Chicago Cubs Trade Garza to the Texas Rangers

It’s official… Matt Garza will be winding-up in the Lone Star State…

The Texas Rangers have acquired the 29-year-old Mexican American pitcher from the Chicago Cubs, the team announced Monday night.

Matt Garza

In exchange for Garza, the Cubs acquired Triple-A infielder Mike Olt, Class A right-hander C.J. Edwards and right-hander Justin Grimm from the Rangers. The Cubs will also get one or two players to be named later, depending on who they take, as part of the deal.

Garza is expected to work out with the Rangers on Tuesday; while Texas general manager Jon Daniels said Garza is likely to start Wednesday night against the New York Yankees.

“He’s an extremely talented pitcher,” said Daniels. “He’s had success in the toughest divisions and the biggest stages. He was throwing the ball as well as anybody right now. He has a power repertoire, who is something that’s a little different from what we’ve got. And he was available.

“He was in our opinion the best guy on the market, and we wanted to go out and make a push to get him.”

Garza was scheduled to start for the Cubs Monday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks but was scratched.

Garza is 6-1 with a 3.17 ERA overall this season, including 5-0 with a 1.24 ERA in his past six starts. He is entering the final year of his contract.

“He was the best pitcher in baseball in his last five, six, seven starts. He’s young, has great velocity, has good command of his pitches and that makes him attractive to any team,” said Cubs manager Dale Sveum. “It’s not easy to part with a guy like Garza and someone has to step in and be productive. We hope the players we get will make us a better team, and in the future, we can be the team who pursues a player like Garza.”

With six pitchers currently on the disabled list, including four starters, Texas has been in the market for a starting pitcher for weeks. The Rangers are in a heated division race with Oakland, trailing the A’s by three games in the AL West entering Monday night.