Why Were Cubs Willing to Release Silva Despite $11.5 Million Still Owed?

There is bad blood between Carlos Silva and the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs released Silva Sunday, and now just owe him $11.5 million-they haven't been able to trade him and get someone to pick up his contract. As I've previously written, I think getting rid of Silva was a good thing.

Carrie Muskat has posted an article at the Chicago Cubs' website titled "Cubs cite performance in releasing Silva."

In years past, I believe that the Cubs would have kept Silva. They would have cited his early-season performance last year when he went 8-0. Privately they would have been hoping Silva would come around so they could get the value of the salary they were paying him.

This year the Cubs, or perhaps more accurately Manager Mike Quade, looked in the mirror and thought Silva, with his 10.90 and contentious behavior, just wasn't worth keeping.

If I were Carlos Zambrano, I would get the message. Last year Zambrano threw a fit and was sent to anger management classes. If he does it this year, I think he'll be gone.

To tell you how badly the Cubs wanted to part with Silva, they were willing to pay most of his salary to trade him.

It seems what Quade is trying to create this year is what he created at the end of last year: a team. The Cubs haven't had that for a long time. They have either assembled a group of egos or they have tried to build a team around one superstar. Further, they have hired managers who had more success as players than the current players.

Quade has put his time in as a minor league manager. For 17 years he has had to develop players and plan for interruptions in his team with players being sent down for rehab and up because they had developed well enough to go to the majors.

Carlos Silva not only was struggling talent-wise but was giving the impression, real or imagined, that he cared more for himself than the team. The final straw came when he criticized pitching coach Mark Riggins.

This could be a new chapter for the Chicago Cubs. The Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl with the "No-Name Defense," and the New York Mets were anything but a bunch of superstars when they won the World Series in 1969.

Perhaps there's hope for us yet.

Reference:

Chicago Cubs' Website, Carrie Muskat, "Cubs cite performance in releasing Silva"