under: If The Ivy Could Talk - Cubs Rumors Tagged With: ,
  • Anthony

    for Aaron, if this domino falls, that spot woulde need replacement and Oliver is the perfect candidate at a low cost.

    Me thinks Barney and a prospect might land Oliver from Motown

    • Aaron

      Not a chance, Anthony…as part of a larger deal, involving Garza and the 3 team deal I mentioned, then, yes, indirectly Barney could bring an Oliver or Smyly…but INDIRECTLY is the operative words here.

      It would take Barney and McNutt to land Oliver. Would you be comfortable with that? I’d be comfortable with that, as long as they included Brenny Paulino or Tyler Collins along with Oliver

      • Anthony

        yes

  • Demitri

    Nice. After Zambrano, only big contracts that are left are Soriano and Dempster.

    • Anthony

      unless some future dynamic trade occurs, having Demp eat his innings is not a bad thing

      as of nowif this trade happens:

      Garza
      Dempster
      Wood

      penciled in

      a #1 with good stuff
      a #2 who eats innings
      a #3 craft lefty

      would like one of the 4/5 to be a hard throwin LHP

  • daverj

    Any predictions on how the salary will be split and what we get in return?  I’m going to guess 50/50 on the salary and Volstad and a low level minor leaguer coming back to the Cubs.

    • http://chicagocubsonline.com/ Neil

      I have not seen yet on the salary. Volstad could be involved. Not sure at this point.

      • Aaron

        Other than the Marlins paying almost all of Zambrano’s salary, a straight up swap for Volstad makes little sense, as I’ve mentioned before. First of all, Zambrano, even with his poor showing last year, is still the far superior pitcher between the two. Volstad might have potential, and is 5 years younger than Zambrano, but a career 4.59 ERA, 1.409 WHIP vs Zambrano’s 3.60 ERA, 1.319 WHIP, sure seems to me like a big step backwards.

        That’s why, in my opinion, they’d need to include someone like Fernandez, Rob Rasmussen, Ceda, etc. should be coming back as well, even though Zambrano would be under contract (technically, though with certain milestones, he can get next year guaranteed) for just one year.

        • daverj

          I can’t a guy at the level of Fernandez, Rasmussen or Ceda coming back to the Cubs.  Zambrano has very little trade value right now.

          I hope you are right and I am wrong!

          • Aaron

            If the Cubs pick up most of his salary, then, yes, he DOES have value, especially playing for Guillen. However, if the Marlins are paying, say, $12-15 million of his deal, then, in my opinion, all he’s worth is Volstad….that was my point

          • http://chicagocubsonline.com/ Neil

            Aaron, Volstad and Matt Dominguez are names coming out of Miami.

    • Ripsnorter1

      I bet the Cubs are going to get paid like he’s a 7 game winner–which is what he is–and 7 game winning veteran pitchers get paid about $5 million. 

      Cubs would have to eat $13 million dollars!

      Translation:
      It ain’t gonna happen that way. The Cubs would never eat that much money.

      • Aaron

        If the Cubs pay a majority of his salary, then they should get a top prospect, even with Z’s bad season, because he’s a career sub-4 ERA, innings eater with an above average bat as well.

        I think Fernandez and Volstad (basically a useless pitcher for them) would be fair.

  • Patrick_Schaefer

    That would be cool but not holding my breath.

  • http://chicagocubsonline.com/ Neil

    According to Enrique Rojas, the Cubs and Marlins are discussing a Zambrano for Volstad swap.

  • http://chicagocubsonline.com/ Neil

    Updated the report … Volstad and/or Matt Dominguez could be in the deal.

    • Aaron

      1956 plate appearances, .255/.325/.418, 102 doubles, 4 triples, 58 hr, 277 RBI, 166 walks, 325 K’s

      vs

      1666 plate appearances, .277/.319/.439, 95 doubles, 7 triples, 47 hr, 229 RBI, 71 walks, 246 K’s

      …you make the determination on who has the higher upside, then I’ll tell you who those players are…Both players are the same age as well, just FYI

      • http://chicagocubsonline.com/ Neil

        The second one is Vitters, correct?

        • Aaron

          Yes…and the first is Dominguez. I firmly believe, and if you compensate for the plate appearance discrepancy and add the same amount of plate appearances which I rounded up to 300 (due to Vitters injuries), he would have roughly 112 doubles, 8 triples, 55 hr, 270 RBI, 83 walks, 290 K’s across the same amount of plate appearances as Dominguez

          Vitters has a higher average, higher SLG, and a much better contact rate 445 hits for Dominguez vs 429 hits for Vitters (would be over 500 hits with the extra 300 plate appearances according to my math 429/1666, then multiply by 300).

          Yet, Vitters is almost surely gone via trade, or possibly even compensation for Hoyer or Epstein (which would be a travesty to lose him in that)…My guess is they’ll try to trade him for Rizzo, even though the Padres have Gyorko almost ready.

          So…Dominguez vs Vitters. Who you liking better? My money is on Vitters, and I’m telling you, last season at AA as a 21 year old was pretty damn impressive. He even worked hard on taking more walks, and he accomplished that.

          • Aaron

            Also, I should note that Vitters and Dominguez had nearly identical power numbers in AA with both having 14 hr, 81 RBI….problem is, Dominguez struck out almost twice as much as Vitters did, and his average was nearly 30 points lower.

