The White Sox dealt left-hander Neal Cotts to the Cubs on Thursday for right-hander David Aardsma and minor league left-hander Carlos Vasquez.

``Kenny and I sit next to each other at these meetings,'' Hendry said as the annual GMs gathering concluded. ``We started talking about this yesterday, and it makes sense for both sides.''

It is the first deal between the city rivals since July 29, 1998, when the White Sox acquired pitcher Jon Garland for reliever Matt Karchner.

Garland, the 10th overall pick in the 1997 amateur draft, has gone 82-68 for the White Sox, helping them to the 2005 World Series title and winning 18 games in each of the last two seasons. Karchner went 2-1 with the Cubs, was released after the 2000 season and hasn't pitched in the major leagues since.

``We've been doodling for six years,'' Williams said. ``We passed a whole bunch of notes back and forth. He had a need. We had a need.''

In addition to this trade, in the last week the Cubs added second baseman Mark DeRosa (US$13 million over three years) and re-signed third baseman Aramis Ramirez ($75 million over five years), pitcher Kerry Wood ($1.75 million) and backup catcher Henry Blanco ($5.25 million over two years)

``We won 66 ballgames. We darn sure better be aggressive,'' Hendry said.

Cotts was 4-0 with a 1.94 ERA in 2005 and won Game 2 of the World Series. He slumped to 1-2 last season with a 5.17 ERA in a career-high 70 relief appearances.

``People go through some bad times,'' Hendry said. ``The White Sox, I thought, had a great club. In some ways, I thought they were better than the World Series team. ... We're hoping he's going to come back to the way he was, and I'm sure Kenny's hoping the Dave Aardsma he saw at the end of the year keeps going.''

After giving up one homer in 2005, Cotts allowed 12 this year.

``Neal might be able to go into their rotation at some point in time,'' Williams said. ``That's always been an idea that we have had. Because of the way our rotation has been structured he hasn't gotten the opportunity. Like I told Neal, even though he's disappointed, it may provide him with an opportunity he otherwise wouldn't have gotten here.''

Aardsma was 3-0 with a 4.08 ERA in 45 relief appearances over four stints with the Cubs last season.

``We're comfortable with what we have from the left side in (Boone) Logan and (Paulino) Reynoso coming up, so the left-side issues for us aren't as prevalent as having another reliable right-hand guy,'' Williams said.

The 23-year-old Vasquez was signed as a free agent by the Cubs in 2000. He was 6-5 with a 2.75 ERA in 54 relief appearances between Class-A Daytona and Double-A West Tenn this year.

``We like the ability to get left-handers out,'' Williams said.