Ryan Dempster Traded by the Chicago Cubs to the Texas Rangers

The Rangers sat back and watched the Angels improve themselves drastically when the picked up Zack

Greinke.  The Rangers had also been pursuing Greinke, but they were unwilling to part with some of their high-ranking prospects.  Now, the Rangers have thrown a counter-punch to that deal as they have acquired Ryan Dempster from the Chicaco Cubs.

Texas will send two minor leaguers to the Cubs to complete the deal.  They will send Christian Villanueva and Kyle Hendricks to Chicago.

Dempster has the second-lowest ERA in all of baseball at 2.25 (Ryan Vogelsong is at 2.22).  He is just 5-5 with the Cubs thanks to very little run support and offense.  Dempster is a two-time All-Star and a veteran in the league.  He has played 15 Major League seasons and has combined to put up a 4.31 ERA.  This is his best season by far, and the Rangers are hoping to capitalize on that.

Dempster was thought to be going to the Braves last week, but he has 10-5 rights, meaning he has been in the league for at least ten years and with the same team for at least five.  That gives him the ability to veto any trade, and he did veto the trade to the Braves.

Villanueva is just 22 years old and already has 285 minor league games under his belt.  He plays third base primarily and was rated the 100th best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America.  In his minor league career, he is hitting .286/.350/.438.

Kyle Hendricks is a 22-year old right-handed pitcher.  He has pitched in 41 games in his minor league career and started 21 of them.  Hendricks has a sparkling 2.65 ERA over 166 1/3 innings-pitched.  He was not rated by Baseball America prior to this season, but he is closing in on a promotion to Double-A and won’t be far off from Triple-A.