Derek Lee Informs the Cubs He Will not Accept a Trade
If the Chicago Cubs were thinking about dumping a huge salary off on one of their veterans, they can forget it. First baseman Derek Lee has told general manager (GM) Jim Hendry and the organization that he wants to remain a Cub and will not accept a trade.
The Cubs were in talks with the Los Angeles Angels over the past couple of weeks, as the Angels had proposed a trade. As it is his right, Lee turned down the deal because he has been in the league for 10 years and he has spent five years with the same team. The 34 year old also has a no-trade clause and told the Cubs he wanted to play out the last year of his contract and not be some rental player.
Lee has been a valuable part of the Cubs in his time in Chicago, but in his seventh season with the team, it has been his worst season yet. He is batting .249 with 11 home runs and 44 RBIs. He has been battling chronic neck and back problems the past few years, but he has played through them.
Lee’s 2010 season has no reflection on his career though. He is a lifetime .282 hitter with 304 home runs and 983 RBIs. In his five seasons with the Cubs, his best season came in 2005 when he batted .335, leading the team. He also pelted 46 home runs and drove in 107 runs.
Lee is also a former World Series Champion. He was on the Florida Marlins championship team in 2003, the same team that eliminated the Cubs in the National League Championship Series.
The Angels have desperately been looking for a replacement for Kendry Morales since the first baseman broke his leg in a home run celebration in May. The Angels recently acquired Dan Haren, but many felt their need was at the plate and not on the mound.
Lee has been a great player for the Cubs, but he is up there in age and it is not known now if the Cubs will sign him at season’s end. It would seem unlikely now, knowing the team wanted to trade him.
The Cubs are already in a tough spot this season. Manager Lou Piniella is retiring at the end of the season, meaning the Cubs are looking for a new manager, and they will have to decide if they want to hang on to some players with big contracts on the team.
Derek Lee has primarily batted third in his time with Chicago and was a big reason for the team’s recent success in the regular season. The Cubs won the NL Central in both 2007 and 2008, but were swept both times in the NLDS in the postseason. Lee was among the several Cubs sluggers who struggled throughout both those series and the team was simply over-matched by both the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers in those years, with their sluggers slumping.
You have to wonder if Lee and several others of those sluggers are running low on their time in Chicago. The Cubs seem to be primed for another rebuilding plan as they are struggling so far this season and don’t seem like they’ll be playoff contenders. There may not be enough room for Lee and other veterans who haven’t been producing at the necessary level for the team to win.
Whatever happens to the Cubs next year, they do have some promising young prospects and their rookies have shown some promise as well, but this is a franchise that last won a World Series in 1908. How many more rebuilding plans must the team undergo before the see another championship win?
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