Cubs Acquire Reliever Ryan Zeferjahn from Angels for Moises Ballesteros, Mason McGwire

Shortly after conflicting reports surfaced about the Cubs working out a deal to acquire lefty starter Reid Detmers from the Angels came word that the two teams have a trade in place sending righty reliever Ryan Zeferjahn to Chicago. Though his name sounds like the breeze you feel when someone walks by you in a public restroom, the 28-year-old sits around 97 mph with the fastball. He actually leads with his 85 sweeper, though, throwing it 37% of the time.

Between the sweeper, a tight slider at 89 mph, and an 84 mph curveball, Zeferjahn is among the best in the league at generating breaking-ball value. While he walks more batters than you’d like to see, his whiff and strikeout rates are elite. He’s also in the 100th percentile with a .161 expected batting average, so that’s good to see.

Because Zeferjanh still has four years of control, there was a very high cost to pry him loose: both Moisés Ballesteros and righty Mason McGwire — son of Mark McGwire — head to Anaheim in the deal. I know that will rub a lot of fans the wrong way, and we’ll have more on this at some point in the future; news is just coming too fast to go into much detail at the moment.