Chicago Cubs Trade Rumors: A Really, Really Dumb Idea

On Monday, as the trade winds began to fill more sails around Major League Baseball, one floated through Chicago that might be one of the worst ideas I have ever heard.

A number of media outlets, including ESPN's Bruce Levine, have reported that the Chicago Cubs have shown some level of interest in Oakland A's shortstop Orlando Cabrera.

Cabrera is in his first season in Oakland after spending last year on Chicago's South Side. While with the White Sox, Cabrera was depicted as a negative influence on the clubhouse and as having a bad attitude.

This winter, he moved on to Oakland as a free agent. He has been in the playoffs in three of the past four years, all for a different organization.

He was involved in a trade with the Cubs once before, moving from Montreal to Boston in the infamous Nomar Garciaparra trade in 2004.

Now for the question: why on Earth would the Cubs trade for Cabrera?

The Cubs most consistent hitter this year has been Ryan Theriot, who also plays shortstop. Though Theriot might not be as good as Cabrera defensively, he's become one of the mainstays in the Cubs' batting order.

The proposition is that the Cubs would move a minor league player to Oakland for Cabrera and move Theriot to second base, displacing light-hitting Mike Fontenot.

I have no problem with replacing the revolving door that has been second base at Wrigley Field with an every day player for the stretch run, but moving Theriot is a miserable idea.

First of all, the rumored character issues surrounding Cabrera make me back away from the table right away. Putting him in the same clubhouse as Milton Bradley is like telling a blind man to light his cigar in a gunpowder warehouse. Not a good idea.

Secondly, Theriot is not only popular with the fans but has earned his status as the Cubs' starting shortstop by showing up to work every day and playing hard. He's hitting just under .300 for the season and has developed a reasonable amount of pop for a guy that isn't six feet tall standing on his tip toes.

I'm not a big fan of any player switching positions if they've been one place their entire life, but to do it in August is ludicrous. Theriot shouldn't be asked to switch positions for eight weeks, only to go back in 2010. That would be counterproductive, and not worth giving away what prospects the Cubs have in their system.

Finally, the Cubs don't need to bring another right-handed slap hitter into their batting order. The team is finally getting healthy and showing the offensive strength that General Manager Jim Hendry had envisioned when he put the roster together this winter.

Cabrera is not the proper catalyst to get this team to score more runs.

If the Cubs are going to look for another bat, it needs to be left handed. Bradley has been a failure this year in the role he was specifically brought in to play, and now sees limited at bats against right-handed pitching in favor of Kosuke Fukudome.

If this is honestly an option the Cubs are considering, I hope the A's ask for way too much and Hendry backs away from the table. This doesn't solve anything, and creates more problems than it's worth.