Sox won't bite on Soriano

January 05, 2012|Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff

Theo Epstein accomplished something pretty big yesterday - he traded Carlos Zambrano to the Florida Marlins for pitcher Chris Volstad.

Epstein is trying to gut the Cubs from all of their bad contracts and start anew and has been willing to eat a lot of money to do so.

His next order of business is to find a place for outfielder Alfonso Soriano. But it won't be the Red Sox. They are not interested according to a major league source. The Sox and Cubs still have a compensation issue to resolve, but Soriano won't be a part of it.

The 35-year-old Soriano has about $54 million coming to him (for the next three years) from his original 8-year, $136 million deal. The Cubs would have to swallow a lot of it to deal Soriano, who also has a full no-trade clause which we know are often meaningless and at the very least, certainly negotiable.

Soriano hit .244 last season with 26 homers and 88 RBI.

It will be interesting to see where he ends up, if anywhere.