Report: Cubs preparing for potential Ryan Dempster trade by game time Friday

Team summoning a pitcher from Triple-A Iowa in case Dempster, the scheduled starter, is gone.

By Jack Moore

Jul 19, 2012 at 6:28 pm ET • 1 min read

The Cubs will have a pitcher from Triple-A Iowa on hand Friday in St. Louis just in case Ryan Dempster is traded by game time, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported Thursday. The pitcher will likely be Casey Coleman, who was scratched from his scheduled start Friday with Iowa, according to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune.

Rumors hvae been surrounding Dempster all season. He has career bests in ERA (a league-leading 1.86) and K/BB (3.00) in his 14 starts. The Tigers have been strongly linked to Dempster. The Red Sox, however, were out of the running as of Thursday afternoon.

The Cubs also acquired minor league pitcher Justin Germano from the Red Sox on Thursday and designated pitcher Jairo Asencio for assignment. Germano would add minor league starting depth for Chicago.