Not trading Harden the right move for Cubs?

NEWS AND NOTES – Cubs

The Cubs were unable to reach a deal last night to trade Rich Harden to the Twins after Minnesota claimed him off waivers. Apparently the Cubs were asking for too much and Hendry never even considered trading Harden, who was acquired last year from the A’s and will be a free agent following the season.

“It was the biggest non-story of that big of magnitude,” Hendry said. “We always run everyone through what we call ‘trade waivers.’ Everyone in Major League Baseball usually runs their whole team through in August. We had 12 people claimed over the course of the month, and for whatever reason, two names (Harden and Aaron Heilman) were made public.

“It’s not something I would ever discuss- possible trades, or were we close, or names here or there. But I can tell you, we never really gave it any substantive thought, because we certainly would never give up unless we were out of it. If we were 15 back, obviously you might have looked at things a little differently with other people who were never mentioned in the press.”

The Trib’s Sullivan hinted the lack-of move was to keep the roster in tact for a wild-card run. Lou said the Cubs are still playing for October.

“We’re going to go after it,” manager Lou Piniella said Monday. “We have Harden in our rotation. If our relievers get hot, we can put a little winning streak together. There’s still time, so we’ll see what happens.”

The odds of the Cubs winning the wild card are twice as good of them winning the division. Instead of a .88 percent chance of catching the Cards, the Cubs have a 1.69 percent chance of taking the wild card. Those decimals are in the right place.

In that case, it was dumb for the Cubs to not trade Harden, right? Wrong.

Harden has been the Cubs best starter of the second half. He still struggles to go longer than six innings, but he’s definitely a top tier starter. So much so, that he’s currently classed as a Type A free agent, meaning as long as the Cubs offer Harden arbitration, the Cubs are guaranteed two draft picks if he turns it down and signs elsewhere. That includes the top pick of whoever signs him. Of course, he could accept the arbitration offer and the Cubs would have him for 2010.

Either option is fine by me. Having Harden next season is worth more than whatever the Twins were offering, and losing him is just as attractive of an option.