Chicago Cubs Carlos Marmol Injury and Trade News
Chicago Cubs set-up man Carlos Marmol, who recently lost his job as the team’s closer, was placed on the 15-day DL yesterday with a strained right hamstring after suffering the injury in the seventh inning on Friday. The Cubs recalled reliever Casey Coleman, also a righty, as well.
An MRI revealed that there was only “minimal” damage to his hamstring, and he could come back after the 15 days are up even if there is no timetable. He could overtake current closer Rafael Dolis for the job when he gets back, but the main thing the Cubs are concerned about is his trade value.
Marmol is earning $7 million this year and will make $9.8 million next year. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that Carlos Marmol is a “likely candidate to be traded”.
The injury doesn’t mean much in the short term for the Cubs, since it will be business as usual with Marmol in the ‘pen for 15 days. They will miss a few appearances from him, which doesn’t mean anything in the short term. It doesn’t mean much in the long term either- the injury doesn’t- but Marmol is someone the Cubs could be shopping around the deadline.
The 29-year-old reliever has been terrible through 11.1 innings this year with a 6.35 ERA, but he is coming off of a solid 0.8 WAR season. A year before that, Marmol was worth a whopping 3 WAR and shut down opponents with a 2.55 ERA. Carlos Marmol may not be consistent and is a bit of headcase, but he has a ton of talent.
Still, $9.8 million is a lot to spend on a reliever, as that’s about 2 WAR in value. Marmol has only been worth that much once, because it is extremely difficult for a reliever to be worth that much in a season. The league average for a closer is around 0.5 WAR.
If Marmol doesn’t end up taking over the closer role and pitching well around the deadline, the Cubs might not get much out of him. If he heats up and starts shutting down everyone, then the Cubs will likely get a quality prospect out of the deal. But if I were a GM at the deadline, I would look elsewhere; I’m not paying $9.8 million for a 1 WAR reliever in 2013. There are other options.
The Cubs might have to eat up some of his contract in order to get a solid prospect, because I don’t know if anyone wants to pay nearly $10 million for Marmol in 2013.
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