Cubs Roster Moves

Ryan Dempster heads to the disabled list with a broken toe on his right foot and Carlos Zambrano will get the start tonight on three days rest. To fill the roster spot, Kevin Hart has been recalled from Iowa, just a day after being demoted, and will start tomorrow versus the Braves. This should set up the four game series versus the Cardinals to be Harden, Lilly, Wells and Zambrano for the Cubs and then the All-Star break. 

Wittenmyer tweets that Sam Fuld and Kevin Hart have been optioned to Iowa and David Patton will go on the disabled list with a groin injury. The Cubs will carry 11 pitchers for the time being and Patton will certainly take the full rehab time before rejoining the team.

The Cubs countered the Cardinals acquisition of Mark DeRosa with one of their own, acquiring 2B/3B Jeff Baker from the Colorado Rockies. It's like countering a handgun with a slingshot.

As mentioned earlier, Aaron Miles has been activated and slugger Jake Fox has been sent down giving the Cubs the worst bench that has ever been assembled. Okay, tonight's actually isn't so bad with the lefty Wandy Rodriguez on the mound: Fontenot, Hill, Blanco, Fukudome and Hoffpauir.

Jake Fox and his 17 PCL home runs are on their way to Chicago for today's game. To make room on the roster, Aaron Miles will be put on the disabled list with a sore shoulder that has apparently bothered him since spring training. Miles is barely good enough to play major league baseball when healthy, he certainly didn't need to be struggling through an injury all this time.

With Carlos Zambrano expected to be reactivated from the 15-day DL tomorrow, the Cubs will need to make an acompanying roster move.

Here are the three most-likely moves:

UPDATE: If I understand this correctly, the offical deal is the Cubs getting Ryan Freel and $2.6 or $2.7M from the Orioles for Joey Gathright. The O's would then pay the rest of Gathright's contract (about $670K), thus making it "cash-neutral" as Rosenthal described as Freel was owed about $3.3M on his $4M deal for 2009.

The Cubs needed to make a roster move with Randy Wells getting the call-up for today's start. With MIlton Bradley's ridiculous 2-day suspension loooming and Derrek Lee in injury limbo - too hurt to play, not to hurt to be put on the DL - the Cubs are going to ask Joey Gathright to go the minors.  WIth 5+ years of service time under his belt, Gathright can refuse the assignment, but then he forfeits the remainder of his $800K contract and has to hope another team will pick him up.

It looks like I was on to something yesterday when I mentioned that Jeff Samardzija might get sent down. Chad Fox gets the call-up and has been added to the 40-man roster.

As had been rumored, the Cubs have gone and designated Luis Vizcaino for assignment and promoted Jeff Samardzija. Vizcaino has 72 hours to clear waivers and then the Cubs have 7 days to trade or release him. Vizcaino is owed $3.5M for 2009, some of which has already been paid by the Cubs, plus he had a $4M option for 2010 with a $500K buyout, which I believe the Cubs are still responsible for.