OF Tony Campana Traded To Arizona Diamondbacks

We all knew it was coming, and after Tony Campana‘s DFA to make room on the 40 man roster for Scott Hairston, the fateful day has arrived:

Jun 19, 2012; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Cubs center fielder Tony Campana (1) makes a catch against the Chicago White Sox during the seventh inning at US Cellular Field. The Cubs defeat the White Sox 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Tony is no longer a Cub. He’ll be missed by all… except me, because really, Tony didn’t fit in to the long term plans and the Cubs got a meaty return on investment for him.

How meaty? Two young pitching prospects by the name of Erick Leal and Jesus Castillo, who both show promise in their young careers. It also shows the front office’s commitment to improving the farm’s pitching overall, and these two fit the bill.

Of course, there has been some serious outrage from Cubs’ fans on the social media channels, and some of these comments are just hilarious (others borderline stupid.) It’s best to ignore a lot of these comments because I’m certain that a lot of these fans have no idea what DFA-ing is, let alone that Tony couldn’t hit very well.

The true genius lies in how this deal went down. Both Leal and Castillo were international signings, which means that the Diamondbacks spent some of their international pool cash on signing these two players. The Cubs swooped in and acquired both of them for Tony, a player who is best used as a utility bench guy and didn’t fit the long term goals without spending a dime of their own international pool.

Crafty move, Mr. Epstein.

Don’t get me wrong, Campana was loved by almost all his team mates and played the game with heart and soul. I loved watching Campana, but putting the needs of the team ahead of fandom takes precedence. It just made good sense to make this deal instead of waiving him, having him claimed, and then getting zero value from his DFA.