Matt Garza has pitched some of the best baseball in his career and, as a reward, the Chicago Cubs have gone from talks of an extension to talks of a trade in regards to the 29-year-old right-hander. What's so good about Garza? Well, as of right now, everything.
Garza is on a personal five-game winning streak. You would have to go all the way back to June 11 to find a loss record to his name. In fact, that was the last time Garza allowed more than two runs in a game. Since the Cincinnati Reds whacked nine runs off Garza, the righty has given up six earned runs in six starts.
Let's simplify the math, all he does is win. In those six starts, Garza is 5-0 with one no decision. He's pitched 43.2 innings of six-run ball and at one point, had four consecutive outings where he allowed only one run per start. As one former GM told CSN Chicago's David Kaplan, "it became crystal clear that he (Garza) is 100 percent and that he can be the missing piece that a handful of contenders need to make a run at a championship."
For this GM, the moment of clarity came when Garza completely shut down the crosstown rival Chicago White Sox, but even more impressively, when he tamed the first place St. Louis Cardinals. Against the White Sox, Garza went seven strong innings allowing one earned run on five hits, while walking none and striking out six. Against their division rival Cardinals, Garza went six innings, allowing two runs on 10 hits with two walks and four strikeouts.
The interesting aspect of Garza's amazing performance is that he pitched so well against the Cardinals that the organization might be one of the shoppers for Garza, as appears to certainly be on the trading block. We know Theo Epstein is all about business and for the right price, he would be willing to ship Garza to their division rival, as one source told Kaplan, "Don't think for one second that Theo or Jed (Hoyer) is afraid of dealing Garza to a division rival. If they get the right deal they won't care where they deal him to."
The Cardinals, as they demonstrate year after year, have one of the more dominant prospects in baseball. Shelby Miller is making plenty of noise in the big leagues and they have had guys like Matt Carpenter spring out of their farm system and quickly acclimate to major league baseball.
Kaplan expects Garza to be shipped by the middle of the week. Where exactly? Nobody knows yet. It's interesting to point out that by bettering his performance in 2013, Garza went from possibly signing an extension, to becoming the biggest trade chip amongst starting pitching.
