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Wednesday, December 08, 2004 |
Has Hendry Created A Sub Rosa Method For Trading Draft Picks?
Lost amidst the general flatulance that greeted the Cubs' Henry Blanco signing is the possibility that Jim Hendry may have signed him as a "draft pick to be named later" for the Twins. The Twins, you recall, ended up getting virtually nothing from the multiway trade that brought Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs. Now, I believe Blanco is a class C free agent, which means the Cubs surrender no draft picks in compensation, but what might have happened had he been, say, Brad Radke? You can imagine a scenario where Terry Ryan or Jim Hendry might have said, "Look, we/you can give up Doug Mientkewicz -- he's no great shakes, but what we/you really want is a draft pick. We'll let Paul Bako go at the end of the year, bring on Henro Blanco, and you get a draft pick in return. Agreed?" It can't be done explicitly -- you'd have to have a fortuitous set of circumstances for this to work -- but it opens the door to some interesting possibilities.
Thanks to Helen for picking this up on the Cub Reporter forums and passing it along.
Update 12/9/04: Cub Reporter has a semi-definitive answer on this one:
- Blanco is a type C free agent, though there is disagreement between Baseball America and MLB.com on the subject.
- The Twins will still receive a compensatory draft pick for Blanco, a "sandwich" pick between the 2nd and 3rd rounds. The pick is not surrendered by the Cubs, rather it is created.
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