            Now…you tell me, from a pure offensive standpoint who has the higher ceiling? I vote Vitters, and it’d be a shame to see him go in favor of a lesser player for a true offensive position on the corner IF.

            Now, if the Cubs intend to move Vitters to LF or 1B, that’s another thing, and I could go along with it, but it sure as hell seems like Epstein and CO. are hell-bent on turning over the bulk of the minor league system…even productive players, in order to make their stamp on the club.

      • Peter

        If you are comparing Vitters to Dominguez, you are forgetting one absolutely essential fact. Dominguez is a Gold Glove caliber third baseman and Vitters has hands of stone.

        • Anthony

          yeah, so why do they give hands of stone 3 million dollars out of high school and give plane tickets to solid defenders with college experience?
           
           

    • daverj

      Volstad is a guy that a lot of the sabermetric guys like so I figured he might be part of the deal. Dominguez is ok … great glove but I don’t think he’ll hit enough to be more than a major league utilityman.

      • cubtex

        have you seen Volstad’s minor league numbers? The guy is 6’8 and has a K rate like Casey Coleman! How do sabermetric guys like this guy? He doesn’t miss many bats.

        • daverj

          I haven’t looked at his 2011 numbers yet myself (I’m going to), but I have read that his underlying skill stats showed growth and that “bad luck” made his ERA and WHIP stats look much worse then his actual performance.  I want to take a look at his Hit percentage, Strand rate, xERA, FIP, K/BB and K/9 before I make my own judgements.

  • Patrick_Schaefer

    This would be awesome but we have heard so many rumors. I won’t celebrate till a deal is done.

  • Peter

    I am all for a trade that brings Dominguez to the Cubs. He would be their third baseman for the next decade!!

  • Patrick_Schaefer

    Byrd and Soriano next. I still like Dempster not at the salary he is making but on a good team he is still a quality 4 th starter that can shutout other teams on occasion and eat alot of innings.

  • http://chicagocubsonline.com/ Neil

    From Bruce Levine: Cubs and marlins agree on trade that sends p Carlos Zambrano in exchange for Chris volstad .cubs pay 15 of 18 million .

  • http://chicagocubsonline.com/ Neil

    The deal appears done … waiting for confirmation from one more source.

    • Aaron

      WOW..That is a HORRIBLE trade from the Cubs standpoint. It’d be better to let him rebuild value in an already lost season, then try to deal him at the deadline…

      Paying all but $3 million (which is what Volstad will earn) is equivalent to giving away Zambrano altogether. The whole purpose of a trade would be to unload salary, and get a change of scenery player, plus prospect in return.

      The Cubs did neither.

      Unless another player is included…WOW….I swear there must be some type of “dumbing down” agent in the air ducts at Wrigley that makes management do inexplicable things.

      Whatever…maybe in Theo’s conversation with Zambrano, he determined they just couldn’t move forward, and the Marlins were the only ones he could go to, so they’d be bidding against themselves if they offered more, and the whole league knew it….

  • mutantbeast

    I would GLADLY take both Volstad and Dominguez for Zambrano.

  • Kojak Osborne Jr.

    So we getting Volstad , they guys are killing me softly but I guess Zambrano is finally gone so I am happy

  • Chris Payton

    Send Zambrano packing we don’t need a quitter

  • Kojak Osborne Jr.

    It is official pending a physical and league approval Zambrano is no longer a Cub.

  • Anthony

    Hope Volstad is a late bloomer.

    • cubtex

      He doesn’t miss many bats.

    • Aaron

      As I said…this move makes complete sense and is an excellent one from the Marlins standpoint, who are hoping (and will likely be rewarded for) Zambrano returns to his pre-2011 form with a sub-4 ERA and eating innings.

      It is an absolutely TERRIBLE deal from the Cubs’ standpoint, and here’s why:
      -Volstad throws 91 mph tops, has a high walk rate, low K rate, and gives up the gopher-ball
      -he will earn around $3 million through arbitration….

      Therefore, the Cubs just gave away Zambrano to the Marlins outright, because the $3 million they aren’t paying, goes directly to Volstad, and teh Marlins put Volstad’s $3 million commitment towards the Zambrano salary, making it a complete wash on their end.

      I thought, rightfully so if you look at other trades, that if the Cubs paid the bulk of his salary, they’d get decent players back.

      All I can say, is WOW….be careful what you ask for Cubs fans….we all were clamoring for Epstein and CO, and literally every move they’ve made thus far is a complete head-scratcher and completely contradicts their stated intentions.

      • Bnisius

        Nt clause and only place z wld go

  • RICK

    Big Z wins 20 games for the fish and the cubs pay for it.

    • J Daniel

      YEP!!!! Probably 15 is closer to the win total.

  • cubtex

    Ok….. If Garza is dealt the Cubs will have the worst starting rotation in baseball. Even worse than last year….if you can believe that! How does this look Cub fans? Dempster(our 2012 Ace) Travis Wood could be our #2, Volstad, maybe a young pitcher we aquired for Garza and either Cashner or Shark. Wow! That was painful just typing those names down.

    • ChadAudio

      Why does everyone leave off R. Wells in their projected rotation.  Isn’t he less of a question mark then T. Wood?