Juan Rodriguez of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel contributes heavily to the Hot Stove League rumor mill in his latest article. His front office source indicated there are "eight teams [that] have expressed varying degrees of interest in acquiring the 24-year-old All-Star third baseman: the Angels, Dodgers, Giants, Rangers, White Sox, Nationals, Indians and Red Sox," and that the San Francisco Giants are a sleeper team in the Cabrera Sweepstakes.
Amongst the potential Giants to likely be involved would be SPs Tim Lincecum and either Matt Cain or Noah Lowry and OFs Rajai Davis and Fred Lewis. Mr. Rodiruguez also proffers, in addition to Brandon Wood and Howie Kendrick, the Angels could off catcher Jeff Mathis, who his sources reveal, the Marlins want in a Cabrera deal. He also guesses the White Sox could meet the Marlins demands with a package that include some combination of the following: Josh Fields, Brian N. Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Lance Broadway or Adam Russell.
Despite the need of any of these teams for a 3B, I am still having a hard time believing any of them would trade the farm for Miguel Cabrera. A team with a 3B prospect who would immediately become blocked by Cabrera's acquistion makes a lot os sense i.e. Brandon Wood in Anaheim and Andy LaRoche in Los Angeles.
However, Cabrera makes little sense in San Francisco if it costs them 2nd-year starter Tim Lincecum and third-year one Matt Cain. That would now make the Giants desperate for hitting and pitching as opposed to the their current desperation for hitting-only. While Cabrera is big, he still can't plug the team's holes at 1B and LF and that assumes Omar vizquel recaptures the offense he lost last year.
While Alex Rodriguez was always about the most money, he never cost any of his potential suitors organizational assets. His additional never included a calculation for what the team lost to acquire him. For any team trading for Miguel Cabrera, the team must balance those losses against the gains Cabrera would bring.