Griffey Drawing Interest In Chicago?

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

According to the Daily Herald, the Cubs and White Sox are interested in Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey is hitting .248 with 4 HR this season, and is reportedly tired of losing. He is making nine million dollars this season, so any trade would force the Reds to pick up a portion of his salary. Griffey can easily hit 30 homeruns this season, assuming he can stay healthy, and would definitely help both teams. With the Cubs, a trade would probably force them to move Fukudome to center and keep Griffey in right. Fukudome doesn't seem to have much of a problem running down the ball in the outfield, so that works. The only problem then is what to do with Reed Johnson and Felix Pie? As for the White Sox, there outfield is pretty deep so it might take some mixing and matching in the DH and two corner outfield spots for that to work. Either way, it is looking more and more obvious that Griffey will be traded.

One possibility is sending him to the Red Sox and dumping J.D. Drew elsewhere. However, with only one year left on his contract and no one in the minor league system to take his place, that idea seems unlikely. The Mariners recently designated Brad Wilkerson for assignment and could possibly make a trade to bring Griffey back for to end his career there.

Griffey is a career .289 hitter with 597 homeruns.

2 comments:

Unknown 7:06 AM CDT  

Griffey will be in the HOF some day, and I will always admire him; however, I disagree the the Daily Herald. I do not see why the Cubs would need him. I think Griffey would be better off in the AL where he can DH. The Cubs need some pitching help. Who doesn't? I believe they are solid in their eight positions, and the team does not need to monkey with that.

Anonymous 7:44 AM CDT  

I don't see Griffey helping the Cubs, either. He's in his declining years and has always been injury prone.