Jim Hendry's History as General Manager of the Chicago Cubs

2002 was the first season of the Hendry Era. He certainly started it off with a flurry.

In August of that season, he moved reliever Tom Gordon, who at that point was believed to be washed up, to Houston for Russ Rohlicek, Travis Anderson and Mike Nannini.

Did anyone see the three dopes we got from Houston closing games a couple years ago? Or setting up Brad LIdge in the World Series last October?

No, the Cubs didn't need a gritty, versatile, left-handed hitting third baseman. Not at all. So Hendry traded Bill Mueller to the Giants (with what remained of his salary) for Jeff Verplanke.

Hendry looked like a genius in 2003, the very next season, when Muller won the American League batting title and Silver Slugger award with the Boston Red Sox.

Let's also not forget that it was Mueller who drove in Dave Roberts in Game Four of the 2004 ALCS to tie the game in the ninth inning off Mariano Rivera. Hendry's teams may have won the last two division crowns, but Mueller had to leave to get a World Series ring.

Hendry did make a few moves during the calendar year of 2002 that proved effective.

July - traded Darren Lewis for Chad Hermanson. Who cares, right? Wait six months.

November - in two separate deals, Hendry traded three minor leaguers (Dave Noyce, Gary Johnson and Ryan Gripp) for Damian Miller and Paul Bako. These two became the catching tandem for the great 2003 season.

December - the grand prize for the year. Hendry traded Todd Hundley, the case of beer he came to Chicago on, and Hermanson to the Dodgers for Mark Grudzielanek and Erik Karros. Both Grudz and Karros proved to be great assets in 2003.

This deal was a huge question mark for me at the time.

The Cubs had moved Hernandez to Atlanta in an awful deal just a couple years before, and Bellhorn had burst onto the scene as a legitimate switch hitter in the middle of the Cubs infield.

Hernandez had perhaps the worst concept of the strike zone of anyone on the Cubs in the last two decades.

July - Hendry sends a bottle of Jaegermeister to Pittsburgh with a box of chocolates. A few days later, he pulls of a trade that was biblically bad for for the Pirates.

Strikeout king Hernandez, Matt Bruback, and Bobby Hill were sent east for Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez.

Ramirez came over as a young third baseman with world's of talent but defensive issues. He has been the best man to play third on the North Side since Ron Santo for five seasons since.

Lofton, meanwhile, replaced an injured Corey Patterson at the top of the order and was the veteran leadoff man the Cubs needed for almost a decade before his arrival.

Meanwhile, Hernandez and Bruback are nowhere and most people think Bobby Hill is the kid on "King of the Hill."

Just in case the Pirates hadn't sent all of their good players to the Cubs yet, six weeks after the Ramirez trade the Pirates sent Randall Simon to Chicago for Rey Sadler.

Simon was clutch and split time at first with Karros. Sadler...He must have done something. Insurance sales maybe?

I can't give Hendry full credit for a win here because it was Dave Littlefield. Simon was good, but he was a rental for eight weeks.

After watching him play a crucial role on the Marlins team that bounced the Cubs from the playoffs in October, Hendry this time opted to send bottles of Johnny Walker Red and Blue (the colors of the franchise) to Florida.

The next week he committed another sin, trading Hee Seop Choi for Derrek Lee.

After the turnstile that was first base for the Cubs in 2003 (Karros, Choi and Simon), Hendry made the move to lock down the position for the next five years by moving for the elite defender in Lee.

Lee has made Ramirez a better third baseman and been a key batter in the middle of the Cubs lineup for the past five seasons. Choi... who knows.

After one solid season behind the plate, Hendry decided to move Damian Miller in an effort to get more firepower in the batting order. In December, Hendry traded Miller for Michael Barrett.

Miller would go on to have solid seasons in Oakland and Milwaukee, continuing to be known as a good signal caller and a solid handler of pitching staffs.

Barrett, on the other hand, is best remembered for throwing punches at AJ Pierzynski and Carlos Zambrano more effectively than he threw out base stealers. While he was certainly a better hitter than Miller, but was a train-wreck behind the plate.

At the end of Spring Training in 2004, Hendry traded a young reliever to Atlanta in a deal most fans didn't even notice.

But five seasons later, Juan Cruz is still pitching late in games. He came across as a similar pitcher to Carlos Marmol but without the chances to compete.

On July 21, Hendry traded Ricky Gutierrez for nothing. Literally. The Cubs were to receive a player to be named later, and later hasn't arrived yet.

Gutierrez wasn't an enormous loss, but getting nothing in return for a starting middle infield is at least a marginal loss.

Give Hendry credit for one thing here: he put it out there big time.

At the trade deadline, he pulled a blockbuster deal that ended with Nomar Garciaparra, the god of Boston, in Chicago.

