Cubs Sign Kerry Wood

And cheap too. Some people are wondering why he gave such a hometown discount to the Cubs, and, honestly, I'm not so sure either. But even though people were talking about a two-year $12 million deal with the Yankees or another money bags team, I'm not at all certain that was ever in the cards. Wood is 33 and he gets hurt a lot, though he has not had arm or shoulder problems since 2007. Apparently the White Sox offer was more than double the Cubs for the same one-year term, but Wood has always said he could never switch teams in the city. From his own point-of-view, Wood lives in Chicago and his kids go to school here, so he probably just feels more comfortable here.

I think this is a good signing providing the Cubs use him much the way Girardi did at the tail end of last season in New York. He still throws very hard and strikes guys out, but I don't think that he has the stamina to close anymore except on a spot basis and maybe he realizes that as well. The Sox job likely involved the closer role.

The addition of Wood gives the Cubs three solid pitchers at the back end of the game in Wood, Marshall, and Marmol. It also frees up Cashner to compete for a starting spot, something he was being groomed for before all the panicky Piniella/Rothschild moves last year. It leaves three more bullpen spots to fill, but the Cubs have plenty of choices there, both among veterans and youngsters. The rest of the bullpen almost seems to boil down to who you do not want there, and, of course, you would not have a Cubs roster were there not an abundance of candidates, led by my personal favorite John Grabow.

In some ways, I would suppose that because the Cubs have so many questionable starters and youngsters vying for the fourth and fifth starter roles, this signing might, somewhat ironically, rather lessen the Cubs desire to add a veteran starter like Brandon Webb. Webb sure was a good pitcher before his injuries, but even though he is a relatively low risk addition from a salary perspective, he represents rather a higher risk with respect to who else is competing for the remaining spots and what the Cubs may likely do with the guys who do not make the rotation. I guess what I mean here is what are you going to do with Webb if he just stinks, but is not still hurt, at least not badly enough to go on the DL. He just takes up a roster spot, much like Silva and Gorzelanny and Grabow and Samardzija, who genuinely stinks and is out of options and has a no-trade clause to boot. Guys like this can lose a lot of games early on, so it is clear decisions need to be made by Mr. Hendry.