In April, the Boston Red Sox were having so much trouble with their outfielders being injured that they made a deal with the Cubs for Marlon Byrd, even though Byrd was hitting .070 (3-for-43) at the time.
Marlon Byrd Designated For Assignment
Marlon Byrd was a Cub when 2012 began. Then he was a Red Sox. Now he’s about to be out of baseball.
Byrd’s Boston career has lasted less than seven weeks:
Marlon Byrd to be DFA'd to make room for Dice-K on roster.
— Ian Browne (@IanMBrowne) June 9, 2012
Byrd hit .270/.286/.320 in 100 at-bats for the Red Sox with 21 strikeouts and just two walks. He used to be at least a league-average hitter and a decent outfielder, but struggled down the stretch in 2011 and has been significantly worse in 2012.
The move means that two of the three players exchanged in the Cubs/Red Sox trade have been DFA'd; the Cubs did so to Michael Bowden recently. He cleared waivers and was assigned to the Cubs' Triple-A affiliate at Iowa. The third player in the deal, minor leaguer Hunter Cervenka, has posted an 0.73 ERA in 12 appearances for Class-A Peoria in the Midwest League.
If someone ever asks you about the most useless trade in recent major-league history, you can mention this one and probably be right. The Cubs still have to pay all but about $400,000 of Byrd’s $6.5 million deal for this year.
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