With thoughts of Tyson Ross or Carlos Carrasco dancing in their heads, Cubs fans may not be as excited to see Dan Haren being added to Chicago’s rotation. But the fact is for the remaining two months of the season, Haren is exactly what the team needs when it comes to the starting staff.
After Travis Wood proved ineffective in a starter’s role earlier in the year (although lately he’s been a favorite of Joe Maddon’s out of the pen as a much-needed long man), Tsuyoshi Wada took over in the fifth spot. He had his moments, but with 31 1/3 innings in seven starts, his short outings were taxing on a bullpen that’s quickly become overused. Wada eventually went to the DL with a deltoid issue with both Dallas Beeler and Clayton Richard taking turns manning the final spot in a Cubs rotation that’s been stellar outside of the fifth man.
[To read the remainder of the Haren trade analysis by Sahadev Sharma, and other BP staff, please visit the main page at Baseball Prospectus. The article can be found here.]
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