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CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs have reacquired catcher Koyie Hill in a deal with the Cincinnati Reds for cash considerations.

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The writing is clearly on the wall and veteran players can see that Chicago Cubs teams of the near future will be younger and less expensive to field than those of recent vintage.

As of Saturday the team had moved Marlon Byrd's contract ($6.5 million ) to the Boston Red Sox and have $17 million worth of players on the disabled list with Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood both rehabbing injuries.

Dempster, who is in the last year of a long-term contract, hopes to be back on the mound the first week of May after rehabbing a strained right quad muscle.

“We have a little bit of a road ahead of us so we need to worry about winning some series,” Dempster said when asked about the obvious transition from old to young. “The best thing you can do is do your job the best you can and if everybody does that collectively as a group, you get better results as a team.”

Dempster and Wood, along with other veteran Cub players, can be sure that at some point during the 2012 season the front office will be fielding calls about their availability. Dempster will miss Byrd, who had joined the Cubs as a free agent before the 2010 season.

“Marlon was a pro’s pro,” Dempster said. “He came every day and played as hard as he could. He was as prepared as anybody and we will miss that around here.”

For now Dempster will get treatment and he hopes to get back to throwing next weekend. On Sunday he said that he incurred the injury in his bullpen session two days after his last start.

“When it happened I thought it would be a few days,” Dempster said. “But now I can have the assurance of not having to rush back and doing something where I miss more time.”

The Cubs recalled pitcher Randy Wells from Iowa to start in Dempster’s place on Sunday. Dempster was placed on the DL retroactive to April 18.

A trade of Chicago Cubs center fielder Marlon Byrd to the Boston Red Sox appears imminent, a source close to the situation told ESPN Chicago’s Bruce Levine.

Another source indicated the Cubs will receive a left-handed reliever in return.

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The Chicago Cubs are sending reliever Chris Carpenter to the Boston Red Sox as compensation for hiring Theo Epstein as president of baseball operations.

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After designated hitter Victor Martinez tore his ACL during offseason workouts, the Detroit Tigers are in the market for another established hitter.

Here are the top five candidates the Tigers should consider to replace Martinez:

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CHICAGO -- In the future-value-over-past-performance philosophy of Theo Epstein, Anthony Rizzo would seem to fit the mold perfectly.

At 22, the future is as vast and as promising as it can be for a kid who went 3-for-7 in his first three big-league games, including a 400-foot triple to dead center in his first at-bat. But when the Cubs president of baseball operations acquired Rizzo from the San Diego Padres in a deal that included Cubs right-hander Andrew Cashner last week, he was also putting considerable faith in a young man whose past had already shown Epstein more than he needs to know.

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Although Alfonso Soriano said more than once last season that he likely wouldn’t try to block a trade if the Chicago Cubs attempted to deal him, he seems to have had a change of heart.

“They can do whatever they want,” Soriano said Friday at the Cubs Convention. “It has to be good for me and my family for me to agree [to a trade]. I’m comfortable with the Cubs.

“I won’t go to just any team. I want to be with a contender. I also want to be in the playoffs again. So I’d have to be comfortable with both the team and the city I get traded to.”

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Chicago Cubs starter Matt Garza has not let the rumor mill disturb his offseason.

Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein has been transparent about the fact that he’s listened to offers for Garza, although he clarified on Wednesday that the team hasn’t actively shopped the pitcher. However, numerous teams including the Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers and, most recently, the Detroit Tigers have discussed different potential player combinations with the Cubs since Epstein began talking to clubs in December.

“I really don’t pay attention to [trade talk],” Garza said Friday at the Cubs Convention in Chicago. “It’s my job to get ready and be in shape for spring training. But that’s all I’ve been focused on. So if I get a phone call [about a trade] --and I’ve got them before -- so be it. It happens. At this point I’m excited to stay here. But if it happens, it happens.”

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Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said Wednesday that the team is not shopping pitcher Matt Garza.

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Chicago Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said the addition of free agent pitcher Paul Maholm does not mean a rumored trade of Matt Garza is coming.

"As a rule of thumb we aren't going to comment on trade discussions," Hoyer said on Tuesday after announcing the signing Maholm. "I would say with this Maholm contract and the fact that we have six starters right now is not a precursor to anything. I'm not going to comment on trade rumors, but it's important to note that [signing Maholm] isn't a precursor deal."

The Tigers, Red Sox, Blue Jays Yankees and Rangers have all had discussions on acquiring Garza over the last several weeks. Garza has two years of arbitration left before possibly becoming a free agent before the 2013 season.

Garza, 28, made $5.9 million in 2011 and could make $8 million to $9 million this season in arbitration.

Hoyer said the Cubs might not be done adding -- or subtracting -- pitching.

"I think we are very comfortable with the names we have," Hoyer said. "You never know what is going to happen over the course of the winter and what is going to be available to us. But what we said was that a huge priority was building [pitching] depth. We feel like we've really done that. But the minute you feel you have enough pitching, you don't. We are happy with the depth we built up over the winter, but it's a dangerous thing to say you are ever done."

