Right now, at least two members of the Chicago Cubs' rotation are worth more to them as the subject of swirling MLB trade rumors than they are as starting pitchers. Ryan Dempster, shipped frequently with the St. Louis Cardinals, started on Friday and won his first game for them... while with the Cubs. Matt Garza, the big ticket, started yesterday... and left after three innings with an injury in what turned, eventually, into a 12-run bloodbath.
Luckily for the Cubs, who would suddenly have found themselves with an untradeable 28-year-old starter on their hands, the injury wasn't any more serious than a muscle cramp. So if the right-hander is really the object of the Los Angeles Dodgers' affections--it's been suggested that they'd rather have him than Dempster because he's under team control for another year--the Cubs can go back to counting their prospects before they've hatched.
They've already lost Ryan Dempster's scoreless innings streak in this weekend set; they can hardly afford for their best assets to depreciate some more.