Cubs Sign Kerry Wood

That's very surprising. I thought the Cubs were at their wits end with Wood and Prior. Thought he'd try to resurrect his career with a fresh start elsewhere. Oh well.

"hopefully the cubs can keep him long term after this season."

Easy there...his health is still a BIG question. Too big to talk about long term contracts...

Nice job Hendry. Hopefully he can stay healthy and perform at the level that we once saw. Who knows, maybe if he stays healthy and effective we will have a quality closer by midseason in Kerry.

Once again I feel bad for Cubs fans. Kerry Wood will not be healthy. I agree there really is no risk in this signing, but lets not get crazy. The guy has not been healthy for 3 years. Do no get your hopes up and maybe something good will happen!

I agree...it's not like we should all be thinking this is the signing of the year...because there is a very good chance he won't be healthy anyway. However, its not really a risk because its only 4 mil and one year, which is why the signing is a very good one.

Excellent signing. Make him the closer - if ( when) he gets hurt Marmol gets his chance. If he is healthy and lights out life is good and is the feel good story of the league - if he is healthy and only soso then he's a 4mil middle releiver for only one yr and cubs can let him go next yr without PR nightmare. Personally - if he gets hurt again I think he will call it quits and join cubs somewhere in organization. I think cubs will sign Prior if he takes 2 yr low base high incentive deal since he won't be available for most of 08

I think Wood taking this deal shows that he still feels like he owes the Cubs something after getting paid 10 mil to sit on the DL in '05. He said that was why he took the incentive loaded deal last year.
That's not something you see a lot in players. I like it.

It's a good move for both.

Wood is coming off a small surge at the end of the year. He's trying to parlay that into 1 good season, and then a 4 year contract instead of having to prove himself across 2 years.

At 4 mil, there is no downside, because he's only surrendering a few mil in the second year, which some team would surely give him even if he flops next year.

U guys want to frame wood as some saint and conveince urself he isnt driven solely by greed with this move? You want to continue to blame dusty baker?

Go for it. It wouldn't be the first time posters on this site ignored the facts.

I find it amusing that in the article directly below the Wood signing, we're told that Phil Rogers says the Cubs won't resign Wood. If we can only get Phil to tell us they won't win the Series in '08, I'll be happy!

Great call by Phil Rogers. He's the new Jimmy the Greek.

Wow, that is a very solid signing. Wood could be a very strong back-end bullpen guy. But if he wants to start and is healthy enough, he'd be a cheap, short-term addition to the rotation too. Very good.

I can sort of see why Wood agreed to this; if he took a deal in the 2/8 or 2/10 range, and then had a magnificent 2008, he'd have screwed himself for 2009. This way he can try for a rebound year, and if he gets it then could be up for a 3-year deal; he is only 30.

Just deleted all comments from the brewcrew guy and banned him. Brewcrew, please stop emailing me and linking to that here.

Thank you Tim! Best news I've heard all day! Well, I like the Wood signing too...but you get the point.

I'd rather have Wood than Linebrink and Wood is much cheaper so I think this is a win for the Cubs.

Lou does handle his pitching staff better than Dusty, but he did ride Marmol pretty hard last year. I'm worried he's a "pitcher gets stronger the more he throws" type of old school coaches. The Cubs are gonna need a plus bullpen for what will be a very inadequate starting rotation after Z, Hill, Lilly.

Good move by the Cubs. Wood might turn out to be a real asset from the 'pen since it will give him a better shot at taking care of his arm, and it's at a nice price. Dare I suggest it, but he could attempt a spot start or two.

Great move for the Cubbies. I heard the Astros had some interest in him after the Lidge trade and was hoping we could nab him.

Oh well. I hope they turn their attention to either Gagne or Percy.

"When Kerry has a good year in 08, he will still give the Cubs 1st shot at a multi-year contract.."

...possibly; and at a comparable price to the market, right? See, a mutual option would have limited his cost to the team if he does great. It would be a "hey, we want you around and still believe in you, but we also want to protect out selves a bit. We would like to give ya this much with an option. If you cant perform in 08 then we hope you again bounch back for 09 and we will be here for you in doing so. If you do recoup in 08 then 09 would allows us to gain a little for all the time and effort we put into making it happen..."

