Add Cardenas...subtract DeWitt

Blake DeWitt has been designated for assignment today.

Not a Cub.

Why?

I'm not positive, but it could be because the Cubs claimed former Phillies and A's minor leaguer, Adrian Cardenas, off of waivers today.

Is a Cub. (Tuck in your shirt, kid!)

DeWitt came to the Cubs in the trade of Ryan Theriot and Ted Lilly.

In the end, the Cubs really got very little out of that trade, which is too bad.

Cardenas was once regarded as a pretty good prospect in the A's system, after he was drafted by the Phillies as a compensation pick in the first round in 2006.

Ranked in the top 100 prospects in 2008 and 2009, the last two years Cardenas has stalled out in AAA.  He's 24 years old and has played 2nd base, 3rd base and shortstop.

He does not have much power, but he does seem to hit for average, makes contact and takes a walk every once in a while.  He batted .314 with a .791 OPS last season.  He stole a few bases and hit 5 homers.

As Cardenas is an infielder like DeWitt, this again is another situation where the Cubs make a trade off to get someone younger with more years of control.

Lilly and Theriot are finally gone.

We no longer have Ryan Theriot to blame for all of our ills. Yep...he's the Dodgers problem now.

So what did it cost the Cubs to con a team into taking the TOOTBLAN king?

Well, we had to give the Dodgers Ted Lilly and $2.5 million. That's rather costly, so to balance it all out, the Dodgers sent pointless second baseman, Blake DeWitt, and two minor league pitchers.

DeWitt is still young and will be under control of the Cubs for 4 more years. He gets on base more, but doesn't have much more power.

So, Jim Hendry did what he seems to do best...acquire a crappy middle infielder.

I'll post more on the players involved later if I can find computer use.