The Cubs claimed Adrian Cardenas off of waivers from the Athletics, the A's announced. Oakland had designated the infielder for assignment on January 26th.
Cardenas, 24, spent the 2011 season with Oakland's Triple-A affiliate, where he posted a .314/.374/.418 line in 545 plate appearances and played left field, shortstop, second and third. In six minor league seasons, the 2006 first rounder has a .303/.368/.413 batting line. However, he is a sub-par defender, Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus tweets. The A's acquired Cardenas from the Phillies in the 2008 trade that sent Joe Blanton to Philadelphia.
decent claim for the cubs, could be semi-useful to back up barney and whoever they have at 3rd
Very strong offensive numbers. If he can shore up his defense and be that successful at the big league level, I would love to see him take Barney’s spot- as much as I like Darwin.
Smart smart move by the Cubbies. I knew one team would be smart enough to steal him from the A’s. Was hoping the Phillies were that team. Oh well.
Yeah I totally agree. Not really sure why the A’s got rid of him. Always liked Cardenas. Ready for the big leagues, good average, good OBP
no spot, not even in AAA
Nice low risk/high reward signing. Theo/Hoyer are really moving in the right direction
not really a “high reward”, medium reward, at best
High relative to the cost? (shrug)
I like the move for the Cubs, but Kevin Goldstein raised a fair point on Twitter: “Instead of handing Adrian Cardenas a job in Chicago, maybe we should wonder why he was available. He’s a really bad infielder.”
What’s with Goldstein? He seems like he can’t wait to criticize a Jedstein aquisition.
He (and Law) praised the Zambrano trade.
Besides, what great acquisition have they made for the Cubs? Goldstein (and Law) praise Hoyer and McLeod a ton for what they did in SD. But they’ve been dumpster diving so far in Chicago. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. They’re still getting settled in with a team that was in rough shape. But which move was anyone supposed to love?
I never said they’ve made a great aquisition but I don’t think they made a obivouisly bad move yet either (though all moves need to be viewed in the light of history) and the Z move is the only one I can remember him liking.
They both liked getting Rizzo for Cashner. I don’t recall them specifically hating any of the other moves. I think the general consensus on the Ian Stewart trade was a shrug.
Zambranos’ mama praised that deal.
getting rizzo for cashner was a win
They both praised that one, too.
He may be bad (defensively?); no reason to think he’s bad offensively. Also I don’t see how he can be worse than DeWitt. Also will be cheaper
Right, but there’s plenty of room between bad and good enough with the bat for a left fielder.
I’m not convinced they “handed the job” to him, yet.
I’m a little surprised he was even put on waivers. I appreciate the issues the A’s are having, but those are some nice numbers to just give away.
with jemile weeks and scott sizemore blocking him in the majors, as well as rosales and sogard taking away his potential utility role, he had no spot in the majors, and with stephen parker coming up to AAA as their 3rd baseman, where he spent most of his time last year, he wasn’t really going to have a spot there either.
trade bait then? why designate him?
They had to make a roster move, and he was the guy they who really didn’t fit in. He wasn’t just cut for the hell of it.
He was repeating the level, he’s young but not super young, and he’s probably best defensively in left field. That makes the numbers a lot worse.
To really be valuable, he needs to either be able to play a premium defensive position, which he can’t, or hit for more power, which he doesn’t.
he’s a ” ‘tweener” then
Exactly. He MIGHT be a nice bench player.
Since they picked him up for nothing to investigate exactly this possibility, no harm no foul then.
You can hear Billy Beane swearing from here
If Beane cared that much, this wouldn’t have happened.
yeah but…kinda bad for the A’s. Cardenas and Outman were the 2 main players in the Blanton deal. Neither player is with the club now
well they made choices to trade/dfa those players
they used outman to get seth smith. spencer who is also now with the cubs was used to get jake fox.
imo if cardenas was workable at 3b he wouldve been an option but that was a disaster and A’s dumped that idea. also blocked by weeks at 2b
Yeah but I don’t think Billy ever really liked Cardenas for some reason. Perhaps it was his bad “defense”, but Billy I think just sometimes has it out for certain players, and kind of ruins their development, case in point Travis Buck…
Yeah they did use Outman to get Smith so the trade was valuable I suppose. But on the other hand neither player (neither Outman/Cardenas) was considered a long term asset by the front office.
Even so, I would think that there’s always room on an MLB roster for a 2B with below average defense who can hit .300 and put up a .350 on base for the league minimum? Defense is important, but it isn’t everything (reply to michael)
Younger with seemingly more potential than our current/former back-up Dewitt. Would seem as though the A’s would try to get something for this guy. Drafted in 2006, does the service time rule apply to minor leaguers? Or a better question, how long is he under team control and what is his salary? And what does Oakland know that Cubbies don’t?
After looking into this guy a little more, I see he is a big singles hitter. Basically no power and no speed. Good eye with low strikeouts.
His fielding isn’t as bad as people lead on. At least he seemed to have improved last year with only 9 errors. His weak position would be 3rd base but, unless I’m wrong, we have Baker over there backing it up. I think this guy looks pretty much like Darwin Barney. I wonder how there stats vs lefty & righties compare.
He is basicly a utility guy nothing more. No power and speed but can hit for average. The A’s already have 2 utility players on the team that play better Defense so he was expendable.
He’s under team control through at least 2017. And if he somehow finds his niche and sticks in Chicago, he’ll get paid the league minimum his first 2 or 3 seasons, then become arbitration-eligible.
The guy’s definitely worth taking a flier on. I just wouldn’t get my hopes up about him. It’s possible that he could become a better backup than Baker or DeWitt. But it’s pretty hard to imagine him becoming a major league starter at this point. He’s too much of a defensive liability, and it looks like he’s already reached his ceiling, offensively.
The good news though, is he still has two options left. And since the Cubs are in rebuild mode, they can afford to be patient with him. So maybe if he can get a few months of consistent playing time at 2B in Iowa he could improve his defense enough to at least be passable.
I’m an A’s fan, and am never gonna miss him. But the Cubs are one of my favorite NL teams, so I’ll be pulling for him to succeed there. It would surprise me if he ever becomes an above-average player. But I’ve learned to never say never.
Very informative! Thanks!
I still think he could be better than Ian Stewart. Why not give him a shot.
Congratulations, Adrian Cardenas. You’ve been damned with faint praise.
Somehow, I don’t think Cubs are doing these trades and acquisitions to make the team better. They seem to be focused on acquiring players who are on the verge of becoming marketable assets. In other words, decent ball players who are very affordable because they are in their pre-arb years or just entering their arb years.
This seems to be wise given the number of teams constrained by payroll. This includes the high payroll teams.
I expect Chicago will turn over these players for better prospects.
Adrian Cardenas= a AAAA player if there ever was one. The guy has no power plays no defense. His numbers were inflated by the very friendly pacific coast league. Enjoy him Cubby fans