Welcome to the Blue, Darwin Barney!

Imagine that, a trade that actually gets completed isn't one that was bandied about all over the rumor mill.  Instead, there were only brief mentions, and it elicited hardly a whisper.

The Dodgers made a trade with the Cubs for Darwin Barney, via Chris Cotillo on twitter:

Source: #Dodgers acquire Darwin Barney from #Cubs. Done deal. @MDGonzales said it was close.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 28, 2014

According to a Dodger press release:

The Los Angeles Dodgers today acquired infielder Darwin Barney and cash considerations from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

Barney, 28, won a Rawlings Gold Glove Award at second base in 2012 and has a .990 combined fielding percentage at second base, third base and shortstop in five Major League seasons with Chicago-NL from 2010-14. He has paced NL second basemen in fielding percentage in each of the last two seasons, posting a .997 mark in 2012 and a .993 mark in 2013. In 542 career games at the plate, he has a .244 career batting average with 18 home runs and 146 RBI, but has been at his best against NL West opponents during the course of his career with a .273 average (99-for-363) in 107 games.

Barney is no-hit great-glove infielder who will likely be a defensive option off the bench.  He won a gold glove as a 2nd baseman in 2012, but is just a .244 lifetime hitter.  On July 22nd he was DFA'd by the Cubs, so you had to figure other teams might want to add him just because of his glove.  Heck, with the Dan Uggla experiment failing spectacularly in San Francisco this weekend I would think the Giants might have been interested.  Now, the Dodgers scuttle any chance a competitor grabs Barney's glove for the stretch run.  At this time it is unknown who on the Dodger roster will be sent down to the minors to make room for him.

Also, I wonder if the recent Erisbel Arruebarrena scuttlebutt over the weekend was the real motivation for this trade.  You would think that Erisbel would be our natural defensive replacement off the bench down the stretch, but his recent fight in AAA has likely put a squash to that notion. 

In celebration of Darwin Barney officially becoming a Dodger, I made the above fantasy card for him.  I used a photo grabbed from Zimbio.com of Barney and the 1987 Topps Baseball card design.  I also couldn't help but make the fantasy card on the right.  Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.

Below are his career statistics, via Baseball Reference:

Also, Beto Duran on twitter pointed to a great video featuring Darwin Barney with the Batting Stance Guy at Dodger Stadium.  Check that out below.

Good stuff from 2011. Darwin Barney at Dodger Stadium w @BattingStanceG  http://t.co/bLq06sGiei
— Beto Duran (@DuranSports) July 28, 2014

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