...Ya know. Like I said, thats what I would have pushing for; but its not a bad deal...

"See, a mutual option would have limited his cost to the team if he does great."

And a mutual option would have made the deal less attractive, hence why Kerry signed a deal for only one year instead of agreeing to a mutual option, which Jim Hendry would have preferred and probably offered.

I agree Teetz. The deal makes sense for both parties. This will be the 2nd year of staying with the club when he could have gone elsewhere for more dollars. Here is hoping Pryor takes the same approach and return some loyalty to the team for sticking by their injured players.

ohhhh nooooo! i'm so very scared to see dumpster... excuse me dempster in the rotation... that sounds like a nightmare.

This signing has major implications for the Red Sox. Since he was a guy Theo wanted, he now needs to find another reliever to back up Okajima and Delcarmen. We might try to resign Timlin now as well.

I'm pretty surprised he agreed to a one year deal. That indicates to me that at he's pretty darn optimistic about his futute health evev if others are a little skeptical.

I was really hoping the Brewers could land him even though I considered it a longshot.

“And a mutual option would have made the deal less attractive, hence why Kerry signed a deal for only one year instead of agreeing to a mutual option, which Jim Hendry would have preferred and probably offered.”

Exactly!

“Aren't mutual options worthless?”

Not from a teams standpoint. See, the likelihood of the Cubs not trying to bring him back even if he was hurt again is slim ~ they have done it every year so far… On the other hand, he does great and Wood cant get out of it ~ he would have to be a Cub. A mutual option only needs one party to pick it up, if he did great and declines then the Cubs just evoke and he’s theirs. If they will probably resign anyway, they arent hurt with their side. Besides, they could have also attached a buyout if they liked too, meaning if he stunk and for some reason they weren’t going to bring him back it would cost them even less if he accepts and they instead evoke the buyout… Or just make it a straight team option with buyout... The option would just set a price range now instead of watching him dominate as a closer (BrewTown got it and outlined it for us) only to have to pay him like 10M in 09 (a possible huge discount over say a 12-13M maybe Tex throws out there). Option at say 6M with 2M buyout gets ya 2 years and he would be stoked if he ended up getting hurt and was ruined… Its injury/bounce-back protection, similar to the option attached to Gagne the Rangers insisted on…

I have a question on the update though;
What does that mean for Sean Marshall? I mean, all the Cubs fans here said that he was a certainty to be in the rotation and would be so good based off the 1st half of 07. It was explained that the Trax signing was only for “experience” going into the playoffs. Now Depmster is in, but Marshall is out though?

…But what about Marshall and how good he is?

Darkstar,

What has happened in the past is probably irrelevant. When the team gets sold before the 2009 season, barring a World Series appearance by the Cubs, Hendry will be gone. Selig is already disturbed by the delay in the sale of the team and certainly will expedite this process.

Also, Marshall will get a good chance for the 5th starter spot because he's flat out better than Dempster. After stepping back and seeing the team as a whole, moving Dempster from closer's role to the starter's role seems to be just a concession that he was a failure as a closer. Unfortunately for Dempster, I see Lou giving him every chance to win the starting spot, but ultimately making him a long man in the pen. Marshall, Hart, and Prior are all likely to beat him out.

BrewCrew, I'd rather have a dog turd pitch rather than our potential #4-5 starters. I think Lilly will fall back and Hill forward with better luck. Zambrano will be inconsistent but overall pretty damn good as usual.

I don't think they got the diamonds to land Santana or Haren.

I agree...I'm not sure they have what it would take to land one of those guys. It would have to start with Haren, and be Hill, Pie, and Marmol, and I still am not totally sure they would do that for 3 very cheap years of Haren, one of the better more consistent pitcher in baseball. Maybe if you threw in Soto, but I think that the Cubs would be creating WAY too many holes at that point...

