Dec. 09--The Chicago Cubs were extremely happy and had a right to feel relieved Tuesday night after acquiring pitcher Adam Warren from the New York Yankees.
The Cubs were linked to pitchers Shelby Miller and Julio Teheran of the Atlanta Braves and also talked to the Tampa Bay Rays, who have left-hander Matt Moore.
All three are under team control for several years, but President Theo Epstein found the price of young starting pitching extremely expensive.
"We looked into the starting pitching markets and the trade market, and we really came to feel like the price of poker was very high to acquire starting pitching," Epstein said. "Years and dollars for starters of note in free agency that came with a significant amount of risk, frankly, that we weren't comfortable with.
"In the trade market, we felt like in a lot of cases, we would have had to pay for $2 on the dollar almost in return, so I think (signing) John Lackey on a two-year deal and Warren on three years of control with the ability to start as well as pitch in the bullpen, made a lot of sense to us as a reaction to what's going on in the market."
The Cubs completed the acquisition of Warren and a player to be named later -- believed to be infielder Brendan Ryan -- for infielder Starlin Castro shortly before the Arizona Diamondbacks acquired Miller for shortstop Dansby Swanson (the first overall pick in the 2015 draft), outfielder Ender Inciarte and pitching prospect Aaron Blair.
