Cubs Sign Braden Looper, Augie Ojeda

The Cubs have signed Braden Looper and Augie Ojeda to Minor League contracts with invites to Spring Training.  Neither will probably make the Opening Day roster, but there's nothing wrong with a little competition.  Looper could be an emergency starter for the Cubs in the event of widespread injury or vast ineffectiveness by the current rotation corps.  I don't think hardly any level of incompetency by the Cubs infielders could land Ojeda a Major League job, however.  The Cubs are deep in the middle of the infield and will (should) call up prospects waiting in Iowa, like Darwin Barney, before Ojeda.

Looper, 36, became a starter in 2007 after relieving for the entirety of his Major League career before that, including closing games for the Marlins and Mets in the early 2000s.  Looper last pitched in 2009 with the Brewers, earning a 14-7 record but, interestingly, had a bad 5.22 ERA and lead the league in homers and earned runs allowed.  That was his worst of his three seasons as a starter, the best being in 2008 with the Cardinals in which he went 12-14 with a 4.16 ERA.  He should pitch in the minors and set an example for the young arms down there, but who knows if he will be able to gain the respect necessary to do that.  Also, nobody will really listen to an old veteran serving up meatballs, so he'll need to pitch well to gain that respect.  That might be a challenge.

Ojeda, also 36, is a former Cub who reached the Majors in 2000.  Ojeda hit an underwhelming .196 in four partial seasons with the Cubs, with his 359 plate appearances between those years equaling about two thirds of a full season's worth.  To me, Ojeda is one of those guys where you look at his stat page and just wonder what anyone ever saw in him to believe he could play at the Major League level.  He is an awful hitter, owning a .234 career batting average in the Majors and .261 in the Minors.  In his entire career, he has a 0.6 WAR, including a -0.6 WAR last season alone.  He used to be a good defender but has lost that with his age, and has a career -0.5 WAR batting, so he's legitimately hurting teams with his bat.  I don't see the value in his signing.

Both of these signings seen uncharacteristic of the Cubs.  Both signings are somewhat unnecessary, as the Cubs have the depth in the Minors to compensate for any lack of players at the moment.  The rookies would certainly do better than these two, because neither have an impressive career and not much can be expected out of either.  The reason it seems uncharacteristic of the Cubs is that, for one, the Cubs' oldest player last year was 35 so they weren't a veteran team and, for two, it isn't typical of the Cubs front office to go after these formerly mediocre veterans who now have little to no value.  The Sox did that with Omar Vizquel and Andruw Jones and actually got contributions out of them, but I don't think the Cubs will be quite as lucky with Looper and Ojeda.