Not. Please, I hope not. I hope the Cubs are just being nice to meet with first baseman free-agent Jim Thome and his agent for lunch.

Aside from Mark Prior, first baseman Hee Sop Choi is about as sure a thing as the Cubs have had come out of their farm system in a long time. He hit great in triple-A last season and is tearing it up in the fall league right now. And it would be ashame to throw that away on a guy who, no matter what, will be much more expensive and one way or the other be gone much sooner.

Yes, Thome is probably the second best first baseman in baseball right now (after Jason Giambi), but the Cubs need to resist their temptation to go after the quick, big score. Wood, Prior, Clement; Hill, Patterson, Choi. Those are the guys the Cubs should be building around. This is the only time you’ll hear me say I wish there was a DH in the National League. Then you could have both Choi’s and Thome’s left-handed bats in the lineup. Ah, well.

Update: Hendry is really downplaying his meeting with Thome, which means that he probably told him in no uncertain terms that they weren’t going to budge Choi. So either Thome learns to play third base or it’s a no-go.