Yesterday Kerry Wood announced that he was opting out of surgery to repair his slightly torn rotator cuff, and was just going to rehab it in Arizona. I think this was a pretty smart decesion by Wood. It’s obvious that he would just fubar up his shoulder again if he gets it fixed, and does nothing to correct his bad mechanics.

The way I see it the Cubs have a few options when it come to Kerry Wood at the end of the season. I’d say there is a 99.9% chance they will not pick up this 13 million dollar option at the close of this season. Even if he comes back as to the Cubs as a reliever, he won’t be making 13 million for the season, no chance, regardless of team. Given his success coming out of the pen last year, I think the Cubs will offer him a contract with many incentives. I’m guessing the base salary will be around 2-3 million.

Another option the Cubs have is to just let him go, pay his buyout and Wood and the Cubs will go their own separate ways. While I think this is unlikely, because Kerry Wood has publicly said that he wants to continue to talk to pitch for the Cubs. He feels there is the possiblity of him coming back after a year as a reliever to hop back into the rotation much like John Smoltz.

There is also the possiblity that the Cubs will offer him a contract, but some other team that needs bullpen help will be willing to take a bigger chance on Wood that what the Cubs are willing to do. It’s hard to say who at this point.

I would imagine though the Cubs and Wood will talk about next season before too long.

My only issues with Wood in the pen for the Cubs is that he most likely won’t be in the back end of the pen where he should be. The Cubs went out and spent a lot of money on Bob Howry and Scott Eyre. Ryan Dempster was shakey for the middle part of the season, but he has seem to have regained his stuff back again. Wood showed that he’s effective out of the pen, so I’m sure a few teams are going to show some interest.

I would still like to see Wood in a Cubs uniform next year though.