When news broke on Monday afternoon that the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves were in the final stages of a deal that would send Ryan Dempster to the Braves in exchange for pitching prospect Randall Delgado, it apparently came as an unpleasant surprise to Mr. Dempster. The Twitter account for his charity group sent out a message saying "THERE IS NO TRADE" on Monday, but apparently there is a bit more nuance to the story.
Dempster holds full no-trade rights as a 10-and-5 player, so his approval is vital to the deal, but it appears Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer had received some preliminary indications that he would accept a trade to Atlanta. However, when actual trade information leaked on Monday, he apparently felt "blindsided" and quickly became unhappy about the news, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com and Baseball America. Here is what Casnick adds to the conversation on the rumored Dempster deal:
Sources say Ryan Dempster had given preliminary indications that he would accept a trade to the #braves from #cubs
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 24, 2012
But when trade leaked out in media Monday before #cubs informed him, Dempster was not happy. Felt blindsided, said a source.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 24, 2012
As mentioned above, the veteran pitcher holds veto rights over any deal, so who knows where trade talks will go form here.
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