The Cubs signed two guys over the past couple of weeks that most other teams have given up on. Chad Tracy hasn’t had a good season since 2005 and hasn’t played a full season since 2006. The oft-injured 1B-3B has spent his entire career with Arizona. He has spent time on the DL with a rash of injuries (not actually a “rash”) including back problems, a groin strain, and a pulled oblique. In 2007, Tracy had miscrofracture surgery on his right knee.
One thing Tracy has going for him is his age. He’s just 29-years old. Millar does not have the same advantage. He is 38-years old and definitely in the twilight of his career. He may be best known as one of the self-proclaimed “idiots” on the Red Sox 2004 World Series championship team, but he was also a pretty good player in those days. Now, he is coming off two pretty bad years in Baltimore (2008) and Toronto (2009), and is barely clinging to the hope that he can have one or two more seasons in the sun.
Why would the Cubs sign a couple of guys like Tracy and Millar? They don’t fill any obvious need for the Cubs and they take up payroll space that is already in short supply.
Let’s deal with the payroll question first. Both players were signed to minor league contracts, so at least initially, their salary won’t impact the big league payroll. If he makes the big team, Tracy will earn $900,000 plus incentives. It’s still a lot of money, but in baseball terms, it’s a pittance.
I’m not certain how much Millar will earn if he makes the big team. I’ve scoured the Interwebs and couldn’t find the information anywhere. However, I’m fairly certain that his contract will be similar to Tracy’s. If Kevin Millar makes the Cubs out of Spring Training, I don’t think it will break the bank.
UPDATE: According to the Chicago Tribune, Kevin Millar’s contract does not contain any guaranteed money. I believe that means that, although he’ll receive per diem in Spring Training, he will only make the league minimum if he makes the big team.
So, money is really not a concern with these two signings. Even so, the question remains, why would the Cubs want to waste their time on Chad Tracy and Kevin Millar?
Let’s deal with Tracy first. Although it’s been a while since he had a good year, it’s important to remember that just a few years ago, Tracy was viewed as a player with a lot of potential. A budding star. In 2005, Tracy hit 27 homeruns for the D-backs. He followed that up with 20 homeruns in 2006. Tracy just could be a diamond in the rough. For the Cubs, it’s a low risk/high reward proposition.
Plus, Tracy has shown that he is one of the top left handed pinch hitters in the game. He could provide some pop off the bench, a quality the Cubs were lacking last year. I expect Tracy to make the Cubs opening day roster (assuming he stays healthy through Spring Training) as a bench bat and back-up corner infielder.
Millar serves a different purpose. I think it’s safe to say that Millar’s best baseball days are behind him. Even so, he can help the Cubs just the same.
Everywhere Millar goes he lightens the mood. And in case you don’t remember, the mood with the Cubs last year was not very light. Between the negativity provided compliments of Milton Bradley and the underperformance of the rest of the team, the Cubs locker room was not a fun place to be in 2009. The Cubs are hoping that Millar’s irreverent personality can improve the clubhouse during Spring Training.
It’s also important to realize that Millar and Ryan Dempster are good friends. Dempster has emerged as the quasi-leader of this Cubs team. I think Jim Hendry is hopeful that the good mojo (a technical term) between Dempster and Millar can rub off on the rest of the team.
Millar will also push guys like Micah Hoffpauir and even Chad Tracy to do their best in Spring Training. I seriously doubt that Millar will make the team. In fact, I expect that he will enjoy one last Spring Training with his buddy Ryan, and then will walk off into the sunset of retirement. I don’t think he’ll go to Iowa in hopes that the Cubs will need him at some point in the season.
On the surface, signing two guys that nobody else wants may seem like a mistake, but I think both signings make perfect sense for the Cubs. Neither guy is going to cost the team much money, and they both serve a very specific and valuable purpose.
And let’s face it. If all we have to complain about after the 2010 season is that Hendry signed Chad Tracy and Kevin Millar to minor league contracts, then the 2010 season will turn out to be a whole lot better than what I’m expecting.
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Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated has an interesting take on the off season. He believes that the Cubs failed to spend enough money to improve their team. Here’s what he says:
It’s never going to be a great winter when the big goal is to undo the biggest move of the winter before. They did finally get rid of Milton Bradley but had to take Carlos Silva, poster of an impossibly bad 8.60 ERA last year and one of the worst pitchers in baseball since signing for $48 million over four years, in return from Seattle. Marlon Byrd‘s acquisition allows them to move Kosuke Fukudome to right field, where he’s excellent, although Byrd isn’t exactly a Gold Glover in center. John Grabow was overpaid at $7.5 mil for two years, and Xavier Nady seems similarly fortunate to get $3.3 million (plus $2 million in incentives) given that he didn’t play after April last year and needed a second Tommy John surgery. But the bigger issues were beyond their control. Ted Lilly‘s injury could be a big blow, and Alfonso Soriano proved to be even more untradeable than Castillo. No matter, they remain very talented and still have an excellent shot to get back to the playoffs.
In general, I agree with Heyman, but for a slightly different reason. If you read my series What Can You Get For $140 Million?, you know that I think that, while the Cubs are spending the money necessary to be a perennial playoff contender, they are not spending the money wisely. With the third highest payroll in all of baseball (based on 2009 payroll figures), the Cubs should have one of the game’s best players at almost every position. And as we learned, they do not.
With that in mind, I thought the Cubs should increase their payroll by $10-$15 million in 2010 to add some of the best players to their roster. The increase in payroll should only have to be temporary while they lose some of the dead weight currently taking up room on the Northside of Chicago. A $140 million payroll is adequate to build a winning team, but it’s not adequate to fix the mistakes that were made in spending the $140 million in the first place.
Tom Ricketts decided to hold the line on payroll in his first year as the owner of the Cubs. I think it was a mistake. He failed to show that he is serious about winning, and he made a first impression on fans that will be hard to overcome. If the Cubs fail to make the playoffs in 2010, fans will blame Ricketts for the failure. And fans will be right.
