But that's a big Could. David O'Brien writes that Rafael Soriano, who just accepted arbitration, might be on the move.
When Soriano accepted, according to O'Brien, he also said that he would approve a trade to one of the teams that had acknowledged their interest in pursuing him. And the Astros, along with the Yankees, Red Sox, and Orioles are on that list.
Given the big ol' trade that went down, the Yankees might be on the market for mid- to late-inning relief. Braves GM Frank Wren:
"I talked to Raffy's agent last night right after they accepted, about 12:05 [a.m.]. And he reiterated that [Soriano] wants to be pitching in the back end of ballgames and he knows that we've committed that to other people. And he shared with me the list of clubs that were the hottest after him and said if you can make a deal with those clubs to give us an opportunity [to pitch in that sort of role], he's open to that."
MLB.com's Mark Bowman says:
Wren said he doesn't believe it will take long to get a deal done. In fact, he seemed to indicate it could be completed within the next week to 10 days.
What do the Braves want? Bowman says a right-handed bat to upgrade the line-up. I'm looking at the Astros' active roster and I'm coming up with one name: Hunter Pence. (Note: this is pure speculation.) On a scale of 1-10, how livid would you be if this went down?
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
