The Great Alfonso Soriano Sweepstakes
File this first under the “this sucks” department, as one of the key Yankees players, Curtis Granderson, is out for about ten weeks after getting plunked on the forearm today. Broken bones take time to heal and the general guess is that Granderson will be out for about a month of the 2013 regular season.
Naturally that didn’t prevent a lot of sportswriters and fans from speculating about oft-mentioned trade chip, Alfonso Soriano. Here’s Jon Heyman:
now, the #yankees need to go for soriano. he told cubs he won’t go west. but he might consider nyy. cbsprt.co/13EW6LY
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) February 25, 2013
The funny thing is that the new guy on the Cubs beat at ESPN, Jesse Rogers, was the first voice of reason I saw on the Twitters:
Is anyone going to point out on twitter that Granderson is back in early May, not like Yanks have to make some big trade to survive month
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) February 24, 2013
And finally, we have Gordon Wittenmeyer with some updates:
Soriano to Sun-Times today on NYY possibility. He has given the Cubs no list of teams he’d approve; NYY not on last yr’s list.
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) February 24, 2013
Sori: Open to listening is a trade proposal brought to him but does not want to leave Cubs w/out seeing how good ’13 team can be.
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) February 24, 2013
Sori: would consider self, team and family if asked to approve a trade, adding “There’s only one team on my mind: The Cubs”
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) February 24, 2013
Let’s pretend for a moment that we can disregard the fact that Soriano is not left-handed (since he’s replacing Granderson), and would only be filling in for about a month before he got platooned. What I am more intrigued with is the fact that he actually wants to stay in Chicago. I think that is a bit silly given how poorly the team is projected to do, but he had the no-trade rights negotiated into his contract when he signed with the Cubs, and he’s earned the privilege of telling his employer that he doesn’t want to go anywhere. He is of course being open-minded about this, knowing that he could be a coveted commodity on the trade market. But if we strip away the logic that the Yankees are probably not that eager to take on payroll (even if the Cubs paid most of his remaining contract) for a month of filler while Granderson heals, then we’re left with the fact that Alfonso Soriano wants to win with the Cubs.
Silly or not, it’s a really admirable sentiment for a regularly fan-blasted player to say that he wants to be a Cub. It’s ironically one of the traits Cubs fans are looking for, and I just thought I’d point it out while the rest of the media focuses on a trade that is not that likely to happen.