Cubs Interested In Heilman

by ~ January 9th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

Ever since the JJ Putz trade happened last month it’s been speculated that the Mariners could trade Aaron Heilman in a seperate deal since a bunch of teams had shown interest in Heilman before the M’s acquired him.

Bruce Levine of ESPN radio has reported a rumor about the Cubs being interested in Heilman.

Also on the Cubs’ front, the team has expressed interest in right-handed pitcher Aaron Heilman of the Seattle Mariners. The former Met is considered by the Cubs a possible missing link to their bullpen for next year. The Mariners are interested in obtaining a middle infielder, and now that the Cubs have added Aaron Miles to the mix, a player like Ronny Cedeno might be available in a deal for Heilman. Cedeno is out of minor league options, which means that if he doesn’t stay on the Cubs 25-man roster throughout 2009, he must go through waivers, which means the Cubs would lose him.

Levine also mentions that the M’s are interested in acquiring an infielder and speculates on Ronny Cedeno being in a potential deal. Cedeno had 216 AB’s last year and put up a line of .269/.328/.352 so he’s not much with the bat.  Cedeno, just 25 years old is also no defensive whiz at SS compiling a UZR of -5.8 for his career but when playing 2B he is (in a small sample size) a plus defender with a UZR of 6.0 but in only 48 starts.

Cedeno would be a decent bench player to have but i would think it would take more then Cedeno in a trade to get the Cubs Heilman. Other players that I think could be involved are Felix Pie and Micah Hoffpauir. 

Pie, a CF still just 23 years old has never been given a fair chance in Chicago and has quickly fallen out of favor with Lou Piniella. A once top prospect, Pie could just need a change of scenery and a fair chance at playing time to show if he can succeed in the majors. Hoffpauir is 28 years old and it took him a long time before finally making it to the majors this year and he made the most of it in his short stint with a line of .342/.400/.534 in 73 AB’s. Hoffpauir has played COF and 1B but is not considered a good defensive player. Pie and Hoffpauir have no where to play on the Cubs except sit the bench and i think they could be a couple of players Jack Zduriencik might be interested in acquiring from the Cubs in a trade for Heilman.

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  • SABR Matt

    Ronny Cedeno is all but worthless…what will happen to the little slap hitter when he goes from the NL to the AL, a hitter’s park to a pitcher’s park, and a contending team to a team with a long way to go? Given how bad he is at short, can we really imagine he’s good at second?

    BLECH!!

    If we throw Heilman away for Cedeno, that will make the Putz deal a complete joke.

    And no…I don’t think the Cubs would be dumb enough to trade us Hoffpauer.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com/ Rob T.

    I was really just being nice when i said decent bench player. I don’t want him unless he’s a throw in. Reegie Corona could probably do just as good as Cedeno.

    The thing with Hoffpauer is he has no where to play. He can’t play RF unless Bradley gets injured which i guess is entirely possible and he can’t play 1B with Lee there.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    Yeah, dealing Hoffpauir for Heilman wouldn’t be a great move for the Cubs if you’re just looking at talent, but there is a reason he’s been in AAA all these years. His offense is legit, but they dont’ want to use him in LF and they have this guy named Derrek Lee playing first base. He’s not a prospect anymore at 28-29 years old.. I think they would give him up.

    I like Pie as a buy-low prospect, too. No way he ever gets PT under Pinella.

    I was writing a little rumor post before I saw this one, so I’ll just add the other blurb I had here:

    Jason A. Churchill also has a new post up on Prospect Insider with some tidbits. He mentions that Adrian Beltre didn’t put the Twins on his block list to give himself leverage as Geoff Baker and others suggested; he simply doesn’t want to play there. A while back I speculated that he blocked the Twins because he didn’t want to play on artificial turf.

    Beyond the Twins, not much is cooking on the Beltre front.

    Churchill also mentions that Seattle has had talks with various teams about Jarrod Washburn and Miguel Batista. One team official expects Washburn to draw enough interest before Opening Day to make a trade possible.

    Also, JAC believe the M’s spending limit that has been making the rounds is much more flexible than implied. I fully agree.

    Check out his full post for more.

  • SABR Matt

    yeah…I think when the Mariners say they aren’t going to spend more than 95 mil…they mean “unless we get a great bargai we can’t pass up”

    The asking price for Dunn, Hudson, OCab, Griffey etc is going to start dropping..there are no teams pusuing any of them. Which means…we have room to wiggle and sign a couple of them if the right deals come along and we can offload Washburn and even Batista.

  • Digger

    Hoffpauir looks like a DH. But he has to switch leagues first.

  • Mariners121212

    I think that trading for Ronny Cedeno would be really dumb, and that if we were going to hurt a terrible bullpen even more we would at least need to get Pie out of it.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Scott Weber

    We can get better than Cedeno. And if we do make a deal, we most certainly want to make sure it’s a middle infielder who can upgrade Yuni.

  • Echo Chamber

    I think Pie might be out of options as well…not 100% sure on that. Worth noting, Cedeno’s AAA numbers are pretty scary, .900+ OPS in his two stops there (small sample size). But his awful showing as their everyday shortstop in ’06 really hurt his stock. He needs a change of scenary more than Pie. I think the Cubs would rather hold on to Felix because their new right fielder has never played more than 141 games, and he only did THAT, once. Their opening day center fielder seems like it could be Kosuke Fukudome and he’ll be flanked by Soriano and Bradley. That has the makings of a pretty range-less outfield, same as last years. So Pie seems to be a useful commodity for the Cubs. And I don’t quite see where he fits in Seattle unless he’s the #4 guy there as well. What’s the latest on Bad Wlad? How does the FO and coaching staff see him? What’s the hurt in running him out at LF every game and Clement at DH? Jose Vidro isn’t walking through that door!

  • SABR Matt

    Cedeno is a better hitter than he’s shown in the big leagues so far, but I don’t think he’s a good enough fielder to justify moving Lopez to first…which makes acquiring him pointless.

    Hoffpauwer and Cedeno packaged though…that I’d have to think about.

  • ernier

    I’d imagine that there are a few teams interested in Heilman because he could be used as a starter or late inning reliever. I remember reading that there was also interest from the Cardinals and Rockies when he was with the Mets. Betweeen Heilman, Washburn and Batista I fully expect 2 of those 3 to be traded by the start of the regular season and I think it will be Heilman and Washburn because they’d be the easiest to move and have the most value.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    Off topic, but it looks like the Tigers have signed Fe-Te Ni. Seattle was one of the other teams interested.

    http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/2009/01/tigers-sign-fu-te-ni/

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    How about Washburn and Heilman to the Dodgers?

  • SABR Matt

    Washburn and Heilman to the Dodgers for Andre Ethier. Nah…they wouldn’t be that dumb would they? :)

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    Heh.. no way. Maybe something like Hu + one legit prospect. Wouldn’t bring back much, but could still help us.