Apr 16th 2008 6:40PM by Pat Lackey

In what’s not terribly surprising news, the Cubs just announced that they’re putting Alfonso Soriano on the DL after he strained his calf in last night’s game. General scuttlebutt has been that Mark DeRosa and Reed Johnson will get at-bats in left field with Felix Pie and Mark Fontenot will fill in for DeRosa and Johnson in their regular positions. The Cubbies are insisting that Soriano’s not hurt that badly, but apparently they’d rather be cautious this early in the year. Accordingly, Soriano’s going on the DL and Eric Patterson is coming up.

Wait, what? Not Matt Murton? Eric Patterson? They’d rather split time in left field between a middle infielder and a guy that got released three weeks ago instead of Murton, who’s got some decent pop and the definite ability to get on base? And they’d rather have Patterson on the bench? Really? Either Jim Hendry wants Murton to stay in AAA and play every day to showcase him or he just really, really, really hates his guts.

As for the main issue here, I think the Cubs are probably making the right move with Soriano, even if he’ll be ready to play again in a week. He wasn’t all that durable last year, playing in only 135 games, and having him healthy at the end of the year is much more important than having him healthy now. Taking two weeks off in April and early May won’t kill the team, and it may make Soriano that much stronger down the stretch.