John Grabow News

It appears Hendry has completed GMDirective.2 - John Grabow will not enjoy the passionate rush of unbridled free agency, for he is a Cub through 2011 .

There is always talk amongst baseball fans and writers regarding who the worst general manager in baseball is.

When it comes down to numbers, right-handed pitchers have an easier go of it in Major League Baseball.

Give Jim Hendry credit. He doesn't get them all right, but he doesn't get them all wrong, either.

Posted by Christopher Glotfelty Looking to secure a solid bullpen that withered under pressure during the regular season, the Cubs have re-signed John Grabow to a two-year, $7.5 million deal.

Pitcher John Grabow became the first of the 171 free agents to reach agreement on a new deal, getting a $7.5 million, two-year contract yesterday from the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs took two key steps in shaping their 2010 bullpen Thursday, even as they continue to work and wait on their bigger offseason tasks of trading Milton Bradley and acquiring another outfielder.

John Grabow can laugh his way to the bank. According to the Chicago Sun-Times , Grabow and the Cubs have agreed on a two-year contract extension worth at least $7 million dollars, and Grabow is considered an option to take over the closer's role if Carlos Marmol's control issues cannot resolve themselves.

The Cubs traded reliever Aaron Heilman to the Diamondbacks on Thursday for two minor-league prospects while closing in on a two-year deal with John Grabow.

The Cubs and free-agent left-hander John Grabow are close to agreeing on a two-year deal, ESPNChicago.com's Bruce Levine reported on Wednesday.

John Grabow filed for free agency on Monday, but the Cubs have had talks with his agent in an effort to bring the left-handed reliever back.

Forty-six-year-old left-hander Randy Johnson filed for free agency Monday, raising the number of baseball free agents to 174.

Another potential free agent was struck from the list on Monday, with two others possibly right behind.

Jim Hendry said he considers the just concluded general managers meetings at the O'Hare Hilton fruitful and said that the abbreviated format seemed to encourage even more dialogue between GMs than the usual spread-out, longer sets of meetings in the past.

Yeah, and he's holding up some of the decisions the Cubs might make as the hot-stove season gets started in earnest with the general managers meetings this week at the O'Hare Hilton.

There's no question Rich Harden and Reed Johnson would prefer to return to the Cubs in 2010, and in a perfect world, Jim Hendry would probably re-sign both.

Two days after the World Series, and nothing has happened so far to harm or help us.

Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly had hoped the discomfort he felt in his left shoulder would go away once he had a chance to rest, but it didn't, and on Tuesday, Lilly underwent a left shoulder arthroscopy and debridement.

Outfielder Reed Johnson and pitchers John Grabow, Rich Harden, Kevin Gregg, and Chad Fox are eligible to file for free agency now that the World Series has ended.

A whisper leaked out of Arizona on Wednesday that Chicago Cubs' left-hander Ted Lilly underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery on Tuesday and isn't expected to return until April.