The Starlin Castro era is over in Chicago, after the Cubs traded the shortstop/second baseman to the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.
Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported the Yankees will send infielder Brendan Ryan and pitcher Adam Warren to Chicago in return for Castro.
Warren is a 28-year-old right-handed pitcher who played for the Yankees his entire four-year career. 2015 was his first year as a five-day rotation pitcher, going 7-7 with a 3.29 ERA and striking out 104 batters.
Versatility is what makes Warren valuable. The Cubs can move him into the fifth spot in the rotation or count on him for a relief role, as Joel Sherman from the New York Post noted:
Jesse Rogers from ESPNChicago.com thinks the opposite and believes Warren is meant to be just a bullpen guy or a fringe end-of-the-rotation pitcher:
Jeff Passan from Yahoo Sports thinks Warren is a good asset for the Cubs to obtain but that this deal was more so Chicago’s attempt to replace Castro with Ben Zobrist, who signed with the Cubs on a four-year, $56 million deal on Tuesday, as Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal first reported and the team later confirmed:
Warren is a young arm who could add some depth to a Cubs rotation that needs it at the back end. After Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta, the bottom of the rotation is unknown. If Warren has a good spring training, he could be in line for a fifth-day starting spot.
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