McBride For Barrett It Is

I have gotten several messages this morning about the deal we discussed last night. It is indeed going to happen.

The trade between Chicago and Toronto FC for the rights to Brian McBride does involve Chad Barrett. According to one of my sources who confirmed it to me this morning (as well as it has been reported on other sites like SBI). The deal does not involve any other players at this time though there is an interesting clause in the deal (so don’t read into that rumor that Calen Carr is going to be in the deal).

The Reds will land Barrett, a first-round pick and allocation money in exchange for the allocation spot Chicago will now use to acquire McBride.

Ives Galarcep’s report says the deal doesn’t end there.

Chad Barrett is in the final year of his contract so TFC had some incentives included in the trade that will mean Chicago must give up something more if Barrett doesn’t re-sign with MLS in 2009.

It doesn’t appear that the league stepped in to get this deal done though. We had previously thought the league was going to be due to the on-going striker issues with Toronto, the club pretty much backed themselves into a corner and had to make a deal. Danny Dichio’s concussion issues continue to linger, and Jeff Cunningham is pretty much put himself in John Carver’s dog house after some recent performances.

Barrett isn’t going to be the answer for the club but he will at least provide some sort of attacking option for a midfield that is capable of setting up some solid play for whoever is up top. Toronto is still searching for an international forward but the hope is that Barrett will be able to step in and start while the club searches for a second striker.

It pretty much all came down to the fact that Toronto needed someone who could put away what their midfield sets up. We all laugh that Barrett misses shots time and time again but he does have a few goals on the year, which is a few more than most of the Toronto’s roster.

I’m sure more will come out of this in the coming hours today but this is pretty much the deal that is in place at the moment and from what I have been told has been finalized by the clubs and the league.

What do you make of this deal? Is it karamtic on Toronto’s part that they were the ones that caved in here? Is it a fair deal?