Dark,

You don't even have a clue what the incentives are, do you? How could you possibly know? If they are shut down closer type incentives, and he reaches them....you don't think a shut down closer is worth 8 mil? Whats Rivera, Wagner, and Cordero getting, without incentives?

Adun, try to figure that one out on your own for a second, it isn’t hard at all ~ even if you do have a huge Cubs bias…

Oh, the incentives is mentioned in that link. What we know about them is this:
“performance bonuses based largely on games finished from 20 to 55”.
…And so you don’t have to look up how possible that is, Dempster (who spent a good amount of time on the DL) had 58 Games finished in 2007. Its basically, “stay semi-healthy and you get 7.5ish Million”.

…Like I said, you wont have a hard time figuring out how crappy this deal got with knowledge of there being that much in those incentives…

Ok, then bear with me for a min...

Mil was offering something like 2/10-12ish right? And Wood supposedly gave a “hometown discount”, so we will go with the lowside of that ~ 2/10 should have gotten it done from the Cubs side in a logical world.

He gets hurt; 5M ish and they probably resign him at about the same. Ends up being about 2/10M-ish plus whatever incentives he reaches in 09, which they could have just offered 2/10 to start with.

He pitches fair but semi-hurt; 5Mish salary and they resign him at the end of the year for about the same plus more incentives. Again, could have been 2/10M-ish to start with.

He gets pitches fair to good; getting close to the 7.5ish Million ~ about 1.5-2.5M more than the other offers. They then resign him to something close to that mark and paid 14M or more for the two years. Could have been 2/10ish though…

He pitches great; 7.5M and they will more than ever want to keep him for 09 ~ but now the other teams price is up over 10M-ish so they end up paying something over 17M for the two years. Should have just gone 2/10 to begin with.

That much in easily obtainable incentives really means they offered a 7.5M contract with an insurance clause which could mean they only pay 4.2M if he is hurt all year. That doesn’t seem better than the 5-6M the other teams offered at all, and if he pitches even in the fair range the 2 year cost will end up more to much more than what they could have just gotten him for to begin with.

Best case scenario for the Cubs now is he is hurt all year; only makes 4.2 and they get him for that again in 09 ~ they would have saved about 1.5M in that case. Possibly saving that 1.5M on a useless pitcher hardly seems worth it considering how much it could end up costing them. Right now they are primed to pay him 7.5M if he does well though, which they could have gotten an extra year for only 2.5M more… But how can you really consider the “best case” to be 4.2M to a guy who was worthless, right?

Since its what he is going for on the “hometown discount” side of it, 2/10 or 4.5ish with an incentive laden option would have been extremely smart. This is just overbidding the market on a one year deal, possibly costing you a fortune in 08+09 when they try to resign him just to possibly save 1.5ish if he is hurt (and that’s not even a guarantee since it’s a progressive incentive starting at such a low mark).

Wood will almost certainly get his 2Yrs/10Mil-ish from the Cubs now; possibly milking them for as much as 17M-ish or more over the same amount of time though… Like I said, seems Hendry was on his hands and knees or something, Wood seems to have given him, well, his namesake…

Adun, first ~ you seriously have to be so hyper-critical and nit-picky ov everything said as to point out the supposed joke I made? I began typing the sentence, got to the end where I was going to try ‘wooden staff” and realized that the players name would be reapeated so I went with namesake ~ whats the problem? Was I trying to be funny? Nope not at all ~ but thank you for jumping at it as if you are doing everything you can possibly think of to continue your quest to prove me making a mistake or whatever…

Now onto the real topic… It *is* extremely easy to reach the 30-40 range despite not being the fulltime closer when the team doesn’t have one going in. There are actually 162 games played, your fulltime closer gets somewhere between 60-70 of them. Or should I phrase it like you would for you to be able to understand: THERE ARE 162 GAMES IN A SEASON, NOT 65! (see, I too can nit pick over stuff ~ and atleast I have a good reason to do so with this one…)

But look at the Cubs last year, Dempster missed only about 3Weeks-1Month where Howry took over much of it. As a whole, Howry in about 3 weeks closing and his normal duties reached 35 games finished. A fulltime closer on duty and Howry reached 35 ~ get it? You also have guys like Wuertz (19), Eyre (17) and even Ohman (11) who racked them up despite not being back-end guys or getting save chances at all really. If he is (like you point out) a back-end guy who is fighting it out for the closer spot then he will easily be able to obtain most of those incentives. If he spends even as much as like 3 weeks as the closer you are already looking at over 35-40.

