MLB Trade Rumors: St. Louis Cardinals trade David Freese to the Angels

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, the possible trade that I’ve been following since yesterday morning is now officially in the books.

Yesterday I posted three articles that involved the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim talking about a trade that would send third baseman David Freese to L.A. At first it just started off small (click here), the Angels knew who they wanted but they wanted to see who the Cardinals wanted in return.

Then later on the St. Louis Cardinals were said to be interested in outfielder Peter Bourjos (click here), or possibly shortstop Erick Aybar but they absolutely refused to give up any young pitchers in return for him.

In my article I covered how the Cardinals wouldn’t trade Freese for Bourjos (click here) straight up, so that slowed down trade talks just a tad.

According to Ken Rosenthal on Twitter, the St. Louis Cardinals are in fact interested in Peter Bourjos. So interested they actually traded Freese for him. Now it wasn’t a straight up trade for the two, a couple other pieces are involved.

Outfielding prospect Randal Grichuk will be headed to St. Louis as right handed pitcher Fernando Salas will be heading to Los Angeles.

Grichuk is a 22 year old outfielder who was recently protected by the Rule 5 Draft as they placed him on their 40 man roster. He’s a 24th overall pick in the 2009 MLB Draft, the same draft class that involved Mike Trout.

During his time at the Double-A level for the Angels, Grichuk hit 22 home runs and 64 RBI’s while hitting .256/.306/.474 across the line. He’ll definitely add some depth to this outfield and should be Major League ready.

Salas is a 28 year old Mexican born pitcher who has a career 3.42 ERA with 192 1/3 innings pitched and 24 saves. He’s under team control until 2017.