NEWSLETTER
There’s little need to re-hash what will forever be known as the Ryan Dempster Trade Saga of 2012. He screwed up a little bit, there was a bunch of bad luck and timing, and the Cubs did the best they could with a bad situation. It was all unfortunate, and I’ve pretty much said my piece.
Dempster, 35, is coming off a solid season, split between the Cubs and Rangers, and is likely to command a multiyear deal on the free agent market. While he was an imperfect fit for the Cubs long-term before the trade deadline ugliness, he is probably even more so now. In other words, I don’t reckon we’ll be seeing Dempster in Cubbie blue again.
And it’s possible that Dempster, himself, is happy about that. When discussing his time with the Rangers this season, Dempster may have taken a subtle shot at the Cubs last Friday.
“I had nothing but a great time other than today,” Dempster told reporters after his Rangers bowed out to the Orioles in the Wild Card playoff game last week. “It’s been an awesome experience here, not only how they treat you as a baseball player, but as a human. It’s a first-class organization and a great place to play.”
Is it possible Dempster intended only to compliment the Rangers, and not to imply any relative merits with respect his immediately preceding team? Maybe.
But that “as a human” bit suggests that, at some point in his professional career, Dempster has felt like he was treated as something less than that. Perhaps as … “an asset”? It seems a strange thing to say if you’re not trying to subtly emphasize something else. (And, I’m not saying his comments have anything to do with what I wrote about The Saga, but if you read my final thoughts on what happened, you may have an even better idea of why when I read his quote, I immediately think he’s back-handing the Cubs.)
We know that, for his part, Dempster wasn’t happy with the way things shook out in Chicago (i.e., that he was made out to be the villain of The Saga, whether that was accurate or not). I’m sure he’s still a little touchy about the subject, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all for him to want to get a little bit of that out.
Whatever the case, I don’t think we’ll hear too many Dempster-to-the-Cubs rumors this offseason, as much as the righty might still love Chicago.
