The Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers may be closing in on a trade to send Ricky Nolasco to Los Angeles in return for three prospects, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
Sources: #Dodgers in serious talks for #Marlins’ Nolasco. Would trade 3 prospects, none upper echelon. "Getting close," one source says.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 6, 2013
#Dodgers would absorb Nolasco’s remaining salary, about $5.5M. Nolasco potential free agent from SoCal. Eventually could sign beyond 2013.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 6, 2013
The Dodgers have been rumored as the frontrunner for Nolasco's services since the rumor mill heated up a couple of weeks ago. Last week, it was thought that Los Angeles was so close that a deal could have already been done, but that was tabled, presumably because the Marlins were asking for too much in return. The Fish eventually lowered their price for Nolasco in order to get a potential done sooner rather than later.
The return discussed here is that of three prospects, but none of those players are "upper echelon," as Rosenthal puts it. This matches with our description that the Dodgers return for the Fish could get one or two C-ranked players from the Dodgers' organization. Players like reliever Chris Withrow, backup catcher Tim Federowicz, and starter Garret Gould would be the only players available to the Marlins for Nolasco if the team was unwilling to chip in cash. That there are three players coming potentially to Miami only says that there will be an additional low-minors throw-in that would not break the Dodgers organization's top 20 or so prospects.
Keep it tuned here at Fish Stripes for all the details of a potential Ricky Nolasco trade and for all your Marlins trade rumor needs.