Trade – The Miami Marlins Acquire Carlos Zambrano

Some how, the Chicago Cubs were able to trade the often embattled and volatile pitcher Carlos Zambrano! Of course, to achieve this they had to agree to pay $15 million of his $18 million salary. You know a team doesn’t want you in their clubhouse when they are willing to pay $15 million dollars rather than deal with you any more. Wow!

I have to give props to the Cubs; it’s better than paying all of his salary and cutting him. There was zero chance the Cubs were going to let him back on their team in 2012. And they actually were able to receive a viable major league player in return, good times! The Marlins sent back starting pitcher, 25 year old Chris Volstad.

There are two main reasons the Marlins would trade for Zambrano; firstly that Ozzie Guillen, the new Marlins manager, is a close friend with him. Guillen probably thinks he can work with Zambrano’s fiery personality (like pouring gasoline on a fire). Secondly, that the Miami fan base includes a large Hispanic population, something that the Marlins organization is acutely aware of. It’s one of the reasons the Marlins would pony up for an Albert Pujols but not a Prince Fielder, for example.

After all, we all know about Zambrano’s temperament, but let’s highlight a couple of moments anyway…

On June 1^st 2007, punches his catcher, Michael Barrett, in the face during a dugout freak out by Zambrano. Somehow, just 2 months after this, the Cubs felt compelled to try and make Zambrano happy by giving him a 5 year, $91.5 million dollar contract.

On June 25^th 2010, gets into a dugout shouting match with Derek Lee, where teammates had to step in and make sure it didn’t escalate into a full out brawl. After this near brouhaha, Zambrano was seen having dinner with Ozzie Guillen that night (the Cubs played the White Sox that day). He was required, after this incident, to take anger-management classes in order to return to the team.

On June 5^th 2011, delivers an epic rant on how bad the Cubs stink after the game. It was a game where Carlos Marmol blew the save and Zambrano doesn’t get a win. Whatever friends he still had on the team no longer have his back after this.

On August 12th 2011, Zambrano gets pummeled by the Atlanta Braves, giving up 5 homeruns! He was ejected after obviously throwing two straight pitches at Chipper Jones. Zambrano then stormed into the clubhouse and emptied his locker, left Turner field, telling clubhouse workers he was done with baseball and retiring. The Cubs promptly placed him on the disqualified list. The players union fought for Zambrano and he was officially placed back on the active roster in September, though they did not actually allow him to join to the team.

This doesn’t include the multiple times Zambrano has been tossed from a game, went nuts in the dugout; breaking bats on coolers, walls, vending machines. He even once randomly threw a ball in complete anger while arguing with a home plate umpire, but thankfully it went towards the outfield and landed on the warning track versus going into the stands. The shouting matches between him and manager Lou Pinella are legendary.

He is a certified head case. A big headache for whatever team he is on. Zambrano is a former All-Star and has thrown a no-hitter. There is talent in there somewhere. But he has a very long history of throwing at batters, blaming teammates, losing his temper and starting confrontations that escalate. Why would you ever want someone like that near your top player who is already temperamental himself? I am, of course, referring to Hanley Ramirez. The situation with Han-Ram looks to already be flammable, why would you throw more gasoline on it?

The young Chris Volstad is hardly a top-tier starter, but he is improving and looks like he might become a middle of the rotation workhorse. He has shown some flashes of possibly becoming a frontline pitcher. Volstad has started 29 or more games and thrown 159 plus innings for three straight years. He is a huge pitcher, listed as 6 foot 8 and 230 pounds! He has yet to get his power pitches totally under control so there is definitely room to grow on his career 1.41 WHIP and 4.59 ERA.

I have to say this trade is a 100 percent win for the Chicago Cubs and no matter how little the Miami Marlins are paying Zambrano, he can’t work out for them. He is a ticking bomb that will explode and you just hope he doesn’t take Hanley down with him!