Yesterday ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted that the several teams have talked to the Marlins about the availability of Ricky Nolasco and Jorge Cantu. Here is is tweet:
Spoken with teams about Florida's arb.-eligible trade bait, and there clearly is major interest in Jorge Cantu and Ricky Nolasco. about 8 hours ago from web
It appears that the Marlins are listening to offers for all of their arbitration eligible players including Dan Uggla, who is almost certain to be wearing a different uniform by Christmas. Should the Marlins deal Cantu, they will be left with Emilio Bonafacio at either 3B or 2B (should Chris Coghlan stay in LF), and either 1B prospects Logan Morrison or Gaby Sanchez to play 1B. The Marlins have a 3B prospect Matt Dominguez but he is not yet ready with the bat, but is certainly major league ready with his glove.
Trading Nolasco, who had a terrible first two months of 2009 and returned to form after being sent down to the minors, should net the Marlins some top major league ready prospects. Nolasco pitched better than his 2009 stats indicate, so there should be many teams looking to deal for him.
Who are those teams? I would guess that the Mets, Cubs (he was drafted by the Cubs), Brewers, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Rockies would have some interest from the National League. I wouldn't be surprised to see the two of them packaged to the same team for several prospects.
Could the Brewers send a package headlined by Mat Gamel for Nolasco and Cantu? How about the Dodgers with a package around Chris Withrow and James Loney? The Diamondbacks could offer a change of scenery for struggling outfielder Chris Young.
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