But the impact players in this deal are more the surrounding pieces than Nomar.

Matt Murton also came to the Cubs, and was a nice role player who never received a chance.

Sent packing in this deal was Brendan Harris, who has been a solid role player on a couple of teams since this trade. Alex Gonzalez, Francis Beltran and Justin Jones were also traded away as part of this blockbuster.

I'm going to call this deal a wash. Nomar never did anything for the Cubs but sell jerseys, while Murton never got his chance. Harris is currently batting .289 in Minnesota.

In 2004, Hendry brought in an injured Ryan Dempster for what appeared to be a last chance at baseball He gave him a one-year deal worth $500,000.

Dempster eventually became the Cubs' closer for a couple years and won 17 games as a starter in 2008.

This might be the biggest free agent victory of Hendry's career.

In a move that can be considered nothing more than a birthday present to me, Hendry traded Sammy Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles for what looked like nothing on paper on Feb. 2 (two days before my birthday).

While Jerry Hairston didn't end up providing much to the Cubs, it was the mid-level minor league infielder in the deal that made this a win for Hendry. Mike Fontenot is now the starting second baseman for the Cubs.

My only fault with this deal is that the era that ended in my heart was when Fontenot put on No. 17. Mark Grace deserved someone taller, if anyone, wear his jersey before it gets retired.

Exactly one week after Sosa was dealt, Hendry continued cleaning out crap when he sent Kyle Farnsworth to the Tigers for three players.

The only one that ever saw much action at Wrigley was Roberto Novoa, while Farnsworth continues to get whiplash watching his 100 mile per hour fastball leave the building.

Hendry has been on a magical mystery tour, searching the heavens for an answer to the issue of a left handed bat in the Cubs lineup.

In 2005, it was a one year contract to free agent lumberjack Jeromy Burnitz. Rumor is that they actually had to hold his hand to sign the contract; every time he'd try to hit the paper with the pen he'd miss.

Like Burnitz in the batter's box, this deal was a swing and a miss for Hendry.

The guy that played third base for the New York Yankees while Alex Rodriguez was rehabilitating his image, I mean hip, was Cody Ransom.

The Cubs traded him to the Rangers in 2005.

Not a huge impact on the roster, so we'll assume the cash received for him was worth the...Ransom...sorry, had to go pun there. Too easy. Another wash.

Hendry successfully found someone dumb enough to take LaTroy Hawkins off his hands - and he got two serviceable pitchers in return (Jerome Williams and David Aardsma).

While Williams and Aardsma had limited Chicago careers, this one chalks up as an enormous moral victory for getting Hawkins out of Chicago.

Within 13 days, Hendry traded Jason Dubois for Jody Gerut and then moved Gerut for Matt Lawton. Gerut is still in the major, while Lawton had injury and steroid issues. Dubois is back in the Cubs system...somewhere...

This one is probably a loss for Hendry because the best player of the group was Gerut, who could have been a decent left handed hitting outfielder for minimal financial exposure.

Talk about tinkering with a lineup. Hendry made two moves with Gerut in 13 days, and in less than a month he acquired and then dealt Lawton, this time sending another rented outfielder out the door for a minor leaguer named Justin Berg.

So, to recap, between July 18th and August 27, Hendry traded Dubois for Gerut, Gerut for Lawton, and Lawton for Berg. Buyer's remorse, or no freaking clue?

The Cubs needed a leadoff man. The Marlins felt like fleecing the Cubs farm system for a future and getting some retribution for the Choi-Lee trade. Both teams were successful.

The Cubs got Juan Pierre.

The Marlins got Sergio Mitre, who has been a decent major league starter. They got Renyel Pinto, who has been a decent major league reliever. And they got Ricky Nolasco, who is now at the top of their rotation.

Pierre is a Dodger. The Marlins have one of the best young pitching staffs in baseball.

Call it a 24-month break even with the Lee trade?

Think of this as Jeromy Burnitz version 2.0 - Jacque Jones.

Problem with that idea is that Hendry was at least smart enough to limit his potential losses with Burnitz to one year and $4.5 million; Jones got three years and $16 million.

Jones had crafted his game nicely to be on the carpet in the Metrodome with the Twins. It took him until the All Star Break to realize that the ball doesn't skip on natural grass, and he had to re-learn how to throw a baseball to a person.

His aim at the plate resembled his arm looking for a cutoff man, too. This was another loss for Hendry.

The Cubs traded another arm that got lost in their bullpen mess to Florida. While he didn't end up making any noise with the Marlins, in 2008 he showed the promise some Cubs fans thought he had teased in limited time at Wrigley Field.

Todd Wellemeyer was a victim of numbers, and now the Cubs are victims of his numbers. In the starting rotation in St. Louis last year, 13-9 with a 3.71 ERA.