With the addition of Maholm, the Cubs have six pitchers with starting experience for the rotation, including Randy Wells. In addition, Hoyer said Jeff Samardzija will be stretched out as a starting pitcher this spring, but also left it open for Samardzija to return to the bullpen.

"If you prepare as a starter in spring training, it can help you with your command, and it can also help you with your secondary pitches," Hoyer said. "But with this depth that we have, he may be a quality bullpen arm for us."

All along, the mantra from Cubs executives Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer has been to get players who are young, athletic, and left-handed.

With Friday’s trade for first baseman Anthony Rizzo, they appear to have gone back to the future on a player that both of them have admired for five years.

The Rizzo connection runs deep for all of the Cubs’ top execs. Vice president of scouting and player development Jason McLeod drafted Rizzo in the sixth round of the 2007 draft when he, Epstein and Hoyer were all working for the Boston Red Sox.

After Hoyer and McLeod took over the San Diego Padres management team in 2010, they were able to orchestrate a trade with Epstein that brought Rizzo and other prospects to San Diego for All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

If you’re not confused yet, now you will be. Hoyer and McLeod each signed Rizzo once. They now have traded for him twice in two years. Epstein signed Rizzo once, traded him once and now has traded for him.

I guess all of that goes to say that they are intrigued by the 22-year-old Rizzo. They believe he will be an impact player and should be a starting first baseman in the major leagues no later than 2013.

“He has fantastic makeup,” Hoyer said. “After beating cancer when he was 19 years old, he’s a very strong individual. In San Diego I got to know him better than I did in Boston. He makes a big impression on his teammates and he’s an incredibly hard worker. He’s a leader that can put our organization, our team on the right path as far as our culture. He’s a very impressive individual.”

The trading of Andrew Cashner for Rizzo brings some finality to the Prince Fielder rumors and puts the superstar free agent in the Cubs’ rear view mirror.

Hoyer stated that Rizzo will start the 2012 campaign in Triple-A Iowa. But the Cubs GM left a tiny opening for Rizzo to possibly break camp with the team if he has a great spring training.

“I’m never going to say never,” Hoyer said. “But that’s not the plan we are going into spring training with. In general, I think winning jobs in spring training is a very dangerous thing. That’s especially true with hitters in Arizona. The ball really flies there. A lot of hitters look good. A lot of things can deceive you in Arizona. The plan is that Bryan LaHair will be our first baseman and that Anthony will be in Iowa.”

Rizzo struggled at the major league level last year after dominating Triple-A pitching. Hoyer assumed responsibility for Rizzo’s initial failure.

“We called him up because we weren’t getting any first base production in San Diego,” Hoyer said. “It was too early and a mistake on my part. So I didn’t do Anthony any favors there.”

As for Cashner, it appears he’ll most likely be the primary set-up man for Padres closer Huston Street. Cashner’s shoulder injury after his first major league start on April 5, 2011 was basically the end of his season last year. During a rehab session on May 16, he re-injured his strained rotator cuff and didn’t pitch again until September, when he came out of the bullpen in the last month of the season.

Cashner, a No. 1 pick by the Cubs out of Texas Christian in 2008, pitched in the Arizona Fall League in October and November strictly out of the bullpen.

Hoyer also said that the team still hopes to re-sign free agent Kerry Wood and it appears that right-hander Jeff Samardzija may have to stay in the bullpen rather than get an opportunity to switch to the rotation.

Hoyer said on Friday that he expects more moves in relation to the pitching staff.

“When I see what happened in the rotation in 2011, the injuries to Cashner and [Randy] Wells set the season on the wrong path because there wasn’t enough depth in the minor leagues. We have worked hard and will continue to work hard on adding even more pitching acquisitions so we can go seven, eight and nine deep and that we feel we can replenish the bullpen as well.”

The Cubs are still trying to figure out if they are going to trade starter Matt Garza. The team also has had continuous conversations with the agent for free-agent left-hander Paul Maholm over the past five weeks.

The Chicago Cubs will continue to try to improve their starting rotation, and part of that process may be to trade top starter Matt Garza for depth.

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The trade sending Chicago Cubs' left-handed reliever Sean Marshall to the Cincinnati Reds for Travis Wood and two other players was made official on Friday, the teams announced.

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The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds are close on a deal that would send reliever Sean Marshall to Cincinnati in exchange for left-handed pitcher Travis Wood and two minor leaguers, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Wood, who turns 25 in February, was 6-6 with 4.84 ERA in 18 starts last season with the Reds. Wood beat the Cubs in his major league debut on July 1, 2010, allowing two runs on two hits in seven innings. He finished his rookie season 5-4 with a 3.51 ERA in 17 starts.

Wood pitched 10 games at Triple-A Louisville last season, going 2-3 with a 5.33 ERA.

Marshall, 29, is one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball. Last season he went 6-6 with 2.20 ERA and had 34 holds, tied for second in the majors among left-handed relievers. That was also a single-season team record.

Marshall is set to make $3 million in 2012, and he will be a free agent after the season.

The potential loss of Marshall means John Gaub, James Russell and Scott Maine will have an opportunity to move up as a primary setup man from the left side.