There Goes Johnny

I am completely baffled as to why the Cubs have not pursued Johnny Damon this offseason. The rumor mill was swirling in December and many sites said the Cubs were "very interested," but nothing really materialized past that. Is it against Jim Hendry's philosophy to have a proven winner on the team? Do we not want a guy who fulfills every hole that Jim Hendry has been trying to plug this offseason? He can play the outfield, he bats lefty, and he gets on base. Oh, and he also does that one thing that Alfonso Soriano was supposed to do...he bats leadoff!!!

Yeah sure, I get the fact that Damon is 4 years older than both Xavier Nady and Marlon Byrd, but you can't deny Damon's durability. He's played in at least 141 games in each of his 14 full seasons in the bigs. In 2008-2009 alone he played in 131 more games than Nady did. Clearly age is not a factor here. Nady has also had an unprecedented two Tommy John surgeries. Is Hendry hoping we get Nady on the cheap because he won't be able to meet the extra $2 million of incentives built into his contract? If Nady plays half the season Hendry should consider himself lucky.

The rumors are that Damon is seeking roughly $7MM per year, while the Cubs decided Byrd was worth 3 years $15MM. Byrd has been a utility man his entire career before his break out year last year, and according to baseball-reference has made just over 6MM total in his 6 year career. Basically, he's going to almost double that in 2010 alone thanks to his lofty new Cubs' contract! You're telling me the Cubs can't squeeze another $2MM out of the Ricketts Family to land a guy like Johnny Damon but we're going to take a multi-million dollar contract flier on a guy who has only proven himself in one season?

Maybe Hendry is going with "quantity over quality" by signing two guys instead of one, but if I'm choosing between a guy with two Tommy John surgeries and a guy who has two World Series rings I'm taking the rings.