OUTRIGHTS

The Cubs have begun to trim their protected 40-man roster.

MLBTR reports that the Cubs announced that OF Darnell McDonald, C J.C. Boscan, and RHP Trey McNutt cleared waivers and were outrighted to the minors and off the 40-man roster. In addition, RHP Rafael Dolis, RHP Zach Putnam and OF Thomas Neal were taken off the disabled list and outrighted off the 40-man roster. With these moves, the Cubs’ 40-man roster currently stands at 37 players.

To outright a player means a club  assigns a player to the club’s minor league affiliate without the right of recall. The player is removed from the 40-man roster.


A player assigned outright to the minor leagues for the first time in his career must accept the assignment. Thereafter, a player has the choice of:

1. rejecting the assignment and becoming a free agent immediately, or
2. accepting the assignment and become a free agent at the end of the season if he has not been returned to the 40-man roster.

A player with 3 years of Major League service may refuse an outright assignment and choose to become a free agent immediately or at the end of the season.

A player with 5 years of Major League service who refuses an outright assignment is entitled to the money due according to the terms of his contract.

Of the players moved, only two have been on the radar of Cub fans: Dolis and McNutt.

Dolis, 25, was a big reliever who had played 40 games for the Cubs in the last 3 seasons. He had a record of 2-5, 5.48 ERA in 44.1 IP. He had 4 saves, but a career 1.556 WHIP and negative 1.0 career WAR which shows he was plagued with control problems. This outright signals that Dolis is not in next year's plans.

McNutt, 24, was drafted in 2009 (32nd round) by the Cubs. He quickly moved up the minor league ladder to AA ball in 2010. But his career has stalled because of injuries and inconsistency. This year he went from AA and Rookie ball to post 2-5 record, 2 saves, in 29 GP, 33.1 IP with a 1.345 WHIP.

When a minor league player who is 24 or 25 has not established himself in the major leagues, he no longer has the "prospect" tag attached to his career path.  Teams do not count on "late bloomers" to be big or everyday contributors at the major league level. McNutt's path has curved toward a bullpen role, if any, in the future.

PLAYING YOURSELF OUT OF A TRADE

There are times where a player plays himself out of being traded; by playing inconsistently or plain bad.
There are exceptions to the rule, like Byrd being shipped to Boston with a .071 batting average. But the Red Sox had a desperate need for a starting OF with three outfielders hurt. The trade helped Byrd get to .300 in AL. The only reason Byrd got dealt was that the Cubs ate most of the salary.

But Cubs closer Marmol is a different story. His mechanics continue to be bad. He has serious control problems, aggravated by his falling off the mound to first base. His slider is erratic and when he uses a fastball, he cannot find the corners of the plate for strikes.  Early American filmmakers used to set up cameras on single tracks to capture head on train wrecks. Marmol is a slow motion train wreck in progress.  Even yesterday's five run lead was not safe when Marmol took the mound in the 9th.

After trading Marshall for minor leaguers, there was no reliever on the squad that could take the closer's role away from Marmol. However, Dolis seemed to be the one guy pitching coach Bosio is willing to take a gander at: Dolis got his first major league victory and save last week. The big, burley right hander may not put the Lee Smith style fear of god in batters, but he does have a good enough fastball if his control is good.

Garza threw another good game. Garza and Marmol are the remaining the two potential trade candidates when spring training broke camp. Trade a veteran with a team with need near the trade deadline for a bunch of prospects who can help in 2014.

If Marmol was pitching lights out, then there would be some team who would see value in a shut-down closer (after many contenders have lost their closers to arm injuries). One or more could actually take Marmol and his $7 million contract for high quality prospect or two. But as of today, there are no takers for Marmol in the open market. Even if the Cubs eat most of Marmol's contract, most GMs would be wary of what kind of pitcher they are getting in return.

So Marmol is the perfect Catch-22. He has played badly enough not to be traded, but no bad enough to be demoted or sent to the minors.