The Cincinnati Reds are one of the best teams in baseball, but they desperately need an upgrade at left field. MLB Rumors are going to start heating up around Alfonso Soriano and I believe the Reds are going to be taking a hard look at the left fielder of the Chicago Cubs. Why? Simple- Soriano can still play and the Cubs would be eating most of the salary. If the Reds came up with even a decent prospect or 2, it would be a done deal barring Soriano waiving his no trade clause.
Sticking Soriano in the 6 hole behind Jay Bruce and Joey Votto would be huge for that offense. Soriano can still hit for power and the Reds don’t exactly play in a pitcher friendly park. Would Soriano help this team? Heck yeah he would help this team. It would be better than platooning Chris Heisey that’s for sure.
So what would it take to get Soriano? How about eating 90% of his money remaining and how about pitchers Ismael Guillon and Dan Langfield? Both are raw, green, talented prospects, but they aren’t in most lists top 15. To get a guy that can help you get to the World Series for 2 guys that aren’t your best? Yeah that would make sense to me.
Guillon is a left handed starter whose already had tommy john surgery. He’ll sit around 93 with his fastball, and has developing secondary stuff. He’s incredibly wild right now and doesn’t locate well, but is only 21 and has plenty of time to figure it out. The Cubs are putting more and more resources into developing pitching prospects so they could take a flier on him.
Langfield is a hard throwing right hander that can tough 98-99 on his fastball. He doesn’t have much of a changeup, but his power breaking ball tells me he’s going to be a reliever as he continues to grow. This is the kind of player the Cubs can develop as a future closer- again something they lack.
We’ll see what happens, but this is a trade that both teams should be exploring. I have a feeling- they already are.
