CHICAGO -- To the surprise of the Chicago Cubs, the process ended with a single word, instead of two: eligible.
The Cubs' brass was used to seeing 'not eligible' while putting in waiver claims this month, but on this day -- a week ago Sunday -- general manager Jed Hoyer and the rest of the front office saw only that one word. They had just won the claim for Daniel Murphy and had 48 hours to work out a deal with the Washington Nationals.
"We got the bulletin that we were awarded the claim for Murphy," Hoyer said earlier this week.