If you talk about some of the most hyped prospects of the last 20 years, the name Phil Nevin is absolutely in the conversation. But that was in the early 1990s.

In May of 2006, the Cubs traded versatile Jerry Hairston for Nevin in a deal that brought one of the most uniquely one-dimensional players in the National League to Chicago.

Nevin couldn't do anything in the field, but the Cubs saw a need for someone who couldn't play DH every day.

Hairston's at least still in baseball, we'll call this one a loss.

The merry go round at second base since Ryne Sandberg hasn't been as painful as the exile that third base had been between Santo and Ramirez, but the nearly annual loss of a quality player at the position hasn't been easy to stomach either.

Todd Walker played a quality second base for the Cubs for a handful of years, but Hendry saw an opportunity to acquire a young pitcher for him. So he dealt the popular clubhouse leader to the Padres for a kid named Jose Ceda.

We're going to call this deal an enormous loss, because of Walker's value to the team and the eventual zero impact of Ceda.

But let's start a running tally of second baseman traded away. So far we've seen Grudzielanek, Brendan Harris and Walker. We're not done, yet, either.

In this age of empty numbers and tarnished legend, history may remember Greg Maddux as being one of the best of all time.

In the early 1990s, the Cubs let the future Hall of Famer go for nothing. Cubs fans watched as he then went on to a decade of dominance in Atlanta, wondering the entire time what could have been.

But he came home to a heroes welcome, and the marriage seemed just right. Until Hendry thought he could trade the great pitcher for Cesar Izturis.

In this age of empty numbers and tarnished legend, history won't remember Cesar Izturis. But in Hendry's eyes, he was worth trading Greg Maddux.

Remember how Hendry traded LaTroy Hawkins for David Aardsma and Jerome Williams? And remember how bad Hawkins was?

In November of 2006, Hendry traded Aardsma for Neal Cotts.

Have we come full circle?

I know I'll get blasted for including him on this list because the Cubs picked Josh Hamilton for the Reds in the Rule Five Draft in December of 2006, but it kills me to think of all the heartache and wasted hope Cubs fans have invested in left handed hitters like Kosuke Fukudome and Milton Bradley when, if only for a matter of hours, Hamilton was property of the Chicago Cubs.

Fans forget that Hendry was roundly criticized for the three-year, $13 million contract he gave Mark DeRosa in November of 2006. He had just completed a career year in Texas that most analysts believed made him a prime candidate for One Year Wonder status.

DeRosa exceeded the numbers he put up in Texas in both 2007 and 2008. He was a leader and lovable player. This was a huge win for Hendry.

When numbers like eight years and $136 million get tossed around, it better be for a good reason.

Four days after DeRosa was brought into the fold, Hendry put the Tribune Company on bankruptcy watch when he gave an enormous deal to Alfonso Soriano.

Soriano's had injury issues, and has fought being anything but a leadoff man, but he's put up solid numbers for the Cubs in a little over two seasons.

While his defense, and the little hop he gives us with every catch, can drive fans crazy, hitting the first pitch of a game over 400 feet help make a wild throw or two forgettable.

Hendry followed the DeRosa and Soriano moves by adding a quality left handed starter to the rotation in Ted Lilly.

Like the DeRosa deal, some thought four years and $40 million were a bit excessive for a fourth or fifth starter from Toronto, but Lilly proved them wrong by winning 17 games in 2008.

We'll call this a good deal for Hendry.

After bringing in valuable pieces in DeRosa, Soriano and Lilly to fairly sizable deals, the trigger happy Hendry rolled the dice for a fifth starter.

Jason Marquis was coming off a World Series Championship with the St. Louis Cardinals...problem was, they didn't put him on their postseason roster. So Hendry gave him three years and $21 million.

Marquis was a serviceable, decent fifth starter during his time in Chicago, but he was nowhere near $7 million worth. This one we're going to call a loss.

Almost a year to the day after trading Maddux for Izturis, Hendry traded the shortstop to the Pirates for cash.

So, basically, the Cubs gave Maddux away twice?

Jacque Jones was traded for Omar Infante in November of 2007, ending a marriage that could best be described as something you would find in Charlie Sheen's autobiography.

Infante wasn't with the franchise for a full month. Jones shouldn't have been.

Double loss for Hendry.

He had never taken a pitch from a major league pitcher, but Hendry bought (and subsequently sold) the hype of Kosuke Fukudome to the tune of four years and $48 million.

He came out of the gate with great success, hitting a big home run in the ninth inning of the home opener in 2008. But then things went bad... biblically bad... and Fukudome was an afterthought from the 4th of July until March.

Hendry wasted $12 million last year, but we're going to allow for some more seasoning before we call this contract a complete loss.

After being dumped by Toronto due to a surplus of outfielders, Reed Johnson fell into Hendry's lap in 2008 just as Spring Training was ending.

