Bad contractual decisions

[davell]

This topic is about Jim Hendry. We all know he has some serious flaws and he has a few strengths as well. To me, his strengths are building loyalty to guys who are already Cubs. If he wants to keep someone, he pretty much accomplishes it.(usually with a very fair deal)He doesn't give up too much in trades for the most part either. This may be his best trait actually. He has a very solid reputation throughout baseball circles as well, which has to be considered a positive.

 

Now, for the negatives, most of which I'm going to gloss over quickly. He overpays for large contract type FA. This could be said for almost any GM with a large payroll though. He focuses on one thing over an offseason. Whether it's lefthandedness, speed, a leadoff hitter, better chemistry or whatever. Maybe his worst trait actually. He listens to his managers too much and lets them influence his decisions on player personnel. I put this as a negative, but I could see that some would see it as a positive actually. Not a lot of effort has been put into the farm system. Although, this IS changing at this point, so I think that this is a negative that is turning around at this point.

 

My BIGGEST complaint with him though, may actually be what he does with the "lesser" parts of the team. I think that he wastes a TON of money that is completely unnecessary. Not everything talked about here should be classified as "lesser" either. I'm sure we can all see him trading Bradley this offseason, while eating a HUGE chunk of his contract, opening up another hole for us in the process. I'm sure we will eat Miles' deal too, which is more what this post is actually about anyway.

 

Eating 2.7 mill is bad enough. But, it's needed in that exact case. Especially when you have guys like Scales and Blanco that can do Miles' job for the league minimum. And this is the whole thing here, because THESE type contracts are what makes or breaks a teams ability to make larger, more impactful moves. Because Hendry makes a lot of these mistakes. And he's going to make more of them this offseason. It's just being wasteful with the allocated funds you have.

 

Hendry is most likely going to keep Grabow. My guess is he'll get at a minimum of 2.5 a year, possibly up to 4 per year. This isn't a bad player actually, but right now we already have Marshall and Gorzellany on the team and have Gaub waiting in the wings too. It's just not smart to resign Grabow basically, we can fill his role in house.

 

It appears as if we want Reed Johnson back as well. What's he going to get from us? 2-3 mill most likely? That's my opinion and I'd rather have Fuld, Colvin, or some other league minimum player in this spot than spending a couple mill again on a spot that's just not money well spent.

 

Then, there's Heilman. He's a 3rd year arbitration eligible guy this upcoming offseason. And it appears we're planning on keeping him too, or else we would have let him go to the Giants when they claimed him. Here's another 2/2.5 mill that we could have available, and able to replace in house with one of Stevens, Caridad, Parker, or whoever.

 

Right there, it's probably 7 mill on those 3 guys alone. Possibly enough to keep Harden, or sign his replacement anyway. Or go get Hudson, for that matter. Then, you add in his 2.7 mill blunder to Miles and we're already looking at 10 mill. Add in the inevitable trade of Bradley and the eating of that much more salary. We're looking at up to 20 mill at this point of wasted funds. Most of which can be recovered in house as it is, especially Bradley sticking around instead of taking the loss.

 

Most teams with large payrolls have some bad contracts. But, you can't have them AND still spend stupidly on the back half of your 25 man roster. We can make a few nice moves this offseason if Hendry would cut the fat from those 3 players. It's just not going to happen though. I expect all 3 of them back. Along with Fontenot and Koyie Hill for that matter, who are arbitration eligible and could see a mill apiece. I'd nontender Hill and trade Fontenot as well, just to save that extra mill as well. We've got Marshall, Gorzellany, Theriot, Baker, Marmol, and Guzman all entering arbitration this year as it is for the first time, so saving as much as possible is imperative.

 

Just let Grabow, Heilman, and Reed walk. Don't trade Bradley for pennies on the dollar either. Go ahead and rid yourself of Miles, no one's going to bitch about that one at this point. Follow this plan and you'll have the money to get an impact player that you weren't counting on going after AND our team won't be any worse by not having these 3 (or Hill or Fontenot as well) around. Get smart Jimbo, or it's obviously not going to be much longer of a stay for you in Chicago. You've dug a large hole and short of another huge influx of money, this is your best(and probably only) shot left.

