Mark DeRosa Returns to the NL Central

Mark DeRosa is back in the NL Central…as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cards swung a trade for the former Cubs utility man and RBI machine Saturday night, sending reliever Chris Perez and a player to be named later to Cleveland in exchange.  The Cubs had reportedly been discussing a similar trade with the Indians for DeRosa, but were either too slow on the trigger or didn’t impress the Indians enough with their offer.

Jim Hendry has already admitted that the Cubs traded DeRosa in the off-season as part of a “get more left-handed” campaign – a strategy that has more-or-less blown up in the team’s face.  Now instead of having the steady DeRosa in the line-up, splitting time between second, third (in place of the injured Aramis Ramirez) and rightfield, they have a struggling Mike Fontenot, an unstable Milton Bradley and the admittedly slick-fielding and sometimes clutch but still relatively light-hitting Andres Blanco.

Somewhere, somehow, the Cubs are going to have to scare up another bat.  I just don’t know who this person is going to be.  The fact that they’ve now blown it on DeRosa twice in the same year is somewhat stunning.

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