The Cubs Chronicle

The signing of Todd Walker (for a cheap $1.75M) means at least two things. First, the Cubs will be paying $1M less to the guy who will get most of the playing time at second base. Walker has been saying all the right things about this so far: The AP report notes that he stated he is not trying to take Mark Grudzielanek’s job away from him. Walker also said, “I passed up a few starting jobs to put myself in this position [to win a World Series].” Yet as Eat at Joe’s notes, Walker hits significantly better than Grudzielanek does against righthanded pitchers. And the AP quotes Jim Hendry as saying, “It was no secret a couple weeks ago we were very right-handed heavy and now we’ve evened things out.” Despite being the better defensive player, Grudzielanek should be on the bench against righties.

The second thing the Walker acquisition means is that 24 of the 25 roster slots are set, barring injury or further transactions (perhaps Grudzielanek gets shipped because of this?–I’m doubtful). The only battle left is for the final bullpen spot. (As the Daily Herald’s Bruce Miles notes in an interview with Any Team Can Have A Bad Century, Felix Sanchez, Todd Wellemeyer, Sergio Mitre, and Jon Leicester will all get opportunities to win the job.) That, in turn, means neither David Kelton nor Jason Dubois nor any other Cubs minor leaguer will be given a shot to win a big league roster spot in the spring. Hendry has been high on Kelton in particular for awhile now. He’ll be 24 next year, and it looks like he will be spending it here in Iowa for the second straight year. Which probably is not a bad thing, given his mediocre 269/338/446 line last year.