Cubs cut Kevin Millar, Chad Tracy wins bench job

Chad Tracy just beat out Kevin Millar for the final bench spot in Chicago, with the Cubs releasing the 38-year-old Millar this afternoon. In choosing Tracy over Millar the Cubs went with a left-handed bat over a right-handed bat, but also went with someone nearly a decade younger and with more defensive versatility. Injuries and age have turned Tracy from a poor defensive third baseman to an emergency option at the hot corner, but he has about 2,500 more innings of experience at the position than Millar and is a more viable (or at least somewhat palatable) backup to Aramis Ramirez. Meanwhile, an ESPNDallas.com report yesterday suggested that the Rangers were keeping tabs on Millar as a potential bench option and may now be interested in signing him off the scrap heap. If that happens the Rangers’ interest in Mike Lowell would presumably decline even further than it has already, although Lowell even more so than Tracy offers quite a bit more defensive value than Millar even with all his injuries.