Cubs Trade Sean Marshall To Reds For Travis Wood, Prospects

The Sean Marshall-for-Travis Wood deal is old news, but there were supposed to be two Reds prospects included in the deal, and from recent news-breaker Keith Law, we have word:

Cubs to receive Travis Wood, Dave Sappelt, and Ronald Torreyes for Sean Marshall. Deal to be announced later today.

Sappelt is a 24-year-old center fielder with a high average and a low strikeout rate. From John Sickels

Scouts point to strong contact hitting skills and plenty of bat speed that results in gap power and occasional home runs. He doesn't draw tons of walks, but he keeps his strikeouts under control. He has above average running speed, but is not yet an effective stealer, swiping 80 bases but being caught 46 times in his career. Although Dusty Baker mentioned in spring training that Sappelt needs to improve his fielding, in the minors he's received good reviews for his play in center field, and he throws well.

Torreyes is a 19-year-old second baseman with a similar high-average profile to Sappelt, but two-plus levels lower and five years younger. He wasn't included in Baseball America's top-ten list for the Reds, but they had this to say about him:

You can't help but love Torreyes. His size will always be a question, but man he can hit, and he's solid defensively. If everything breaks right, he's an everyday second baseman. If it doesn't there are plenty of scouts who think he could handle SS and 3B well enough to be a useful utilityman.

The size reference has to do with Torreyes' listed vitals: 5'9", 140 lb. Usually guys that size do something other than baseball, like sit inside Kyle Blanks's mouth and clean his teeth. It seems like an interesting pair of prospects, a combination of a close to the majors prospect and a teenaged project. Kevin Goldstein is impressed, at least. 

Tuesday night, word emerged that the Chicago Cubs were close to trading reliever Sean Marshall to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for starter Travis Wood and a pair of minor leaguers. And there's a funny thing about this rumor - it's apparently actually coming true. Bruce Levine:

Cubs and Reds agree in principle to trade sending Sean Marshall to cinci for lefty Travis Wood and 2 minor leaguers.

That isn't an official trade, but it's basically an official trade. It could become an official trade by Thursday morning.

What's the idea here for the Reds? The Reds think they see an opening in the NL Central, what with Albert Pujols going away and Prince Fielder probably going away, so they're adding a big-time reliever. The left-handed Marshall, while a year away from free agency, has run a 2.45 ERA the last two seasons with 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings. He'll be a big improvement to the Reds' bullpen, and Wood, though talented, was only depth.

And what's the idea here for the Cubs? The Cubs liked Marshall, but obviously Sean Marshall wasn't going to be the difference between a good Cubs team and a bad Cubs team in 2012. So they're shipping him away for a guy who could be a member of the rotation for a long time. Wood turns 25 in February, and he's been about a league-average pitcher in his limited major league experience. His minor league performances suggest that he could be more than that someday. He's a good and promising add, to say nothing of the other two minor leaguers, who haven't been named.

The Reds want to win. For them, this is something of a win-now move. The Cubs want to rebuild. For them, this is something of a rebuilding move. It all makes sense. Sometimes it doesn't all make sense, so I'm glad it all makes sense here.