Deja Vu

Troy Percivals signing with the Tigers mirrors what happened with Pudge Rodriguez. Chicagosports.com had this article.

Percival, who has saved more than 30 games in each of the last seven seasons for Anaheim, will visit Wrigley Field to meet with Cubs management, then return to California to make a choice by Thanksgiving weekend.

Less than 24hrs later Percival is signing with the Tigers before even sitting down with the Cubs.

Free agent Troy Percival and Detroit agreed Wednesday on a $12 million, two-year contract, giving the Tigers two closers for their bullpen.

Percival was scheduled to meet with Cubs management later this week.

All that tells me is that the Cubs were never serious about signing Percival and Percival got that message loud and clear. I am sure an initial low ball offer was sent out to Percivals agent like the Cubs did with Pudge. And like Pudge it would be a waste of his time to meet with the Cubs to discuss anything serious. The Cubs were probably hoping on getting Percival on the cheap due to his age and injury risk.

Is that alot of reading between the lines? Sure. Am I glad we didn't get Percival? Sure. I would like to see the Cubs get high profile free agents into the building to atleast discuss the possibility of coming to the team before totally rejecting us and signing with another team. I understand the Cubs are extremly poor when it comes to signing free agents, but atleast get one meeting with them. Percival also was supposedly high on the Cubs wish list and they let him go without a fight. That does not look very good if they want to have a shot at Beltran, Drew, or Ordonez where the Cubs interest has been luke warm at best.

Benitez is the only reliable closer left on the market and the Cubs have concerns about his psyche. Which I dont think exist. The man pitched in NY and put up some good numbers. And if the Cubs don't sign Benitez the bullpen is in deep trouble. If Hendry thinks Ryan Dempster is the answer, maybe he needs to resign now. All we can do now is watch and see if Detroit will remain a bigger player in the free agent market than the Cubs.