Heilman Traded to Cubs
Aaron Heilman has been traded to the Cubs in exchange for Garrett Olson and Ronny Cedeno.
Well that was quick … guess I can cancel my order for a Seattle Mariners hat. I could have gotten away with that too — rooting for the M’s. I don’t know how I can root for the Cubs, though.
Interestingly, Heilman brought the Mariners a fairly accomplished, young, lefthanded starter and a potential starting shortstop or second baseman. Strange that the Mets had to add 22 people to him to get a 32-year-old reliever.
Now, the question is, will Heilman get his chance to win a starting rotation spot? The Cubs have Sean Marshall penciled in, but he was going to compete with the now-departed Olson. Would Lou Piniella give Heilman a shot to compete with Marshall? Or does he view Heilman as another setup guy to team with Kevin Gregg, Jeff Samardzija, and Chad Gaudin?
Or, will this acquisition lead to ANOTHER deal, possibly one that sends Jake Peavy from San Diego to Chicago? Should be interesting to follow.
In any case, Heilman looks now to be in a position to either make the Mets look really bad, or really smart, and to do it much too close to “home”.
By the way, at the annual Baseball Writers’ Association of America dinner last Sunday, Heilman took out this ad:
An Appreciation
Playing at Shea
before you folks
was an experience
I always will savorThank you for support
— Aaron Heilman
Congratulations to all award winners this evening
(Hat tip to ‘Ropolitans)
Classy. It’s going to be hard for me not to root for him as a Cub.
Now, let’s hope this embarrasses the Mets front office and they start making a deal to mask this trade. LIKE GET MANNY!
Later, Timo
I agree that Heilman has a much better chance at seeking retribution against the Mets now that he’s back in the NL, and I think the Cubs made a heck of a deal getting a potential #5 starter, middle reliever, and closing candidate with Kerry Wood now in Cleveland. But in my opinion, you look at the scrap heap of players Seattle has gotten because of their trades this offseason, and I’d still rather JJ Putz over the lot of them.
I don’t want to hear about Sean Green and Jeremy Reed — they may as well be Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson. Point is, the Mets traded Heilman AND Endy AND Joe Smith AND four prospects AND he had to get the Indians involved for basically one guy who may or may not be that much more effective than Heilman in 2009. (Yes, I expect Putz to be lights out. But will he be healthy? Will he be able to handle NY? Will Heilman be as bad in ’09 as he was in ’08?)
I wouldn’t belabor the point except that right after the Putz trade, Omar Minaya had to make a public proclamation about how great and deep the Mets’ prospects are — he basically pointed to that trade as evidence to “stick it” to everyone criticizing Tony Bernazard’s abysmal organization.
Heilman definitely had an awful year last season, but I still believe his best place is as a starter. I don’t think he’ll be an All-Star for the Cubs, but if he gets a rotation spot I can definitely see a 10-12 win, 190 IP season — which is exactly what the Mets need at the back end.
Delgado ….. ooooh boy …. will we get Jekyll or Hyde in ’09?