Cubs Acquire Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin

I have to admit, I am having a hard time coming to terms with this one. It has been discussed to death everywhere so I will just sum up my primary concern: Harden is very good but rarely healthy.

The pieces the Cubs gave up were all superfluous. Sean Marshall is a solid starter at the age of 22 but unlikely to improve much from there. This team is already stocked with back of the rotation quality starters and is unlikely to miss one. The addition of Gaudin to the deal allows for a contingency if Harden does get injured. This is the part of the deal that I really like. If Harden goes down, the Cubs are right back to were they were in the rotation. All they really sacrificed was some organizational depth that wasn’t being taken advantage of anyways.

Matt Murton provides just enough bat to put in as a starting corner outfielder. I would have liked to have seen him get more of a chance with the Cubs, but both Dusty Baker and Lou Piniella were seemingly disinterested. With Kosoke Fukudome and Alfonso Soriano firmly entrenched in the corners now and Piniella not using him as a bat off the bench, there was little reason to keep Murton anyways.

Eric Patterson would be a nice piece on the bench. He is a guy who can play second, the corner outfield spots and maybe even some CF in a real pinch. He should have a spot on the roster which is instead being wasted by Mike Fontenot. If Piniella’s not going to use him anyways, there is no good reason to just store him in Des Moines.

I know little about the catching prospect they traded. He was drafted last year but is struggling with the bat in AA and with Geovany Soto, hopefully, blocking him from a starting spot for several years anyways. Plus, with this organization’s inability to develop position players, it would have been highly unlikely he would have ever contributed to the major league team.

Jim Hendry said that this trade was a high risk, high reward. I see certainly see the high reward. If Harden can actually stay healthy this year and beyond, the Cubs will have a formidable 1, 2 punch in their rotation for the next few years (assuming the Cubs resign Harden after next season).

The only risk, though, is wasting some of the few trade chips they had available. With Piniella’s current roster management, Marshall was the only one of those traded who could have made an impact for this year or next. With Gaudin, Marshall has essentially already been replaced. We are left, then, with a trade of Harden for a couple of guys who would be lucky to be on the Cubs’ bench. I would rather take my chances with Harden in this case. Congratulations Jim Hendry, you pulled another one off.