Cubs step up efforts to find relief help
March 11th, 2010 | by Mark |A week after Paul Sullivan reported that the Cubs were not interested in any of the remaining free agent relievers and that they would look within the organization for help, the landscape has changed a bit.
With the loss of Angel Guzman for the year (and perhaps for his career), MLBTraderumors.com is reporting (via ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick) that the Cubs have inquired again about Toronto’s Jason Frasor and are “urgently seeking relief help.”
Ken Rosenthal reports that the Cubs are scouting setup men, but could be interested in Pedro Martinez or John Smoltz “down the line” presumably as a potential 5th starter.
Its looking more and more like the Cubs lack of pitching depth is going to come back and haunt them. The Cubs only have a handful of relievers with significant major league experience (Carlos Marmol, John Grabow and Jeff Gray).
Its likely that whoever loses out in the battle for the rotation will be relegated to the bullpen, but that is not really adding much.
So, what once was a strength of the Cubs is now becoming a weakness. With the injuries to Guzman and Ted Lilly, the Cubs are left scrambling to fill out their bullpen and their rotation.
Hopefully Rudy Jaramillo will be able to turn the offense around this year, because it looks like the pitching staff is likely to be taking a step back.
Tags: Angel Guzman, Carlos Marmol, Chicago Cubs, Jason Frasor, Jeff Gray, John Grabow, John Smoltz, New, Pedro Martinez, Rudy Jaramillo, rumors, Ted Lilly
