Cubs Interested in Rangers Catcher Gerald Laird?

Will Carroll of Baseball Prospects claims the Cubs are not happy with Jason Kendall and have asked their scouts opinion on Rangers catcher Gerald Laird. Carroll says the Rangers probably wouldn't deal Laird unless they got another catcher, and reports are they have a tempting offer from Atlanta that includes catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia in a package for Mark Teixiera.

It seems like if this is true, then they do not have much faith in Henry Blanco returning. The good news is that if they go after Laird they finally are choosing their target more wisely. Laird has never been much of a hitter (career .255/.308/.383) but he has always been an excellent receiver, especially at throwing out baserunners. In his four years in the majors Laird has thrown out runners at approx. a 40% clip. Three of his four seasons have been 41-43% with this season right on at 41%. Only Cincy's David Ross at 42% has had better success throwing out runners this season in the majors. Contrast that with Jason Kendall's past four seasons at 32%, 15%, 24%, and 16%. Laird is about the equal to Kendall at stopping passed balls and wild pitches, although not as good as Koyie Hill has been.

I still think it will be interesting to see if they bite the bullet and release Kendall, especially after Hendry excitedly announced the trade live on Chicago television during a game. That would mean the last two deals Hendry made the team has basically nothing to show for them, releasing Rob Bowen from the Barrett trade and now considering dumping Kendall. At least they picked up a once highly thought of minor leaguer in the Barrett deal.

Carroll agrees with me that Kendall is done:

"Jason Kendall's cooked. Last season's modest OBP was, if anything, the indication of the end, as his reflexes at the plate died and he reaped the transient benefit of caution. Now he can't command respect at the plate, or hit anything with authority, which leaves the Cubs with (at best) the weak reassurance that at least they didn't give up that much to get him, and that the only thing at stake now is the playing time they'll burn on him. The sooner they don't fix this, the worse it gets."