There are some whispers out there that Ryan Theriot is playing hardball with the Cubs on salary negotiations.
This is Theriot's first arbitration year...and a couple of weeks ago the Cubs and Theriot exchanged numbers. He asked for $3.4 million and the Cubs offered $2.6 million. That is a fairly wide gap.
The Cubs typically come to an agreement with their players before they ever reach an arbitration hearing. The Cubs in the past have been very good about trying to meet players in the middle on situations like this. That might have changed a bit this year because of the more restricted budget. We have already seen Sean Marshall sign a contract below the halfway point on the two numbers.
I have been a bigger Theriot supporter than most people in the Cubs blog-o-sphere, but if Theriot is the one that is being tough in these negotiations, than he can take a hike. Look, the Cubs don't need him.
Theriot needs to be aware that he is quickly becoming expendable. If Starlin Castro continues to develop this season, the Cubs may be willing to give him a chance to play shortstop up at the big league level before this season ends. The Cubs could choose to move Theriot over to second base when Castro is ready. But if the Cubs feel better about Jeff Baker at second (or, God forbid, Mike Fontenot) or think they can upgrade and get a good hitting left-handed second baseman, then Theriot is out of luck. Either way, Riot-boy needs to play ball in these salary negotiations.
Theriot has it good here in Chicago. Most fans love him and put up with a lot of his shortcomings. If he goes to another team, he isn't going to get that same love, and that team isn't going to be nearly as tolerant of his lack of range, his weak-ass arm, his slap hitting, or his complete cluelessness on the basepads.
Theriot needs to know his place. And, yes he does actually have a place on this team right now. But he is not and will not ever be the star player he thinks he is. He is a role player. One of the biggest beefs I had about Theriot last year was when he said early in the season that he was actually trying to hit for more power. Why? That's not his role? His role is to get on base and move runners over. This team had 5 other players whose role it was to hit home runs. (Granted, most of those 5 players had a hard time with that...but that's another story.) They didn't need his weak ass bat trying to do the same thing as the real power hitters.
As a result of that effort, Theriot's strikeout totals started to go up, his walk totals went down, and he ended up not helping the team nearly as much as he did when he was Mr. Slap Hitter. Luckily, by the middle of the season, someone had a talk with him and he started behaving again.
Probably one of the worst things to happen to Theriot the last couple last years was the fact that some of his teammates, and even some in the press, said that he should have made the All-Star team. I'm sure that fed his cute little ego quite a bit.
If the Cubs offer to settle for $3 million of slightly below, he better damn well take that money and be happy about. The Cubs are paying their new center fielder $3 million this season and he can field, get hits, drive in runs, and doesn't get picked off base on a daily basis. ACB did a story about this showing that Theriot's statistical value is $2.1 million. You know, that tells me that if this goes to a hearing, the Cubs are probably going to win. And they probably won't forget that they had to go through this process with him either. The Cubs are proud of the fact they haven't gone to an arbitration hearing with a player since 1993. And they should be proud about it.
Theriot is either being a greedy jerk, or he's just dumb about himself...
And I say this and I actually like the guy.
But maybe it's the Cubs that are being the jerks.
