GMs eye trade route for starting pitching help | MLB.com: News

Potential pitching trade bait.

So you’re a general manager, and you went into the offseason hoping to improve your rotation. But C.J. Wilson, Mark Buehrle and Yu Darvish proved to be too pricey, and you’re not thrilled with the remaining free agents. What to do?

Easy. You acquire pitching the old-fashioned way. You trade for it.

Well, it’s not that easy. Making deals requires satisfying the expectations of an opposing general manager. And no club gladly gives up frontline starting pitching. Still, it can be done. In fact, the deal that sent just-turned-24-year-old Mat Latos from the Padres to the Reds for a package including right-hander Edinson Volquez—a 17-game winner in 2008—may signal that teams are starting to turn their attention to the trade market.