Cubs Acquire Jay Cutler from Bears

Posted by: Will C

Apr. 4, 2009

In a rare, intra-city, cross-sport transaction, the Chicago Cubs acquired quarterback Jay Cutler from the Chicago Bears today, barely 24-hours after the Bears traded quarterback Kyle Orton and several draft picks to the Broncos for their disgruntled rising star. This was as surprising a move as the trade that brought Cutler to Chicago in the first place, as the quarterback has never played baseball at a competitive level.

Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry lauded the transaction, saying, “Jay is going to be a great addition to this team. He’ll definitely bring an air of leadership to the clubhouse, and an outside-the-box way of thinking about the game.”

When asked what position Cutler would play, Cubs manager Lou Piniella said, “Well, we weren’t too sure about that going into this thing, but it was a deal too good to pass up. This is a fine young athlete, and we felt we had a chance to get him, so we went after him. I was thinking we’d give him a try-out at closer. We’re still not really solid on that position yet.”

Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo said of the trade, “You know, it occurred to us that we really had no business acquiring a Pro-Bowl caliber quarterback. We’re the Bears, for crying out loud. We felt the citizens of Chicago would appreciate us giving precedent to tradition over our own selfish desires to have someone lead our team to another Super Bowl. This is a very tradition-minded city, you know. Especially when it comes to sports.”

The Bears traded Cutler to the Cubs for two picks from next year’s MLB draft, two minor league pitching prospects, and a 3-month CTA pass. Consensus seems to be that it was an even trade all around.

When asked what the team was going to do about its quarterback position after trading away two starters in two days, Angelo responded, “Actually, we’re in talks with the Blackhawks about bringing in Cam Barker. We like his height.”

As of press time, there was no word on whether the Denver Broncos will try a similar transaction, sending Kyle Orton to the Colorado Rockies.

Comments

[Michael Sweeney]

Haw-haw! Yep, and the Bears may well figure to start Urlacher at QB next season, cuz, heck, he already sells the most jerseys and [shrugs] hey, why not? -- he'd probably be no worse than most of the team's quarterbacks since McMahon...

[Will C]

Hm, i never thought of that, but it would be perfect, and possibly the only way to sell even more Urlacher jerseys...

[Michael Sweeney]

Yep...and many people may not even realize that they actually have a required quota of fans entering Soldier Field -- there must be at least 25,000 Url jerseys seen on fans for each game, with a preferred split of 60% navies, 25% oranges, and 15% whites.

Anything below that total or those percentages, and they actually start handing out 54s and make people put them on. True story...