Last week the Cubs did the (seemingly) impossible and trade headcase Carlos Zambrano while actually getting a decent player in return (Chris Volstad). Sure, the Cubs had to pay $15 million of the $18 million that Zambrano is owed in 2012, but, as Theo Epstein put it:
“The calculus for us was would we rather spend that $18 million on one year of Carlos and try to make it work with him here. Best case scenario is that if it did work, he’d be leaving as a free agent at the end of the year. Or, if we had to spend that money anyways as a sunk cost, would we rather spend it on a 25-year-old who we can put in our rotation and control for three seasons? That made a lot more sense.”This gives me hope that the Cubs could pull off something similar with Alfonso Soriano, as the same scenario pertains to him as well. If the Cubs consider the $54 million remaining on his contract a sunk cost, it comes down to whether it make more sense to eat a large chunk of that contract in hopes of...
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