MLB Rumors: ESPN insider suggests interesting landing spot for Anthony Rizzo
By Josh Hill
With MLB Trade Rumors swirling ahead of Saturday’s deadline, Buster Olney has an interesting landing spot for Anthony Rizzo.
The clock is ticking on teams to decide whether they’ll be buyers or sellers at the MLB trade deadline.
No team needs to make that decision more than the Chicago Cubs.
Sitting in fourth-place in the NL Central, almost ten games out of the Wild Card, the Cubs have been rumored to be sellers for the better part of a month. The impending free agency of Kris Bryant has dominated trade rumors, but he’s not the only Cubs star who could be on the move before the deadline passes.
On the latest episode of the Baseball Tonight podcast, Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian pondered where some of the Cubs may end up once the trade deadline dust settles.
When it comes to Anthony Rizzo, who has been sort of forgotten in the hullabaloo surrounding the Kris Bryant rumors, Olney thinks the Boston Red Sox makes sense as a destination.
Kurkjian, however, thinks Rizzo is the last man standing on the North Side.
MLB Trade Rumors: Should Red Sox make a trade for Anthony Rizzo?
“I don’t think [the Cubs] can trade all of those guys. They have four big ones, maybe two of them go and two of them stay,” Kurkjian said, although he agreed with Olney that Boston would make sense for Rizzo.
“The Red Sox need to find someone who can play first base and hit left-handed,” Kurkjian continued. “Rizzo is the perfect choice, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Rizzo was originally drafted by the Red Sox back in 2007, but was traded to the San Diego Padres as part of the massive Adrian Gonzalez trade in 2010.
The idea of Rizzo being traded seems preposterous on the surface, but the Cubs have been linked to such rumors for a while now. Olney also noted that the executives he’s talked to are convinced that “some massive deals” will go down by the end of the week as teams officially declare themselves buyers and sellers.
If Boston is interested in bringing Rizzo home, Kurkjian’s assessment is exactly why a deal makes sense. The Red Sox are in a position to truly contend for a World Series this year, and adding Rizzo gives them a left-handed first baseman who can power hit as well as he can play defense.
Chicago is flirting with being buyers, according to FanSided’s Robert Murray, but selling Rizzo to the Red Sox is one of those strange pairings that makes sense the more it gets considered.