January 5, 2012 Tribune Cubs End Zambrano Ordeal
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January 5, 2012 Tribune Cubs end Zambrano ordeal with trade Controversial pitcher goes to Marlins for once-promising starter By: Dave van Dyck The only logical conclusion to Carlos Zambrano's long-and-stormy pitching career with the Cubs will be the same as Ozzie Guillen's long-and-stormy managerial career with the White Sox: They both had to leave town to join one team — the Marlins. Guillen left just after season's end and Zambrano will be joining him later this week, after the Cubs agreed to assume $15 million of his $18 million contract in a trade that should be announced soon. The Marlins will send 6-foot-8 right-handed pitcher Chris Volstad in return, according to multiple sources. The deal needs the approval of Zambrano, which appears to be done, and the commissioner's office, which has not yet been done because of the amount of money involved. Both players also have to pass physical exams. Volstad, a first-round draft pick in 2005, finished 5-13 with a 4.89 ERA last season after a 12-9 showing the year before. The 230-pounder made $445,000 last season and could get up to $2 million this year in arbitration. The Cubs control his rights through 2014. Zambrano was just 9-7 with a 4.82 ERA in 24 games last season, missing the last two months when the Cubs placed him on the restricted list. The reported deal ends a strange North Side-South Side saga, with Guillen's friendship with fellow Venezuelan Zambrano causing friction between Chicago's teams after a 2010 interleague game at U.S. Cellular Field. In that case, the Cubs suspended Zambrano after a dugout blowup, and he dined quietly later that evening with the Guillen family. "We didn't go to dinner for me to talk to him about what happened," Guillen said the next day. "We talked about life, about being in Venezuela, we talked about a (charity) project my wife has for him. …" If nothing else, Chicago will be much less tumultuous with their twin exits. While with the Sox in 2006, Guillen had been ordered to undergo sensitivity training after a verbal assault on a newspaper columnist, long before Zambrano agreed to anger management counseling after a confrontation with teammate Derrek Lee in 2010. "I don't think you're going to change. For me (counseling) didn't work out. I'm the same," Guillen said with a laugh after the June game in 2010. "But it helped. My problem was that the guy listened to me, I didn't listen to him. … "I think Carlos is doing the right thing (by attending)." Guillen also said at the time, even though Zambrano was Cubs' property, that he could manage someone with anger problems. "Yes, I can, yes, I can, why not?" he said. "I'm not afraid (to manage) any player in baseball because I'm going to give them all the respect I can to perform for me.'' Zambrano's problems didn't end there. He was placed on the restricted list last season after cleaning out his locker and saying he would retire following an August blowup on the mound in Atlanta, in which he gave up five home runs and was ejected. He was reinstated Sept. 11 but didn't pitch again, despite a public apology. In early November, Zambrano, despite pitching in Venezuela, kept a lunch-time appointment at Wrigleyville's Goose Island Brewery with new Cubs President Theo Epstein, who said afterward Zambrano was contrite. "Very much so, but from what I understand, he has seemed that way before, so I think this is a trust- but-verify situation," Epstein said. But it was clear at the time that Epstein didn't want to risk another Zambrano meltdown, and that's when the rumors started that Zambrano would be united with Guillen in Miami. Saying the two texted nearly every day, Guillen denied in early December he was recruiting Zambrano. "We talk as friends, we talk about what happened in the past, yes," Guillen said during baseball's winter meetings in Dallas. "We talk about how better it's going to be, yes. We talk about what kind of pitcher he can be, yes. But talking about the Marlins, I never did." But Guillen also predicted in the same interview: "I got a bet with somebody. I will tell you, he will win a lot of games for (his) team." At 30, it is doubtful the big right-hander will regain the form or flamboyancy that saw him record a 91-51 mark and one no-hitter from 2003-2008. In the last three years, Zambrano has won only 29 games while losing 20 and has missed long periods