Cubs Sign Neifi Perez

In the grand scheme of the making of the 2005 Cub roster, the signing of SS/2B Neifi Perez to a $1 million contract is a really small deal, even though there are also $1.5 million in incentives (which, as a backup, he'll never reach).

But the way many of my fellow Cub fans in the Cubs Usenet newsgroup, as well as some members of the Cubs Blog Army, particularly Alex at The Cub Reporter in this hilarious post, are reacting, you'd think the Cubs just inked Osama bin Laden to be on the bench.

Look, I know Perez isn't that good a player. But he's not that bad a player either, and the money, in today's environment, is minor, and we have just finished a season in which it became very clear that having bad people in the clubhouse can lead to disaster.

Perez, by all accounts, is a terrific teammate, a good team player, and not a Kent Mercker. That alone makes his signing worthwhile. Plus, he is responsible for the tiebreaker game in 1998, because it was his home run for Colorado that beat the Giants on the last day of the season to force the tie. There's a cosmic tie here that I think means something.

Finally, there are simply some things that have to do with winning baseball games that cannot be measured with statistics. I believe Neifi Perez has some of those things within him, and will be an asset to the Cubs.

Also today, there are rumors in California that the Cubs and Dodgers are discussing a Sammy Sosa for Shawn Green deal; the contracts are similar in size, though Green has only one year left on his as opposed to the two on Sammy's, though perhaps that could be reworked, and the rumor further has it that the Dodgers might ask the Cubs to take Darren Dreifort as part of this trade.

I'd do this. Green is a decent player and you wouldn't be stuck with him for more than one year, and perhaps this would clear enough to sign Carlos Beltran. Further, the presence of Dreifort might mean you could trade Kyle Farnsworth in another deal.

We await developments.