The Chicago Cubs aren't contending for anything meaningful in 2012, and everybody knows it, so there have been plenty of rumors about trading veteran pieces like Matt Garza and Alfonso Soriano for prospects or any sort of reasonable return. However, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports declared that starting pitcher Ryan Dempster is "by far the most likely to go" in a recent column, and added that a rival GM pegged Dempster as a "classic Ned Colletti buy" for the Los Angeles Dodgers. As with anyone on the Cubs' roster not named Starlin Castro or Jeff Samardzija, Dempster will certainly be available at the deadline as Theo Esptein and Jed Hoyer try to rebuild Chicago into a contender.
Demptster is 35-years-old and in the final year of a four-year, $52 million deal he signed back in 2009. This season he has posted a sparkling 2.31 ERA and 1.027 WHIP over 74.0 innings, which far outstrips his middling 2-3 record.
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