[PackLandVA]

Always easy to spend someone else's money.

[Backtobanks]

I agree with much of what you said, but assuming in-house prospects will replace "lesser" parts of the team isn't always true. Most managers (including Piniella) want veterans on the bench (especially at backup catcher) and in the bullpen. While I agree that Hendry tends to overspend on these type of players, veterans are usually going to cost you $2 million per year.

As I post often, hindsight is 20-20. It's easy to sit here and assume Gaub or Gorzalenny can replace Grabow in the bullpen, Fuld/Colvin/league minimum player could replace Johnson, etc. If that were true players like Johnson, Grabow, etc. would have been out of jobs a long time ago. Until Gaub, Fuld, Colvin, Stevens, Caridad, Parker, etc. show something at the ML level, let's not assume they're capable of replacing someone just to save money.

[SouthSideRyan]

Always easy to spend someone else's money.

 

Did you even read what he wrote?

 

Regarding the OP, I don't think Heilman's back. I think Hendry thought it would look bad to just let Heilman go to a "competitor" while operating under the idea we were still in the wild card.

 

I agree with most everything, except I'd probably hang on to Fontenot. Personally, I'd play Bradley in CF against lefties next year but I know that won't happen, and with a shortage of right handed CF platoon guys, we'll probably go ahead and spend money on Johnson. In a vaccuum, it's really not bad to spend 2-2.5M on Reed, but this is a team that's already too bloated, and can't afford that kind of luxury.

[Uber]

Good post.

 

I agree with most of what you said, but also with SSR's assessment that we should keep Fontenot around.

 

I love Reed like Biden loves McCain..but he's unnecessary money. I wont even talk in detail about Miles. Grabow and Heilman should go. My big question is what he will do regarding Harden, and I'm completely torn on the issue.

 

Im not worried about finding guys in-house to replace bloated veterans. There's always guys out there looking for jobs after the season starts, if you aren't happy with what shows up to spring training.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Hardens an easy decisoon. offer arbitration, and if he accepts, good, if not, we get draft picks. Greggs a tougher decison as far as Im concerned, While we dont want him, he is a Type A, and if we did offer arb, and he declines, then we get some draft picks. However, if he accepts, were stuck with him for another year. Miles is a no brainer. Bye bye. Baker, Blanco, and Scales are all better palyers in every aspect of the game. Blanco and Scales are both switch hitters. Admit the mistake and let him go.

[TruffleShuffle]

i don't think that's hendry's biggest problem. i mean, i think contracts like henry blanco and aaron miles are dumb and unnecessary, but if you're talking about long term impediments to winning, isn't a contract like soriano's (or even dempster's) a lot bigger problem than aaron miles getting $5M over 2 years to completely blow? the cubs have almost no room to make moves after this season and it's not miles' $2.7M that's causing it... it's because they have something like $115M committed to 8 players.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Not his biggest problem, but a problem. Isnt one of the objectives of spring training to let your AAA players try to earn bench and utility jobs? Fuld and Blanco could have just as easily started the season as Gathright and Miles. If worst comes to worst, and your minor leaguers dont pan out and you need an extra veteran or 2, I can guarantee that but the time spring trainig coms to a close, there will be a on of Aaron Miles and Joey Gathrights floating around that can be signed for league inumum. Just give your own guys a chance first.

 

as for the big contracts, Sorianos beats of a deal was a result of being comletely humiliated. From what Ive heard, his next best offer was in the 75 mil range, but Hendry felt he needed to make a statement after the 2006 embarassment. Fukudome was the next year, because we didnt have a starting right fielder, and the next year, Bradley was a knee jerk because of 3 bad games. 2009 has been another embarassement, and we can be sure that somethig happens in the offseason, be it overpaying for a vetran after railroading Bradley or overpaying in prospects to another team.

[inari]

It's "if worse comes to worst."

 

And as for Hendry's flaws, I tend to fall in the camp that believes he listens to his manager too much. That is a flaw of him, not of the managers, as he is the one that is charged with putting the team in the best position to win. Still though, it's quite obvious many of Hendry's moves have had Dusty or Lou's fingerprints all over them.

[17 Seconds]

Always easy to spend someone else's money.

 

This post doesn't really make any sense.