Gaudin gone; Samardzija optioned to Iowa
The Cubs have always talked of being in the "earn-it business."
They walked that walk Sunday by keeping relief pitchers Angel Guzman and David Patton.
At the same time, they optioned right-handed pitcher Jeff Samardzija to Class AAA Iowa and released veteran righty Chad Gaudin, who had a miserable spring training.
Guzman is a longtime Cubs prospect who seemingly has overcome years of arm problems. He was out of minor-league options.
Patton is a Rule 5 draft pick who must stay on the Cubs' major-league roster all year or he'd most likely be lost.
"It wasn't easy letting Gaudin go," said general manager Jim Hendry. "Basically, he had a really bad spring. At the end of the day, we felt losing Patton or Guzman just to save him wasn't what we wanted to do.
"We felt like Patton really deserved a chance. It's a huge jump for him. None of us feels like he's afraid of the action. Whether he can do it for a long period of time remains to be seen. If we're really going to do the right thing here, we give him a chance before we lose him to somebody else."
Gaudin, whom the Cubs obtained last July from Oakland in the Rich Harden trade, was 2-1 with a 10.26 ERA during the preseason. In 16⅔ innings, including an appearance at Yankee Stadium over the weekend, Gaudin gave up 26 hits and 19 earned runs.
The Cubs are on the hook for $1.6 million of Gaudin's $2 million salary. When another team signs him, they'll owe him only the major-league minimum salary.
Patton was 1-1 with a 1.26 ERA. In 14⅓ innings, he allowed 14 hits while walking five and striking out 15. The big caveat with Patton is that he has not pitched above Class A ball, but the Cubs liked his mound presence and confidence level.
The Cubs also cited the work of their scouts, including Libertyville's Lucas McKnight, in picking up Patton.
Samardzija was a relatively easy call because he has minor-league options. He lost out to become the fifth starter, but the Cubs were pleased overall with the way he threw the ball, especially late in spring training.
The Cubs may want Samardzija to start at Iowa, but at the beginning, they'll limit him to an inning or 2 at a time until he can get stretched out. Hendry was complimentary.
"He's really done well out of the pen lately," Hendry said. "It certainly won't hurt him to go down for a time to work on his command and his slider. There were a lot of positives the last week or 10 days out of the bullpen. In a lot of years, he would have made the team easily.
"I told Jeff that if he had a (poor) spring, then we wouldn't have worried about who was out of options and who wasn't. But we couldn't be comfortable with what we might have missed out on with Patton and Guzman without giving them a look in the major leagues. It wasn't like Jeff had a bad spring at all."