Deadline brings deals

NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball’s haves picked up more players from the have-nots at Tuesday’s trade deadline, when Ryan Dempster was dealt from the Chicago Cubs to the Texas Rangers and Shane Victorino, Hunter Pence and Jonathan Broxton all wound up on new teams.

“It’s a great opportunity over there,” Dempster said. “It’s not going to be easy. There are a lot of teams out there that are really good. I think they have as good a chance as anybody.”

Dempster was 5-5 with a 2.25 ERA in 16 starts for the Cubs and can become a free agent after the season.

The faded Philadelphia Phillies, last in the NL East and their run five straight division titles all but over, sent Victorino to the Los Angeles Dodgers for right-handers Josh Lindblom and Ethan Martin and cash.

They also shipped Pence to San Francisco for outfielder Nate Schierholtz, catching prospect Tommy Joseph and right-hander Seth Rosin.

Cincinnati received Broxton from Kansas City, also a cellar dweller.

“When you’re in last place, you can try any damn thing,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “You don’t have nothing to lose.”

While getting rid of stars, the Phillies held on to Cliff Lee and Blanton. After jettisoning Ramirez, Sanchez and Omar Infante as the deadline approached, the Miami Marlins traded pitcher Edward Mujica to St. Louis for infielder and sent former All-Star first baseman Gaby Sanchez and right-hander Kyle Kaminska to Pittsburgh for outfielder Gorkys Hernandez and a 2013 draft pick.

Houston and the nearly as awful Cubs also shed salaries. Jed Lowrie at $1.15 million is now the highest-paid player on the Astros, who started the season with a payroll of nearly $61 million.

Chicago, in its first season under new baseball head Theo Epstein, also dealt pitcher Paul Maholm and outfielder Reed Johnson to Atlanta on Monday.

NL Central-leading Cincinnati, hopeful of just its second postseason appearance since 1995, got Broxton from Kansas City — the team with the worst record in the AL.

“I’m going somewhere where I’m picking up 20-25 games,” Broxton said, noting the standings. “I enjoyed my time here, but this is part of baseball. So go over there and, hopefully we can win a division over there.”

In other deals:

— Boston sent right-hander Matt Albers and outfielder Scott Podsednik to Arizona for left-hander Craig Breslow and dealt utilityman Lars Anderson to Cleveland for right-hander Steven Wright.

— The Yankees traded right-hander Chad Qualls to Pittsburgh for infielder Casey McGehee, a move that followed injuries to Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira.

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AP Sports Writers Joe Kay, Stephen Hawkins, Rob Maaddi and Andrew Seligman, and AP freelance writers Alan Eskew, Dan Feldman and John Henry contributed to this report.

Tags: sports, mlb, baseball