Chicago Cubs Make some Moves

The Cubs in the past 24 hours have made 3 different moves to their Major league roster. First and foremost they added a big bat to the middle of their lineup in Victor Martinez. Their trading kicked off with a minor move that resulted in Khalil Greene being moved to Texas in exchange for a 21 year old pitching prospect named Robbie Ross. Robbie is a good couple years away from making a crack at the 25 man roster. The major reason for this trade is that Greene became expendable. He was the main back up to Ryan Theriot and Aaron Hill in the middle of the infield. But with the emergence of Starlin Castro, it made Greene the odd man out.

The second trade that was made was a trade with the Boston Red Sox, Where the cubs received Victor Martinez, Mitchell Herold and Daniel Bard with Boston receiving Jose Valverde and Geovany Soto. The bottom line is that the cubs were too right handed in their lineup. Right hand pitching this season has been very effective against the Cubs. This trade brings in a switch hitter to the every day lineup to provide more balance. Also in the trade, the cubs picked up Mitchell Herold, who has been on the cubs radar for a while now. With the injury to Porcello for 2 weeks, he is getting thrown into the rotation to see if he can put together better numbers than what he was doing in the tough AL East. The last part of the trade was Daniel Bard. With the cubs dealing a reliever in this trade they pick another arm up for their pen. The cubs are hoping a shift to the NL will light a spark for these two young pitchers. The cubs moved Valverde mainly because of his expiring contract and they did not know if the contract 11 plus million a year was a good value on a 33 year old arm. The cubs did not want to see Soto go but it was a price to pay to obtain Ramirez.

The last trade was with the Cubs and Philly. The Cubs sent Aaron Hill and Micah Hoffpauir to Philly for Freddy Freeman and John Baker. The under the radar pickup in this trade for the cubs is John Baker. This allows the cubs to play John Baker at catcher vs Right hand pitching and either Victor Martinez or Ronny Paulino at catcher for Left handed pitching. Baker puts another left handed bat for the cubs in their lineup while still being a good defensive catcher behind the plate. Victor Martinez then can play at 1B where his ability to handle a pitching staff will not be a major effect on the team. Aaron Hill was going to be a free agent come this off season and his demands were pretty high for a slightly above average 2nd baseman. The cubs will be able to move Andy Laroche over to 2B and not miss a beat on the defense and pick up some production on the offense. And Freddy Freeman is allowed to ease slowly into his major league career and play in certain situations that would be most beneficial to his long term potential. He is mostly going to only be put out there against right handed pitchers when the cubs are playing in the AL ballparks. Freeman also gives us a better left handed bat coming off the bench in pitch hit situations.