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Cubs place Soriano on DL, recall Patterson

Alfonso Soriano’s strategy to catching a flyball is, to say the least, odd. Right before Soriano catches even the most routine popup, he hops into the air, little league style. That hop cost Soriano last night, as he injured his calf making a catch in the first inning against the Reds. Today, the Cubs placed Soriano on the 15-day disabled list with a right calf strain. To take his roster spot, the Cubs recalled second-baseman/outfielder Eric Patterson from AAA Iowa. In Soriano’s absence, the Cubs are expected to give more AB’s to the capable Mike Fontenot at the keystone, while Mark DeRosa sees more time in the outfield.

The Cubs have to be at least somewhat concerned by the multitude of lower body injuries for Soriano, who has 6 years and $119 M remaining on the gargantuan contract he signed last offseason. The 32 year-old Soriano has a ton of power, but it’s not difficult to envision a scenario where his salary becomes a real albatross a few years down the line. Soriano’s on-base skills are modest, so any degradation in his speed and range would harm his value. At the back end of that contract, the Cubs could be paying through the nose for an injury-prone .280/.320/.480-type hitter.

Meanwhile, Matt Muron has to be fuming in the cornfields of Iowa. Murton’s patient approach and doubles power will eventually be of use to some major league team, but that team will clearly not be the Cubs. To boot, Jim Hendy and company have created a scenario where Murton will fetch precious little in a trade; how can anything more than a B-level prospect be demanded when the organization has sent the clear message that Murton is not in the team’s immediate or future plans?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Alfonso Soriano, Cubs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.