TOWER GROVE — On this past New Year’s Eve, the Chicago Cubs made a deal that surprised the industry and may have tripped one of the early dominos in their struggles to play up to their clear talent this season.

The Cubs dealt infielder/outfielder Mark DeRosa to Cleveland for three minor-league pitchers.

DeRosa, a fan- and clubhouse-favorite in Chicago known in the nickname currency of the day as “D-Ro”,  had been an essential member of back-to-back playoff teams, the first back-to-back playoff teams for the Chicago Cubs franchise since, oh, about the time the Missouri School of Journalism was founded. (Hint: 2008 was the august school’s centennial anniversary.) As you’ll hear often in the wake of DeRosa’s arrival in St. Louis as the newest Cardinal, DeRosa had a career-high in homers and RBIs last season, but he also was a glue guy, a nomadic glove and a go-to quote who could take the press heat even on the ugly days.

But the Cubs were looking to trim payroll, whether it was to add Jake Peavy via trade (didn’t happen) or augment the exposed righthanded-heavy lineup with some lefthanded pop (did happen: meet Milton Bradley). To make moves the For-Sale Cubs needed some financial flexibility. That meant moves. That’s what general manager Jim Hendry said to a handful of reporters at the Winter Meetings.

Just as dealing Jason Marquis to Colorado helped, Dealing DeRosa shaved $5.5 million of the payroll.

It also started a chain of events that essential means the Cubs traded DeRosa to … the Cardinals.

Follow the trail: The Cubs sign former Cardinal Aaron Miles to a two-year, $4.9-million deal. That made DeRosa expendable. So the Cubs, looking to slice some payroll, moved DeRosa to Cleveland for three minor-league pitchers. On Saturday night, the Indians dealt DeRosa to the Cardinals for Chris Perez and a player to be named later (hereafter, PTBNL). The three minor-league pitchers, the Cubs got in the deal were:

• Chris Archer, RH starter … 2-2, 3.19 ERA in Low-A.
• Jeff Stevens, RH reliever … 0-3, 2.52 ERA in Triple-A.
• John Gaub, LH reliever … 3-1, 2.83 ERA in Double-A, now up in Triple-A.

Miles, the switch-hitting utility infielder, is hitting .203 with four RBIs for the Cubs this season. DeRosa has 13 homers and 50 RBIs for Cleveland this season. The deal wasn’t a straight swap at all, but over at MLB.com the lede of the news story about trading DeRosa nailed the actuality of the moves: “It won’t show up in the transactions as an even Aaron Miles-for-Mark DeRosa swap, but that’s what the Cubs essentially did on Wednesday.” That sort of sums up what happened Saturday night — the Cardinals completed a three-team with DeRosa as a PTBNL.

The tale of the transactions, told as if they were parts of a trade:

• Cubs acquire Miles from Cardinals, and three minor-league pitchers from Cleveland.
• Cleveland acquires Chris Perez and PTBNL from Cardinals.
• Cardinals acquire DeRosa.

Guess it will take some time before it’s clear who got the best of the three-team de facto swap. But for now, consider it the first (unofficial) trade before the division rivals Cardinals and Cubs since pitcher Jeff Fassero came south in a deal on August 25, 2002.

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