UPDATE 5:50 PM: According to Jennifer Langosch, the Pirates received RHP Kevin Hart, RHP Jose Ascanio, and IF Josh Harrison.
UPDATE 5:48 PM: A lot of rumors going around that the Pirates got Jay Jackson in return. Jackson was the #9 prospect for the Cubs this season, and their 9th round pick in the 2008 draft.
UPDATE 5:45 PM: DK says a deal is done. Grabow and Gorzelanny to the Cubs. No official word on the return yet.
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According to Dejan Kovacevic of the PPG, the Pirates are close to trading John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny to the Chicago Cubs. A source involved in the deal said that the deal was just about done at 4:13 PM.
Grabow is a free agent after the season, although he currently projects as a Type A free agent, which means the Pirates could fetch two first round compensation picks if he walks. The alternative would be getting Grabow for another year at a raise over his $2.3 M salary if he were to accept arbitration. Either way, his value goes beyond the typical two month rental.
Tom Gorzelanny has been doing a good job starting at AAA, and due to being at AAA most of the year, will probably have four years of service time remaining beyond this season. Gorzelanny’s value is low, but we saw Ian Snell fetch a good return when paired with Jack Wilson yesterday, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see another good return today in a Grabow/Gorzelanny deal.
A lot of speculation has gone around suggesting that the Pirates could trade for Donald Veal, in order to send him to AAA for the remainder of the season. That doesn’t make much sense to me. First of all, with all of the moves the Pirates have made recently, it doesn’t seem like they’d be concerned about keeping Veal out of the majors. Second, the AAA season has about a month left, so we’re talking about maybe 5-6 starts for Veal at most, and considering he’s not really stretched out, those starts aren’t going to feature a lot of innings. I think it’s more likely we see Veal used more frequently in the majors for the remainder of the season.
