Cubs Pick Up Washed Up Jason Kendall

Typical Cubs move, picking up a former all star who is washed up. Catcher Jason Kendall was acquired from the A's for Rob Bowen, who was designated for assignment earlier today, along with minor league pitcher Jerry Blevins (who had a 1.02 era in A and AA combined). The Cubs also get cash from the A's since Kendall is making $13,429,623 in the final year of a disastrous contract the Pirates signed him to.

Kendall is hitting, brace yourself, .226 with a .261 obp and a horrendous .281 slugging percentage. He has 2 home runs and 22 rbi.

Kendall is hitting .176 vs lhp and .246 vs rhp. Kendall is hitting .219 during the day and .230 at night. So he consistently sucks.

In recent seasons Kendall has watched his power completely disappear. He had 0 hr and 53 rbi in 2005 and 1 hr 50 rbi in 2006. The last time Kendall hit more than 3 home runs in a season was 2003, when he hit a whopping 6. He has only reached double digit hr totals 3 times, none since 2001, despite catching 140+ games every season.

Kendall has also slipped defensively. All the positives from dumping Michael Barrett are now thrown out the window. Kendall has a very Barrett-like 7 passed balls this season. Kendall has throw out 15 of 74 runners this year, a 20% clip. That's below his underwhelming career numbers of 29%.

The bottom line is unless Kendall discovers the fountain of youth and reverses his decline of the last few seasons he's not going to hit much better than any combination of Soto/Hill/Bowen/Blanco, but he's making $13 million and is a poor defensive catcher. He's 33 and has caught an average of 145 games per year for 11 years, minus the half season he missed in 1999 when he destroyed his ankle stepping on first base. Smart move, Hendry. Initial reports on ESPN were that Sean Marshall was a part of this trade. Thank God that's not true. Worst case scenario the Cubs delt a waiver wire catcher they were going to lose and a low level situational lefty. They are taking a chance on Kendall's revival. I just hope his poor defense doesn't put the whammy on their mojo. I can live with poor hitting catchers as long as they are good defensively. Kendall is a poor hitting catcher who is poor defensively as well.

The only bright spot is that Kendall has hit .297 in his last 25 games. Hopefully that's a sign of things to come, but even if he does hit for a respectable average for the Cubs, he's just a singles hitter at this point of his career. I would expect Geovanny Soto will be sent back to Iowa to clear a roster spot. It wouldn't sense to keep him as Kendall's back up since Kendall will start 80%+ of the games.