Cubs Acquire Cotts from Sox
The Cubs traded David Aardsma and a minor leaguer to the White Sox for Neil Cotts today. On paper, I can't say that I'm a big fan of this move. I can't say that I hate it either. I'm sort of in between.
Neil Cotts, a lefty middle reliever, was dominant in the Sox 2005 World Series run. He went 4-0 with a 1.94 ERA and nearly a strikeout per inning. This year, though, his ERA ballooned to 5.17, and after a solid first half he was downright atrocious in the second half with an ERA of 9.87. Man, that's awful. I wonder if he was hurt? I do know that Perry didn't trust him for mop-up duty down the stretch.
Aardsma, two years younger than Cotts and a righty, was a 2002 first round pick for the Giants before coming to the Cubs with Jerome Williams in the LaTroy Hawkins trade. He throws absolute fire, and had a pretty solid 2006. I think he has the tools to become an elite reliever, though he's never produced much better than average results at the big league level.
The minor leaguer involved is Carlos Vazquez, a 23-year old middle reliever that split his time between single and double A this year. I've never heard of him, if that tells you anything.
As a swap of middle relievers, I don't see the point. Cotts is a decent bet to rebound this year, and is still only 26. But the Cubs already have two solid lefties in the pen in Scott Eyre and Will Ohman. Some people are speculating that Hendry might be looking to put Cotts in the rotation. He's only started five games in his big league career, but he had a decent amount of success in the minors as a starter. The Sox, of course, have little wiggle room in their division to mess around with Neil in their rotation. If Cotts was given a chance in the Cubs rotation for a while and failed, he could always be returned to the bullpen where he's had decent success.
This trade could mean that Scott Eyre is on the block. He's one of the Cubs better trading chips this offseason, as he's put up pretty great numbers three years in a row out of the pen. Could he part of a package to acquire someone like Vernon Wells? We'll see.
In any case, I hope this trade works out better than the last time the Cubs and Sox swapped relievers. That was a horrible deal from day one.