Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune writes that many in the Cubs' front office feel they would be foolish to give up top prospect Starlin Castro to acquire Curtis Granderson from the Tigers. Castro, a 19-year-old shortstop has drawn weighty comparisons to Hanley Ramirez and Derek Jeter with his play in the Arizona Fall League, batting .376/.396/.475 with one home run, 10 RBI, nine stolen bases and 18 runs scored in 26 games with the Mesa Solar Sox. Castro, a native of the Dominican Republic, has a .301/.354/.403 line over parts of three seasons in the minor leagues. Though he has improved his stock immensely this fall, Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus warns that Castro is becoming one of the more over-rated prospects in the game.
Rogers speculates that "there are a lot of other ways to do the deal" for Granderson while wondering if new hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo could help his performance against left-handers. Granderson has a .614 career OPS against southpaws compared to a .894 OPS against righties. He batted .183/.245/.239 with 10 home runs, 34 RBI and a .696 OPS against left-handers in 2009.
I understand Detroit is hurting for cash (relatively speaking), but I would think that the Cubs' front office would be foolish to think that they could get Granderson for only Castro.
Considering the discrepancies in team control and salary, I'd think the Tigers would be much more likely to make that trade than the Cubs. Even given the AL to NL boost.