In a move that caught me off guard, the Cubs have traded pitcher Carlos Zambrano to the Miami Marlins for right-handed pitcher Chris Volstad. The Cubs will also be sending $15.5 million to the Marlins to cover all but $2.5 million of Zambrano’s 2012 salary.
Zambrano has had issues over the past few seasons controlling his emotions. During the 2011 season, the Cubs placed Big Z on the disqualified list after he intentionally threw at the Braves Chipper Jones. The pitch that Zambrano threw at Jones came after the big right hander had given up five home runs and ten runs to the Braves. Following his ejection, Zambrano left the stadium before the game was over and announced that he was retiring. Ultimately, Zambrano sought counseling and missed the remainder of the season.
Volstad is a former first round pick who has struggled as a major leaguer. In parts of three seasons he has a 4.59 ERA and a penchant for giving up home runs. He has four pitches (fastball in the low 90′s, curve, slider, and change), but none of his pitches are really considered plus pitches. His slider in particular is a work in progress and tends to get him into trouble from time to time. He projects to be the fourth or fifth starter in the Cubs starting rotation.
So why did the Cubs make this move? It’s not a salary dump. Although they saved about $2.5 million on Zambrano, Volstad is projected to earn between $2.5 and $3.0 million through arbitration in 2012. It’s also not because Volstad is considered a better pitcher than Zambrano. In fact, I think it’s pretty clear that the Cubs rotation just got worse after this trade.
It appears that the Cubs made the trade because they do not believe that Zambrano is capable of controlling his emotions in the heat of competition and they do not want a repeat of last year. My guess is that the Cubs front office also liked the fact that Volstad comes with three more years of club control and will likely remain relatively inexpensive during that time.
I understand that the front office wants to do everything possible to assure clubhouse peace in the future. There’s no doubt that Zambrano, while well-liked by his teammates, could occasionally be a disruptive force. Even so, I didn’t expect the Cubs to trade him. I also didn’t expect Zambrano to waive his no-trade clause, although going to Miami where his friend and Venezuelan countryman Ozzie Guillen is manager does make sense.
Perhaps this is a move in the right direction. If you judge the trade purely on baseball terms, then it’s a loss for the Cubs. However, more is in play here than just on-the-field consideration so I’ll give JedStein the benefit of the doubt. At the same time, I’ll remind Theo and Co. that the off-season is becoming short and they still have many more moves to make before the Cubs are legitimate contenders in 2012. I assume that is their short-term goal, so they need to get busy signing Prince Fielder, Huroki Kuroda and one or both of the big name Cubans, Yeonis Cespedes and Jorge Soler. That’s not asking too much, is it?
