After a couple of hours speculation it was announced that the Rockies had been awarded the waiver claim on Houston Astros pitcher Wandy Rodriguez. But don't expect a deal anytime soon, as they have until Thursday, 1pm ET to get a deal done and Buster Olney says that there is no momentum in talks as of now.
As with the Hunter Pence Raul Ibanez scenario in Philadlephia where one will be off the books to make way for the other, Aaron Cook, who is making $9.25m this year will be a free agent this winter. Dick Montford, owner of the Rockies, has said he would extend the payroll if the right piece came along. Whether Dan O'Dowd can drive Ed Wade's price down enough to make a deal is debatable.
According to Steve Campbell of the Houston Chronicle:
"I doubt anything will come of it, unless it's something really attractive," one person familiar with the Astros' thinking said.
At least a team has claimed him as Jon Heyman said that the chance of any one team claiming Rodriguez at the deadline were non-existent. It looks like Clint Barmes and Brett Myers have gone unclaimed. However, give him his due, he was the big man and admitted he was wrong.
Rodriguez owns a modest 3.62 ERA in six starts at Coors Field in 32 1/3 innings pitched. The real standout stat is that he has allowed just one home run in those six starts. He has also dominated NL West opposition over the last two and a half seasons, putting up a 2.03 ERA against the Dodgers, Padres, Giants and Diamondbacks since the start of the 2009 season, including a 0.69 ERA in four starts in 2011 against the NL West.
He has always been a good fit for the Rockies. Myself and Sean Feist remarked on it in late June when trade talk was starting to heat up. Now that they have flipped Ubaldo Jimenez for Alex White and Drew Pomeranz,a veteran starter to steer the rotation for the next few years must seem attractive to O'Dowd. For a team that is paying Aaron Cook $9.25m this year to turn their nose up at paying Wandy Rodriguez on average $12m a year over the next three years is more than I can stomach. I'm not saying they should cough up top prospects, but they should find something further down the system that might be attractive for Wade. Is that so difficult to do?
So they would not mind taking Wandy for nothing, but would need Wade to eat a sizeable amount of the contract to get anything good in return. In that scenario the Astros should simply keep hold of Wandy and try to trade him in the offseason when teams will realise 3-years $36m for Rodriguez is actually pretty decent value when they look at the god-awful free agent SP class. They may be falling over themselves to get at him. Grant Brisbee knows what he's talking about.
So don't get on Wade's back if a deal does not get done. It may be the smartest thing he's ever done.