The two-time defending NL Central champs cleared the slate of their top run-scorer of 2008 on the year’s final day, sending Mark DeRosa off to join Kerry Wood in Cleveland in exchange for a slew of minor-league pitching.
A lot of people in Cubbie Nation are furious about this, but I’m not.
You don’t see World Series won by teams whose leader in runs scored played 20+ games at four different positions, and the role the Cubs need out of that roster spot isn’t that of a 500-a.b. player regardless of how well he performs. With Aramis Ramirez locked in at third and Mike Fontenot batting .360 in the second half from the left side at second, there wouldn’t be 80 starts for DeRosa on the infield. With a surplus of outfielders and one more coming, and hopefully a DL-free Alfonso Soriano, there’s no room out there for 50+ starts either. There’s simply nowhere to squeeze in the number of at-bats Mark DeRosa deserves.
There’s talk the Indians will start him at third and finally give DeRosa an opportunity to show what he can do for somebody over the full 162 games, and that just wasn’t going to happen here. He played well beyond his price tag for the Cubs, and a chance at an extra 100 at-bats, right before what will probably be the biggest contract of his career, is the best thing that could happen for him this year. More power to him.
I see Aaron Miles as a better fit for the Cubs’ expectations of that roster spot anyway, the versatile sub as opposed to the short-term solution – maybe 300 at-bats, good glove, not necessarily a nine-inning guy, can switch-hit, can jump in anywhere in a pinch (even on the mound) and won a World Series ring coming out of the NL Central. As a bonus, he may have a chip on his shoulder over the Cardinals non-tendering him two years in a row.
