The Cubs are still on the down-low looking for pitching to tide the club until the minor league system starts generating Epstein starters (TBD; 2015 or later).
Epstein was on a Boston radio show lamenting about hard it is under the new collective bargaining agreement to sign free agents who have a qualifying offer. Teams are unwilling to sign those players and lose their high first round picks (the Cubs have the #2 choice; I say the Cubs should choose 3B Kris Bryant, but other writers claim the Cubs will draft another pitcher). Epstein said that in the current market, it is actually better for a player to be traded mid-season than run out his contract with his old club (to avoid that dreaded noose of the qualifying offer). In other words, a rent-a-player deal with the plan of trading him after a half season is what Epstein is looking to do in the short term. Baker and Feldman signed one year deals to prove themselves, not to the Cubs, but to the open market after the 2013 season.
So it is probable that the Cubs will try to trade off one, two or three starting pitchers before the July, 2013 trade deadline. Epstein said he values "impact" drafts where a team can control a player for six professional seasons.
So, the Cubs need to continue to search the free agent patch for more potential starters since last season's Iowa fillers turned out to be terrible.
What about a 31 year old veteran of 12 professional seasons, mostly as a starter? The free agent has career numbers of 132 wins, 91 losses, 3.66 ERA, 1.331 WHIP, 1.82 K/BB ratio and 35.8 WAR. Last season was not so good; a 7-10 record, 4.49 ERA, 1.496 WHIP in 20 starts. But considering Feldman's 2012 season was worse at 6-11, 5.09 ERA, 1.383 WHIP in 21 starts, this 31 year old free agent seems like a candidate for short term duty with the Cubs.
But he is not on the radar. In fact, he is not on any team's reported radar.
For he is the problem child, Carlos Zambrano. Even pitching starved Rockies fans blog about a rotation upgrade, but know history is not kind to Z. He started off fine for a month with Ozzie's circus in Miami, but then control problems and walks doomed Zambrano into another tirade to a final bullpen demotion on a bad Marlins team.
If Epstein is running a pitching M*A*SH unit for arms returning from injury and Tommy John surgeries, does Epstein have room for a psychiatric unit to sign Zambrano? Zambrano may be too toxic now for any team to take another chance on him.
