The Royals granted Zack Greinke his wish to be traded on Sunday as he, along with Yuniesky Betancourt, were dealt to the Brewers for Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar, and pitching prospects Jeremy Jeffress and Jake Oridizzi. The Brewers have completed the overhaul of their starting rotation this offseason and now have a very solid top 5 in their rotation with Greinke, Yovanni Gallardo, Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf.
The Brewers appear to be playing for 2011 with the two trades for Marcum and Greinke, which leads me to believe they may not deal Prince Fielder this season, and are willing to take the two draft picks for him next offseason. Obviously, things could change by the July 31st trade deadline.
The Brewers traded their starting shortstop in Alcides Escobar and possible starting centerfielder in Lorenzo Cain, along with future closer Jeremy Jeffress and starting pitching prospect Jake Oridizzi for Greinke and Betancourt.
Betancourt will become the Brewers starting shortstop, while Greinke will become the Brewers #1 starter. The Brewers now have 3 of the top 20-25 starting pitchers in baseball after this deal and should contend for the NL Central in 2011. After dealing Cain, it appears the Brewers will give the centerfield job to Carlos Gomez. Gomez, under new manager Ron Roenicke, could be one of the top 10 SB guys going into 2011 fantasy drafts.
The Royals will slot Escobar in as their starting shortstop and Cain as their starting centerfielder. With this deal , the Royals now could deal closer Joakim Soria this offseason or by the July 31st trade deadline with Jeffress included in this deal. KC will hope that Escobar fares better than he did in 2010 where he hit .235-.288-.326 in 552 plate appearances.