Did The Twins Know Matt Garza Was Damaged Goods Before Trading Him? - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

At first glance, Matt Garza of the Rays leaving Tuesday night's start with nerve issues in his right arm seemed like little more than the latest reminder that few things are as tenuous as the arm of a young pitcher. From Mark Fidrych to Francisco Liriano with many stops in the middle, it's a story we know all too well. After the game, though, Garza said something interesting about when the injury first surfaced.

Garza said it surfaced late last season, with him typically "pitching through it. This time it was just real bad. I knew something was up."

Late last season Garza pitched for the Twins before being dealt to the Rays for Delmon Young this winter. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire denied knowing anything at all about the problem.

"If he said he was hurt, I'm not going to call him a liar or anything like that. But he should have let us know that he might have had an injury. Normally, it's good when the team you are pitching for knows that. But I doubt that he had any injuries here."

The Twins and Garza had a somewhat stormy relationship, the remnants of which you can sense from Gardenhire's denial of any wrongdoing.

So did the Twins slough off damaged goods? The folks at Rays Index think that Tampa could have grounds to file a grievance. There's precedent for it. The Reds filed one when they found out the Nats didn't share Gary Majewski's elbow problems before a 2006 trade. There hasn't been any resolution to that case but, as Rays Index points out, Garza isn't Majewski.

It would be a difficult case for Tampa to win. Garza was a young pitcher trying to stay in the major leagues, a sure recipe for hiding an injury if ever there was one. Throw in his issues with team brass and there's little chance he'd risk his spot on the team if he thought he could pitch through the pain. And one other thing. The Rays knew that he'd had nerve issues while in college. That's not a winning case unless you're trying to prove that Tampa may have made too big a gamble with a trade chip as valuable as Young.