Lost among the hubub of moving Ryan Dempster at last week’s trading deadline was the Cubs cutting of ties with Geovany Soto, the disappointing backstop who had, at one time, held such promise.  After getting brief cups of coffee the previous three seasons, Soto broke through in a big way in 2008, making the All Star team as a rookie and earning the NL Rookie of the Year award while helping the Cubs capture the NL Central title.  Unfortunately, it all went down hill from there, for both the Cubs and Soto.

In 2009, Soto’s numbers dropped across the board, finishing with a .218 batting average and only 11 home runs, as the Cubs dropped 14 games from their win total the year before.  To add insult to injury, it was revealed in July that Soto had tested positive for marijuana during that spring’s World Baseball Classic and had been suspended from international play for 2 years.

The 2010 season was a bounce back year for Soto, but not the team.  Soto improved his average to .280 and managed 17 home runs, but the team fell even further, finishing 12 games under .500.  Last year, Soto fell off again, still hitting 17 home runs but with an average of .228 and he “lead” all NL catchers with 13 errors.  This year, amongst the rebuilding, Soto fell even further, battling injury to hit .199 in 52 games.  His era or the north side officially came to an end last Tuesday when he was traded to the Rangers for a 24 year old minor league pitcher who has a career mark of 27-43 in 6 seasons at Double A or lower.  Oh, and either a player to be named later or cash.

Soto’s numbers in a Cubs uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Career Batting

BA	At Bats	Runs	Hits	RBI	Walks	Strike Outs	Doubles	Triples	HR	SB	GIDP	Errors	Games
0.297	290	38	86	40	39	71	18	2	7	0	6	5	87
0.252	1824	225	460	264	243	459	112	4	77	1	54	35	555