Is Miggy Coming to Chi-Town?

Rumors are swirling that Orioles SS Miguel Tejada, who demanded a trade a few weeks ago, may be coming to the Windy City. This may be correct, but he may be surfacing on the Southside instead of at Wrigley.

Rumors have it that the Orioles wanted Mark Prior (among others) in exchange for Tejada and that Cubs GM Jim Hendry was considering the deal. In the meantime, the Red Sox jumped into the fray and reportedly offered Manny Ramirez and Matt Clement for Tejada. I find it hard to believe that Boston would trade ManRam within the division, but that's what has been reported. It now apears that deal has faded away, but the Cubs deal remains alive.

Now comes word from MLBtraderumors.com that the White Sox have made two different offers to the Orioles to snag Tejada. The offers are two variations that involve Jose Contreras, Juan Uribe, Ryan Sweeney and Alex Woodson.

I find it surprising that Baltimore would be interested in this deal if the rumors are true that the Cubs would be willing to offer Mark Prior, Neifi Perez or Ronny Cedeno, and one or two pitching prospects. Prior is far superior to Contreras in both age and ability. Uribe is only slightly better than Perez, and Cedeno has the potential to be much better than both. In addition, the Cubs prospect would likely be Rich Hill, Angel Guzman, Jerome Williams or some combination of these three, all as good or better than Alex Woodson. Why would Baltimore be more interested in the White Sox deal than they are in dealing with the Cubs? If Baltimore is smart (which no one is claiming), they would be much better off dealing with the Cubs.

In fact, let me take this one step further. If Baltimore is smart, they won't trade Tejada at all. He is one of the best shortstops in the bigs and considering what Rafael Furcal just signed for, Tejada's contract is not as ridiculous as it once was. I know he demanded a trade, but it seems like something could be worked out short of giving in to his demand.

Supposedly, the "Tejada situation" will be resolved one way or another by the end of the week. As a Cubs fan, I would love to see Tejada anchoring the middle infield at Wrigley for years to come. As a realist, I wouldn't be suprised for Tejada to be the shortstop in Baltimore in 2006 and beyond.