The Cubs traded Omar Infante (recently came from Detroit, in a trade for Jacque Jones) along with Will Ohman for Jose Ascanio, a minor league reliever. There have been a lot of snarky, sarcastic posts on various blogs in regard to this move. Essentially the Cubs have sent two major leaguers for a minor leaguer, and not one who was well known.
Whether or not Ascanio is very good is almost irrelevant. Would it really be surprising if the whole point was to dump the salaries of Jones and Ohman? First they traded Jones for Infante; Jones' salary had to be paid, since the team signed him in free agency. You can't get out of paying it with any maneuver except trading the player with the player's permission. Jones' 2008 salary will be $5 million. Ohman was also making 1.5 million. This too was part of the equation.
So the Cubs save $6.5 million this year with this trade. Based on that, I'd be very surprised if Ascanio is any good at all.
Then consider Infante and Ohman; the Cubs can be better in 2008 just be finding other players to do these jobs. The Cubs have issues with being too right-handed in their lineup, and also lacking patient hitters. Infante, when he would be in the lineup, makes both problems worse! Ohman was a disappointment. The Cubs invested a lot of years waiting for this guy to be a great lefty reliever. But relievers are like that; often they bounce around for years and years being young screw-ups before suddenly becoming trustworthy, dependable vets who give you late-inning peace of mind.
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Ascanio is a terrific young pitcher. He throws in the mid-90s and has a plus curve. He was one of the top 10-15 Braves prospects, but given that he was a reliever, he didn't get as much ink. I'll grant you that dumping salaries was a huge motive behind this trade, but Ascanio is worthwhile.
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