Danny Knobler at CBS Sports broke the news about an hour ago that the Reds are in the advanced stages of trade discussions with Cleveland. The Reds would trade Drew Stubbs and DiDi Gregorius for Shin Soo Choo. The report says the Reds would play Choo in centerfield, where he hasn’t played much recently.
The Reds would use Choo in center field even though he hasn’t played there for the Indians since 2009 and has played just ten MLB games at the position in total. The Reds are banking on the 30-year-old’s offensive production being able to make up for whatever they might lose defensively. The veteran owns a .289/.381/.465 slash line across eight major league seasons.
The rumor was confirmed a few minutes ago by Jon Paul Morosi at Fox Sports.
Update: Possible three-team deal with Arizona. Gregorius to the Diamondbacks. Per Paul Hoynes of the CPD:
3 team dealing cooking amongÂÂ
#Indians, Reds, Arizona. Shin-Soo Choo headed to Cincy. Asdrubal Cabrera not involved as of right now.
Update 2: John Fay tweets it’s “all but complete”
I’ve been out of pocket all day. Just confirmation that the Gregorius and Stubbs trade for Choo is all but complete.
Update 3: Ken Rosenthal tweets the second player the Reds will receive is Jason Donald
Three-team trade, per source, will look like this: Choo, Jason Donald toÂÂ
#Reds, Gregorius toÂÂ#Diamondbacks, Stubbs, AZ pitcher toÂÂ#Indians.