The Cubs found their backup catcher Friday, signing veteran and former Cub Paul Bako to a 1 year, $725,000 deal. Bako hit 6 homers and drove in 35 runs while batting only .217 for Dusty Baker’s Reds last season.

The Cubs are also close to send Rich Hill to Baltimore according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Chicago Cubs made a trade on Wednesday morning as they packed Ronny Cedeno and Garrett Olson together and traded them to the Seattle Mariners. The return for the 2-for-1 trade, the Cubs received pitcher Aaron Heilman.

Heilman last pitched for the New York Mets in 2008 and was traded to the Mariners in the deal for J.J. Putz. Heilman would rather be a starting pitcher and could compete for the 5th spot in ther rotation like I had blogged about a couple of days ago. If not, look for him to throw long relief out of the bullpen.

In the end and looking back at the Pie for Olson trade, the Cubs basically traded Felix Pie and Ronny Cedeno for Aaron Heilman. Something sure looks messed up there if you ask me. Jim Hendry should have got more of a return out of Pie and Cedeno even if they were both out of options.

I should also pass along that Bruce Levin has said that the Cubs will sign backup catcher Paul Bako to a one-year contract for $750,000 now that there is a roster spot open after the trade today. They are also still looking at possibly adding Randy Wolfe or Braden Looper. They are also interested in adding Juan Uribe for bat off the bench and a backup infielder.

Your thoughts on this trade?

Once again Jim Hendry made it a point that he did not want to go to salary arbitration with any player. He made sure that wouldn’t happen when he finalized contracts with relievers Michael Wuertz and Kevin Gregg before the Tuesday deadline.

Wuertz will earn $1.1 million while Gregg gets a nice raise and will earn $4.2 million.

The Cubs have not had to go to salary arbitration with a player since they did so with Mark Grace back in the 1993 season.

The Cubs have also invited a right handed pitcher for Japan to spring traning as a non-roster invitee. I’m not even going to think about this deal too much because I’m almost 100% sure he won’t make the team. Anyways, his name is Ken Kadokura and he has a career 76-82 record and 4.36 ERA in 302 games, including 172 starts, for the Chunichi Dragons, Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, Yokohama Bay Stars and Yomiuri Giants.

Felix Pie is no longer a member of the Chicago Cubs as he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday for pitchers Garret Olson and Henry Williamson. Every Cubs fan had hoped that Pie would be a superstar center fielder after being named the teams top minor league player in 2006 and 2007 but Pie was never able to swing the bat to good at the major league level and the Cubs patience had run out. Pie was also out of options so he would not have cleared waivers if the the team tried to send him to Triple A Iowa so this was the best move for both parties.

In return for Pie, the Cubs will be getting 25 year old reliever Garret Olson and minor leaguer Henry Williamson. Olson was 9-10 with a 6.65 ERA in 26 starts for Baltimore last season. In 33 career starts for the Orioles, Olson was 10-13 with a 6.87 ERA. He is however expected to move to the bullpen for the Cubs.

Williamson went 0-1 with a 3.72 ERA in 20 games at Single A last year. He was the Orioles 14th round selection in the 2007 draft.

So now that Pie has been traded, what do you think?