Johnson might not fill a stat sheet like other players, but he's a guaranteed Web Gem and he plays the game the way it should be: no matter what it takes to win, Johnson will do it twice.

This was a fantastic victory for Hendry.

Hertz doesn't offer rentals this good.

In May of 2008, Hendry grabbed a left handed bat off waivers that he thought could buy some at bats throughout the season. Jim Edmonds was a diamond bought for pennies.

With a prorated deal that cost the Cubs only $290,000, Edmonds hit 20 home runs and drove in 55 runs in only 390 at bats. This was, behind Dempster, the best free agent move of Hendry's tenure.

Because the Cubs roster didn't have enough health issues, Hendry dealt youngsters Murton, Eric Patterson and Sean Gallagher to Oakland in July for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin.

Harden has unquestioned stuff... but he has too many questions surrounding his durability and Gaudin is no longer with the team.

It's yet to be seen what comes form the prospects the Cubs sent to Oakland, or whether Harden will stay healthy enough to deserve a new contract after 2009.

Hendry allowed Kerry Wood to leave as a free agent n December of 2008. After a decade of promise and hope, he had finally reached a place where it appeared he could contribute to the team on a regular basis: as the closer.

But Hendry decided to go in a different direction, and allowed Woody to leave.

His jerseys still sell well, and will continue to be worn with pride.

As Wrigley Field prepared to host a hockey game, Hendry made a bold move in trading one of the team's most popular players, Mark DeRosa, to the Cleveland Indians to free up money for free agents.

So, in review, we can now add DeRosa to the list with Grudzielanek, Walker and Harris of second baseman the Cubs had and traded while their services were still needed. Is anyone else sensing a black hole developing?

Remember the name of the kid the Cubs got from San Deigo for Todd Walker? It was a good young pitcher named Jose Ceda.

The Cubs traded Ceda to the Marlins (as if they didn't have enough talented, former-Cub pitchers in their system) for closer Kevin Gregg to replace Kerry Wood.

So far, Gregg has not impressed. While this deal is still fresh and we haven't seen anything from Ceda yet, considering the leadership impact the exchange of Wood for Gregg realized, I'm calling this a big-time loss.

The Cubs looked at their roster and saw too many outfielders without minor league options. Someone had to go.

It was Felix Pie.

In another patented Hendry trade-to-trade move, he sent Pie to Baltimore for young left handed pitcher Garrett Olsen. Olsen could have complemented the Cubs bullpen and/or rotation well, as the only major league lefties on the budget not named Lilly were Sean Marshall and Neal Cotts.

But Hendry decided to trade Olsen before his plane ever saw O'Hare, sending him to Seattle for Aaron Heilman. Heilman is a right hander who was run out of New York like a Salem witch hunt just a few days earlier, largely because the thing he did best as a Met was allow runners to score.

So far in his Chicago career shows that the scouting report from Flushing didn't lie; Heilman's mediocre at best. Not only is his ERA approaching 5, but he joins a surplus of right handed relievers that have two average pitches.

This sequence of deals is a loss for Hendry because he succeeded in acquiring a valuable, potentially tradable player for Pie and then moved him for garbage.

Just like the exodus at second base, let's review briefly the attempts Hendry has made to stick a left-handed hitter in right field.

Burnitz? Not so much.
Jones? Yeah, not him either.
Fukudome? Apparently not.

So let's try a switch hitter who hasn't played in more than 100 games in all but two of his last seven seasons. Milton Bradley was brought in with a three year contract as a "changed man."

He's already been on the list to appeal a suspension more than he's been on base; the man who was supposed to bring patience to the lineup is batting .194 in mid-May. He's already been hurt and been boo'd at home.

There's a pretty big uphill forming in front of this deal... Hendry's gonna take another loss here.

Hendry brought in Joey Gathright as a pinch runner in early 2009.

He didn't get the memo that you can only run if you get on base.

So, after less than six weeks of the regular season, Hendry traded Gathright to Baltimore for Ryan Freel.

I'm going to mark this one a loss with the non-Barry Bonds asterisk, because while Gathright was a mistake it appears Hendry has at least realized that and moved on. What value another sub-six foot infielder has is yet to be seen, so the Freel part of the mix is incomplete.

Hendry has made some good moves (DeRosa, Lilly, Dempster) and some awful ones (Hawkins, Burnitz, Jones).

He's traded for players that made an impact, and traded away players he should have kept.

The reality is that hindsight is always 20/20, but the resume suggests that, especially in the case of scouting for a left handed hitting outfielder, that Hendry often lacks a clue and continues to make the same mistakes over and over again.

How this will impact the Cubs in 2009 and beyond is yet to be seen, but at least now we've looked at the history behind the man.