Cubs Show Barrett The Door

The Chicago Cubs have traded struggling catcher Michael Barrett to San Diego for catcher Rob Bowen and a AAA player. Barrett, who has terrorized my Cardinals for the past couple of years, has just been playing poorly. Bad offense and worse, bad defense. It makes sense for the Cubs to move him along and apparently Greg Maddux will have Barrett as his own personal catcher. Additionally, the Cubs are saving a ton of cash, Barrett makes $4.5 where Bowen only (only?) makes $382,000.

Still, Bowen doesn't seem like the best of choices looking at his lifetime stats. He doesn't hit much but is defensively solid. Still he's never played more than 65 games in a year. Worse yet, that leaves the north siders with just one player that's proven he can land a punch.