A Farewell to Weak Arms?

With Jacque Jones once again Mostly Traded, let's look at the particulars of the deal. Jacque Jones is owed $5,000,000 in 2008. Paying Jacque five large is about as big a waste as the National Helium Reserve. Anything to get rid of that salary is tremendous.

But, what about what's coming back? Omar Infante has already been dubbed the second coming of Neifi Perez and Ceasar Izturis. Hard to disagree with that for a guy with a career OBP identical to Corey Patterson (.298 in case you are interested). So, why trade for this guy?

The best answer seems to be that Infante is arbitration eligible. That means he could be non-tendered and simply released for no additional cost.

The problem is that Jim Hendry probably thinks that there is some value to keeping Infante. Hey, Jim. There isn't. If Hendry can swallow his pride and simply trade for Infante and then non-tender him, that’s outstanding. It's like finding $5,000,000 and losing a migraine all at once.

Make the trade. Deny arbitration. Move on.