By Jim Callis
November 25, 2003

It was the Cubs' pitching, not their offense, that propelled them to within five outs of the World Series in 2003. On Tuesday, they made a move to bolster their hitting, trading the future of Hee Seop Choi to the acquire the present of Derrek Lee from the Marlins. Florida also will receive a player to be named later in the exchange of first basemen.

The Marlins had a surplus of corner-infield talent with Lee, Miguel Cabrera and Mike Lowell. Jeff Conine also may be best suited for first base at this point of his career. Florida also is trying to keep its payroll under $60 million and figured that Lee would earn $7.5 million in 2004 after going through the arbitration process. Dealing him for Choi, who made $305,000 in 2003, may allow the Marlins to retain players such as arbitration-eligible A.J. Burnett and free agent Luis Castillo. Florida had worked out a deal that would have sent Lee to Baltimore for a hitter and a pitcher, but it collapsed when the Orioles couldn't get Lee to agree on a long-term contract.

Lee, 28, had the best season of his career in 2003, batting .271/.379/.508 with 31 homers and 92 RBIs in 155 games. He also won his first Gold Glove and had one of the Marlins' biggest hits in the postseason, an eighth-inning two-run double off Mark Prior that tied Game Six of the National League Championship Series. Lee, a basketball recruit by the University of North Carolina, is as athletic as any first baseman in baseball. Besides his fielding prowess, he also is a good runner who has stolen 40 bases in 57 tries over the last two seasons. He's also a quality hitter who will benefit from leaving Florida's spacious Pro Player Stadium. In six years with the Marlins, he hit 88 of his 129 homers on the road. Lee has career totals of .264/.353/.467 with 130 homers and 421 RBIs in 866 games.

In an interesting twist, the 24-year-old Choi was signed for the Cubs by former Pacific Rim coordinator Leon Lee—Derrek's father. Choi was the first Korean position player to join a major league organization, agreeing to a $1.2 million bonus in 1999. He hit for power in four minor league seasons before opening 2003 as Chicago's first baseman. The National League's rookie of the month in April, when he hit five homers, Choi slumped afterward and couldn't regain his starting job after sustaining a concussion in a collision with teammate Kerry Wood in June. Replaced by a platoon of Eric Karros and Randall Simon, Choi finished the year at .218/.350/.421 with eight homers and 28 RBIs in 80 games. He has big-time pop and a good eye at the plate, though he still needs to prove he can handle quality breaking pitches and inside fastballs. He moves OK and is adequate defensively. In 104 games and 252 at-bats the last two years, he has hit .210/.337/.401 with 10 homers and 32 RBIs.

December 15 update: The Marlins received Double-A Southern League strikeout leader Mike Nannini to complete the trade. The 23-year-old righthander was a 1998 supplemental first-round pick of the Astros out of a Nevada high school. Acquired in an August 2002 trade for Tom Gordon, Nannini went 10-9, 3.62 at West Tenn in his lone season in the Cubs system. He had a 158-47 strikeout-walk ratio in 154 innings, while opponents batted .262 against him. Nannini's command and his curveball improved in 2003, leading to his strikeout crown. His curveball is a plus pitch, and he backs it up with an 87-90 mph fastball and a changeup. It was his second stint in Double-A, and some scouts believe he profiles better as a middle reliever than as a back-of-the-rotation starter.