NAPLES, Fla. ? (AP) ? The Chicago White Sox traded reliever Neal Cotts to the Cubs for reliever David Aardsma and minor league pitcher Carlos Vasquez on Thursday.

 

Cotts, who had a career year in 2005 while helping the White Sox win the World Series, went 1-2 last season with a 5.17 ERA. He had a career-high 70 relief appearances, but gave up 12 homers after yielding one in the previous season.

 

Cotts went 4-0 with a 1.94 ERA and won Game 2 of the World Series in 2005.

 

Aardsma was 3-0 with a 4.08 ERA in 45 relief appearances over four stints for the Cubs last season.

 

Vasquez, a 23-year-old left-handed pitcher, was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Cubs in 2000. He was 6-5 with a 2.75 ERA in 54 relief appearances between Single-A Daytona and Double-A West Tenn in 2006.

 

The trade between the clubs is the first since July 29, 1998 when the White Sox acquired pitcher Jon Garland in exchange for reliever Matt Karchner.

I actually like this move for the Cubs...

who the f*** is Carlos Vazquez?

Good move by the Cubs.

But it will be an even better move if the Cubs sign Marquis.. I cant wait for that to happen..

Not a major move.

Releiver swap? Cubs do get a lefty, but it seemed like it was more or less unneeded.

We have no room for Cotts since he's the 3rd lefty on the system lefty reliever depth chart and is coming off a bad year in which his wear and tear showed, so I actually like this trade. Aardsma is a few years young and has much better stuff, plus he does something that Cotts can't but is supposed to, which is get lefties out (they hit .196 against Aardsma last year). The last 2 trades with the Cubs were a bit one sided (Bell for Sosa to the Cubs, Karchner for Garland to the Sox) so it'll be interesting.