Cubs/A’s Swap

Well, I’m not exactly breaking the news, but the Cubs and A’s made a deal yesterday in which the Cubs added Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin for Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, and Josh Donaldson.  It seemed to come as a surprise to some media types who SHOULD be in the know, but anyone who’s been checking the right spots would not have needed an inside scoop to see the Cubs making a deal for a good-to-great starting pitcher this month.

As a Cubs fan, I’m immensely pleased with this deal.  Earlier this season, I told Wyatt that I was not exceptionally worried about the Cubs making a trade this deadline that mortgaged their future – they just do not have much in the way of minor league prospect depth, so it’s not like they had some superprospect (see LaPorta, Matt; Price, David; Beckham, Tim; etc.) who it would have been foolish to deal.  Still, to bring back Harden (not to mention Gaudin) without touching Geovany Soto, Carlos Marmol, Jose Ceda, Tyler Colvin, OR Donald Veal seems too good to be true.  Gallagher is a nice, major league ready back of the rotation starter who could become something more.  I suppose there is some small chance that he turns into a nice Number 2 starter, and a minuscule chance he becomes something more, but in all likelihood, he’s just a nice pitcher, not a star.  Gaudin is only three years older and has a similar ceiling, without those small chances that he becomes a star, I suppose.

Murton and Patterson are both useful in their own right, but neither really had much future in Chicago, so it’s really difficult to feel like they lost much here.  They’ll both be useful pieces for Oakland, but Murton is limited to an outfield corner, and he’s a nice little red headed doubles and walks machine with no defense to speak of.  He knocks lefties around (career rates of .316/.389/494 agains them), not so much righties, although he’s serviceable against them.  He fits alright with this A’s team, which has had trouble to score some runs, as does Patterson, who can be an insurance policy for any situation in which Mark Ellis leaves via free agency after the year, although his second base defense is slightly below average.  As an outfielder, his bat is nothing to write home about, but again, he can probably help out this year’s A’s as a part-time outfielder, whether it’s platooning with Murton in left, or spelling Ellis at second without much dropoff at the plate.  Still, he’s 25 without much development left, and what he is right now is…useful, but not outstanding.  The last player in the deal, Josh Donaldson, is a catcher who owned the Northwest league last year for awhile, but in the Midwest league this year, in more at bats, he’s really struggled.  He’s got a long way to go to get to the majors at all, let alone start.

Lastly, on to Harden, the star in this deal.  There’s a lot that can be said here, but I’ll boil it down to this:  when healthy, Rich Harden is one of the 10 best pitchers in the league.  That “when healthy” bit is pretty serious, though, as he really does have some trouble staying off the disabled list.

So the A’s get some minor lineup upgrades for the near term and a young, cheap starter to plug into the rotation, but that seems a little low for Harden and Gaudin.  For the Cubs, it’s a relatively low risk proposition – if Harden breaks down, well, Gaudin is going to give you roughly what Gallagher would have, and as long as they were going to keep pretending Reed Johnson can play center, I can understand why they could afford to pass on Murton.  Patterson is no better than the 4th best second base option they have behind Mark DeRosa, Mike Fontenot, and Ronny Cedeno, and Donaldson is blocked by Geovany Soto now and for the foreseeable future in Chicago.

All that to say, I’m a little confused on what Billy Beane and the Oakland front office saw here – it’s a useful enough group of players, but for an ace and another useful pitcher, it just doesn’t seem like enough.

Hats of to Jim Hendry, who gave up significantly less than Doug Melvin did, and Melvin only got one pitcher, albeit one who is healthier than Harden in CC Sabathia.  It’s absolutely a worthwhile gamble.