with his suspensions and trips to the disabled list, most notably for back spasms. The next time Zambrano — or Guillen, for that matter — dons a baseball uniform in Chicago will be July 17-19, when the Marlins visit Wrigley Field. The two teams also meet April 17-19 in Miami. -- Tribune Dumping Zambrano winner for Cubs Even though Cubs are paying most of salary and even if Volstad is flop, it cleans up clubhouse By: Phil Rogers Chris Volstad isn't the second coming of Kerry Wood. Nor Mark Prior. He's nowhere near the pitcher that Matt Clement was when the Cubs got him from the same place, 10 years ago. But when the 6-foot-8 Volstad walks onto Wrigley Field for the first time in blue pinstripes, he will think he is being mistaken for Greg Maddux. That's how happy Chicago fans will be to see him in place of the utterly unreliable and sometimes anti-social Carlos Zambrano. God bless Zambrano. And Ozzie Guillen too. Without Guillen's recommendation, the Marlins would not be trading the mildly disappointing Volstad — a first-round pick with a 4.59 career earned-run average — for Zambrano. They think Zambrano will be a rotation upgrade and yet another reason for fans to come to their new stadium, and maybe they're right. But after watching Zambrano unravel on a regular basis in the first four years of the five-year, $91.5- million contract he foolishly was awarded on the heels of assaulting teammate Michael Barrett, the Cubs don't really care whether "Big Z" ever gets it together. They are so thrilled to unload him that Chairman Tom Ricketts reportedly is paying $15 million of Zambrano's $18 million salary this season. Those were the terms of the deal that was finalized Wednesday, pending physicals and the pro-forma approval of the commissioner's office. Theo Epstein, the primary architect on the Cubs' end, did not reply to my request for comment, even after I suggested to him that he probably was too busy popping corks on champagne bottles. Epstein foreshadowed the trade during a WGN-AM 720 interview earlier Wednesday. He was asked if Zambrano could fit into an unselfish, accountable clubhouse, as the Cubs president by and his new manager, Dale Sveum, envision. "The Carlos Zambrano from 2011 and the years previous can't fit into the culture that we have here," Epstein said. "So change needs to happen and change will happen. Either he'll change and buy in and fit into this culture — and I understand there are a lot of skeptics about that, and frankly I'm skeptical about it as well, I think he needs to prove to us that he can change and be part of this culture — or we'll change the personnel and move forward with people who are proud to be Cubs and treat their teammates with respect and treat the fans with respect and can be part of a winning culture in the Cubs' clubhouse." When Milton Bradley snapped at the end of 2009, I suggested the Cubs should release him, which would have cost $21 million. Crane Kenney, then the team's sole president, looked at me like I had three heads. They eventually swapped him for the redoubtable Carlos Silva, and then got little more than headaches from Silva, whom they released last spring. The Zambrano situation was similar. They could have paid him $18 million to go home and made a worthwhile statement. But Epstein — thanks to Guillen — found a way to get something for his money. His next order of business is seeing how long it will take him to move Alfonso Soriano to the American League, where he belongs, and whether any contender — Tigers, Yankees, Red Sox or Blue Jays — wants Matt Garza badly enough to meet his high asking price. I think Garza will be gone long before Soriano but the Zambrano trade confirms Epstein's reputation as a man of action. You can make a pretty good bet on Zambrano and Volstad, in regard to who will have the better 2012. Frankly, I would take the 25-year-old who is under the Cubs' control for three more years, even if he hasn't come close to fulfilling the high expectations he carried with the Marlins. He was the first high school pitcher selected in the 2005 draft, and was rated as the Marlins' top prospect in '07. He had thrown only 134 innings in the high minors before making his big league debut in '08, when he was only 21. Volstad had some early success but has hit a wall the last three seasons, consistently allowing 1.4 baserunners per inning. That's nowhere near as good as Zambrano once was, but is a tradeoff from the last two years.