Add to it the fact that Howry has 4 BS in only 12 chances last year, 4 in 9 in 06 and 2 in 5 in 2005… That’s 10 Blown in 26 chances the last three years ~ you really think that will probably work all year?

And honestly, I don’t even think they will really end up doing that to Marmol in his third year in the bigs either, so it probably comes down to just Horwy and Wood. I mean he has what, a whole 2 ML save opportunity so far in his career? Sure, his numbers last year say he might be able to do it; but its his third year, he has tons of hype, the team is supposedly going to be competing, teams will be adjusting already and that’s a ton of pressure to add on top of the pressure from closing alone.

Its easily obtainable under the circumstances, and even if he does pitch great but doesn’t get the chance to obtain that many of them, it will still end up a bad deal because it will only decrease the 09 offers for him to do it for other teams by a small margin. Plus, I didnt even get into the fact that after 08 it will almost certainly be a 2 year deal you would have to be striking with him if the other offers are that high... 4.5ish for a “possibly our closer” type ~ fair enough. Up to 7.5 when you could have had just 2/10 to start ~ no comparison…

Sorry, I went from Kerry to Marmol and back to Kerry outta nowhere there.

no one here is nit picking...I was just pointing out a bad joke. I'm trying to be an ass? Why don't you stop saying "get it?" because that is being an ass.

Anyway, if Wood is the 8th inning guy that only comes in with the lead, how is he going to get 55 games finished? He wouldn't.

"If he sucks or is hurt, they only pay 4-5Mish and then get him again at that cost"

If he is hurt, they pay 4.2 mil and sign him next year for 3 mil, max. He got this money because of how strongly he finished the season healthy, throwing 97 in the playoffs. If he was hurt all year, they would sign him next year for about what they did this last year....something like 1.75 mil.

So the contract differences are:

2\10 or
2\5.95

Which do you prefer?? Its not really that hard, we all prefer the last one, including Hendry.

Ok, I'll go over it again.

Because he was hurt all of 2006, he signed with the Cubs for 1.75 mil last year. He ended the year healthy and got a bigger contract. However, if he gets hurt in ST or the beginning of the season, and misses pretty much the whole season, he would probably sign a similar contract next year to the one he signed last year, which is 1.75 mil. So...

4.2 + 1.75 = 5.95

Obviously, thats worse case scenario as far as his playing time, but its much better that way than a 2/10 contract where he is hurt the first entire year. Thats where Jim covered himself. Not only that, but if Kerry was hurt, he could half heartedly make another comeback, but knowing at the end of the 2 year contract he will retire. He can't do that with this one. Its a good deal for Hendry. Not a great one, but a good one.

Here is the thing Dark. You make a good point if Kerry has a very good season this year. Jim will have bent over and taken it if he becomes a very good closer and then gets a big contract next year when he could have had him next year at 5 mil or so. However, because of history with Kerry, Jim wanted to make sure he didn't get screwed because of Kerry not pitching at all due to injury. So he was too worried about that....and I'm not so sure any of us can blame him. I think Hendry would be more than happy to give Kerry a better contract, but he wants to make him prove he can earn it. Like I said Dark, you make a good point if Kerry is good and healthy. However, Jim wasn't ready to bank on that.

So you are admitting that its a good deal for this year, you just don't like the fact that it might hurt them next year if he plays well? Fine, I would agree with that. However, its probably not going to be a bidding war next year like you keep saying. If he is playing well, they are going to try and work out a deal before the year is even over. So they aren't too worried about what he could get on the open market. If he is hurt all year, Hendry's contract looks much, much better than your idea. If he plays well, I'm sure his thought was that he could get him extended before the year is out, and Kerry has already been quoted as being on board with that as well.