More activity between former co-workers came today as Jed Hoyer convinced Josh Byrnes to trade Anthony Rizzo from the Padres to the Cubs for three prospects. That's a lot of former Red Sox employees. The Padres had acquired 1B prospect Yonder Alonso from Cincinnati in the Mat Latos deal, making Rizzo expendable.
Given the Cubs are run by Theo (who drafted Rizzo) and Hoyer (who acquired him from Theo for Adrian Gonzalez), the destination is not a surprise. What is a surprise: how all these former Sox are moving pieces around while the actual Sox have not received any compensation from the Cubs for the aforementioned Theo.
The popular story of their negotiations has been that the Cubs don't have much in the way of prospects, so they don't want to give up anyone significant. But somehow they have enough to trade away three to acquire Rizzo. I don't blame them -- no one's told them to halt their business or anything, and Rizzo seems like a talented young player. And hey, I wouldn't want to give up much in compensation for an executive who is already working for me anyway.
Ultimately, the blame for this lies with the Red Sox, who should never have let Theo out of his contract before compensation was decided. Why were we so quick to allow it? It's not like Cherington was going to turn down the position. This is getting out of hand, and the Sox' inability to get anyone is ridiculous. I'd complain that Selig should have stepped in by now, but it's not his fault that the Red Sox willingly let Theo out of his deal for no reason.
