Cubs Add Aaron Heilman to Bullpen

You know, getting traded once can probably be quite the ordeal for a baseball player. If you've been in a city for a while, you've more than likely bought yourself a home, and maybe you're married with kids so packing up all your stuff and moving across the country can't be easy. Both Aaron Heilman and Garrett Olson have gone through this type of thing recently, as Heilman was sent from New York to Seattle in the J.J. Putz deal, and Olson left Baltimore for Chicago in a trade for Felix Pie only ten days ago.

Well hopefully neither player put down a security deposit on an apartment in either of their new cities because they've both been traded again. This time, for each other.

The Chicago Cubs have acquired pitcher Aaron Heilman from the Seattle Mariners for infielder Ronny Cedeno and pitcher Garrett Olson, a baseball source told ESPN.com.
Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, who was returning from a trip to Italy on Wednesday, couldn't be reached for comment. But one baseball person said Hendry has been an admirer of Heilman's "since he pitched at Notre Dame.''

As far as Seattle is concerned, this is a pretty good deal. By bringing in Olson they now have another young pitcher ready to compete for a spot in their starting rotation. With Cedeno they'll have somebody to battle Yuniesky Betancourt for the shortstop job, while at the very least adding a valuable infielder off the bench.

As for the Cubs, there was a lot of speculation that Olson was going to get traded again, but it was supposed to be to San Diego for Jake Peavy. When the Cubs and Padres had been working on a Peavy trade earlier this winter, the Orioles were brought in as a third team and Olson was a player San Diego identified as somebody they wanted in any deal.

So when the Cubs got Olson a week and a half ago, most saw it as a pre-cursor to re-opening the Peavy talks. Now those appear dead. As for what they plan to do with Heilman, Aaron wants to be a starter and while I suppose the team may give him a chance to compete with fellow Golden Domer Jeff Samardzija and Sean Marshall for the fifth spot in their rotation, he's more likely being seen as a replacement for Bob Howry in the bullpen as a bridge to Carlos Marmol.