Cubs Trade Sean Marshall To Reds For Travis Wood, Prospects

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

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.