Bullpen Session – Cheese Head

The Bullpen Session is a weekly round-up of my observations surrounding Cubs baseball and much, much more!

According to my Friday Cubs Poll, 71% of voters believe the Cubs should sign Carlos Marmol to a 3-yr deal. In this case Marmol gets longer-term security and  the Cubs save somewhere in the neighborhood of $5-7M. It’s basically addressing the big picture.

My vote was a 2-yr deal, which was about 22% of the vote. I don’t like the risk of adding a third year given Marmol’s typical workload. The downside, however, is re-signing Marmol again when he becomes a free-agent in 2013, a which point Marmol’s asking price will be sky high as a premier bullpen arm.

Only 7% feel the Cubs should offer Marmol arbitration, meaning a 1-yr deal around $4.1M. It would certainly give the Cubs some short-term salary relief, but likely burns the bridge of signing Marmol to a somewhat affordable deal following the season.