Jair Jurrjens takes a back seat to Matt Garza

You might not think that an MLB Trade Rumors article on Matt Garza and the Cubs has any relevance for us Braves fans but it definitely does. Teams looking for starting pitching options outside of the thin free agent market are now going to make a bee line for Garza, as he is now the best trade option on the block.

Garza is young, under team control for two more seasons, and coming off the best season of his career. You can bet teams will put together a better package for him than Jair Jurrjens, and right fully so.

Here is what MLBTR had to say on Garza:

"Garza, 28, moved to the National League this year and posted career-bests with a 3.32 ERA and 197 strikeouts.  He’s under team control for 2012 and ’13, and MLBTR projects a salary around $8.7MM for ’12."

Jurrjens is 25, and cheaper but he didn’t come any where near 197 strikeouts (he had 90) and every team in the league knows that his ERA wasn’t supposed to be 2.96. Throw in the fact that he has a pretty significant injury history and you should realize that Garza is easily the better option.

This doesn’t mean that Jurrjens won’t get traded. He still might, but we will have to wait a bit longer to see who ends up getting Matt Garza. There will be multiple losers in the Garza sweepstakes and a couple of those teams just might get desperate. And you can bet that if and when they do, Frank Wren will pounce.

You can follow Carlos on Twitter @bravesbanter