Matt Garza

After their offseason fire sale, the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays lost a lot of key players from their multiple playoff teams. In order to recover, they will need new players to step up to a more prominent role.

These power rankings take into consideration how much the loss hurts the Rays and if they have a viable replacement. 

The key losses to the Rays roster are mostly in their bullpen. The reason being that they do not have many proven players to fill in. In other areas they have players that have at least a year or more experience in the majors. 

With so many of the big name free agents signed early on this off season, it has been a winter of trade rumors, and while most have proved to be nothing beyond just rumors, the Brewers managed to pull off two of the bigger trades of the off season.

However, the rest of the NL Central has been fairly busy as well, as the Cubs, Reds, Cardinals, and Brewers all look to be in the running for the division. Even the Astros and Pirates made a handful of moves that could make series' against them that much tougher.

The Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs made a surprising trade Thursday when the Rays agreed to send pitcher Matt Garza, outfielder Fernando Perez and a minor league pitcher to the Cubs for a package of prospects including pitcher Chris Archer, outfielders Brandon Guyer and Sam Fuld, catcher Robinson Chirinos and shortstop Hak-Ju Lee.

Tampa Bay Ray fans are watching their team fall apart by the seams of Matt Garza's 95 mile per hour fastball.

The Chicago Cubs have acquired SP Matt Garza, a minor league pitcher and OF Fernando Perez for a plethora of young players including OF Sam Fuld and RHP Chris Archer, the 2010 Minor League Baseball Pitcher of the Year.

The Cubs have agreed to acquire right-handed pitcher Matt Garza from the Tampa Bay Rays for a package of prospects on Friday. The Cubs will send Chris Archer, Brandon Guyer, Robinson Chirinos, Hak Ju-Lee and Sam Fuld to the Rays for Garza and a minor-league pitcher and a minor-league outfielder, according to Bruce Levine.

Garza is only 27, so he is a young pitcher who will be under club control for three years. So why would the Rays trade him? For one, they are trading from a position of strength. They already have a solid rotation  penciled in for 2011. 

Entering his final year of salary arbitration, Jonathan Papelbon will likely cash in on a big pay day following the 2011 season. 

However, with a declining skill set and Daniel Bard as the closer of the future, there is next to no chance he signs a long term deal with the Boston Red Sox.

Papelbon is due to make roughly $11 million for the coming season.

The presence of Bard and the acquisition of Bobby Jenks makes the possibility that Papelbon does not finish the year with the Red Sox all the more likely.

So far this offseason, there has been much talk of the Rays moving Matt Garza and even possibly James Shields. With the big losses of Carl Crawford to Boston and Carlos Pena to Chicago, Rafael Soriano's pending signing with a new squad, along with Jason Bartlett having been dealt to San Diego, it's easy to expect a drop off from a Rays team that won the division just a year ago. However, it is not time to consider moving two of their top pitchers when they have so much dynamic talent coming up from the system soon.

Heading into the offseason, the Yankees considered themselves favorites to land Cliff Lee, and the Rangers definitely thought they had a chance. The Angels though they could sign Carl Crawford, and several teams around the league believed they could bring in Zack Greinke.

With all three players off the market—Lee in Philly, Greinke in Milwaukee and Crawford in Boston—GM's around baseball are scrambling to find that backup plan, fill their budgets and put a competitive team on the field heading into 2011.

There has been a lot of focus on the 2010 free agent signings during the "hot stove" season.

But what about a good old-fashioned trade?

Now that Cliff Lee is off the board, the pool of free agents has begun to slither away.

Here is a look at 10 teams that could potentially be involved in a blockbuster trade that might shift the course of power in both the American and National League.

Now that the Winter Meetings are over and Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth have signed mammoth contracts, what's next? What other impact free-agents are still out there? 

It looks more likely this winter that there will be significant player movement via trade. In this economic climate it makes sense for smaller market teams to trade players who are looking at large salary increases in the near future in exchange for younger players that they can control for a significant amount of time.