According to a number of reports, the Chicago Cubs have dealt Jake Fox and Aaron Miles to the Oakland A's for reliever Jeff Gray and minor-leaguers Ronny Morla and Matt Spencer.
Gray, 28, appeared in 24 games last season, where he had a 3.76 ERA. He had a 1.29 WHIP as well.
Spencer, a left handed hitting outfielder who turns 24 in January, split last year between High A and AA ball last year. He combined to bat .289 with 19 home runs and 91 RBI in 123 games. The Arizona State product also had a .844 OPS.
Morla, 21, played pitched in only 17 games, going 1-7 with a 4.86 ERA; he did, however, strike out 73 in 63 innings.
In Scouts.com's mid season rankings, Spencer was Oakland's 16th ranked prospect, while Morla was not ranked.
My reaction the trade...WHAT?
Miles, and his garbage contract, are gone. That's great. But getting a mediocre 28-year old reliever with 29 games on his major league resume as the headliner in a trade that included Jake Fox feels like another team fleeced Jim Hendry.
According to ESPNChicago, the Cubs are even paying $1 million Miles contract. In my humble opinion, simple releasing Miles and eating the whole thing would have been a better move than unloading Fox for three mediocre players.
Spencer put up some decent numbers, but finds himself stuck behind Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome in the Cubs' outfield rotation for the next few years. At his size (6-4, 244) he doesn't seem to be a centerfielder.
If Hendry can spin some of these prospects into someone/something that can help the 2010 Cubs, fantastic. But this deal feels too much like the fire sale trade of Mark DeRosa for me to be too comfortable right now.
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