11/30 Hoyer on Maddux, Pena & Z
In an interview Tuesday with MLB Network radio on Sirius XM, Cubs GM Jed Hoyer addressed Greg Maddux’s departure, Carlos Pena and Carlos Zambrano:
* On Maddux joining the Rangers as a special assistant to the general manager, Hoyer said the family tie was strong. Greg’s brother Mike is the Rangers pitching coach.
“He’s talked to us about working with his brother and that’s something that’s obviously really important to him,” Hoyer said. “That’s something that’s awfully hard to disagree with that.
“He’s obviously a brilliant baseball mind,” Hoyer said. “I hope we can sometime work together. He’s an incredibly impressive guy and brings a lot of value to the Cubs. The ability to work with family is hard to stand in the way.”
* On the decision to offer Carlos Pena arbitration:
“When you look at Pena, he’s going to have a really big market,” Hoyer said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that. You look at the first base market and he stands out as a run producer. He’s likely to receive a multi-year deal and do very well in the market. That’s what drove our decision. People here talked highly about him last year but a lot of the decision was driven by the knowledge that he’ll have a big multi-year market.”
Which could mean the Cubs would bring Pena back, but did not want to commit to a long-term deal.
* As for Zambrano, Hoyer said he was impressed the pitcher flew to Chicago to meet with Theo Epstein.
“[Zambrano] expressed a lot of regret about what happened this year,” Hoyer said. “The challenge with Carlos is that this has happened multiple times, it’s not a one-time thing. We can’t just act like it was a one off situation. It’s been a little bit of a pattern. Internally, we’ve discussed the things he needs to do to apologize to his teammates and to make things right internally. I think he can certainly be back but there’s a list of things he needs to do and we’ll keep those internal. It’s been a trend and something that has to stop but he’s also immensely talented and had a lot of well-pitched games here in Chicago. It is a process and we’re just starting that process now.”
— Carrie Muskat
Muskat Ramblings 
Reading between the lines I think Hoyer is saying that Pena is not all that desirable as a long term solution at 1B. Good for Hoyer. He is saying that Pena is a run producer but not neccesarily a GREAT run producer considering his low batting average, his pathetic batting average with RISP and his strike outs. Hoyer would be content with Pena at 1B for just the 2012 season as an acceptable stop gap “might as well” solution. Again, good for Hoyer. By this time, if Hendry was still GM Pena would have been signed to a 3-5 year deal just because he’s “a good guy to have around”. We are so fortunate to have Epstein and Hoyer in control of the roster. Now, if they can just resist the temptation to sign Pujols to 8 years….