Darvish to Cubs, 6/$126 Million + Incentives

[Transmogrified Tiger]

An understated result of this offseason's moves is the SP depth being built up beyond this year. The 2019 team has:

 

Quintana

Darvish

Hendricks

Lester

Chatwood

Smyly

Montgomery

 

All under contract, plus Alzolay, Mills, Tseng, and an outside shot at at one of the college pitchers making the leap. Even considering the toll the '18 season will likely take, that's way better a starting point than this offseason. Combined with there being no current gaps or departures on the position player side, it really lines up for next offseason to be Harper and miscellany moves.

[Derwood]

Just saw the title of an ESPN Insider article that says that the signing of Darvish has allowed the Cubs to "regain" control in the division. I'd love to know who they thought was in control yesterday

[17 Seconds]

Just saw the title of an ESPN Insider article that says that the signing of Darvish has allowed the Cubs to "regain" control in the division. I'd love to know who they thought was in control yesterday

 

it's weird because it was keith law

[David]

Just saw the title of an ESPN Insider article that says that the signing of Darvish has allowed the Cubs to "regain" control in the division. I'd love to know who they thought was in control yesterday

 

it's weird because it was keith law

 

i'd have to read the article. keith law probably isn't writing the clickbait headlines.

[Omar]

they probably meant to write "retain"

[Derwood]

"Cubs regain their edge in NL Central by signing Yu Darvish"

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=8026

[imb]

all the guys acting like they're baseball geniuses for pointing out that the back ends of long FA deals for pitchers are rough is really cracking me up. Like no horsefeathers, that's the bargain you make. It would be sick if we could all be the Astros or whatever and have a WS caliber roster based on home grown dudes and short-commitment trades, but the rest of us who are trying to win the world series need good players now.

 

Lester is gonna be injured or bad at the end of his deal and I won't regret the signing in a second. Zobrist was awful last year and I couldn't stand watching him come to the plate but he's a horsefeathering Cubs legend for 2016.

 

The Cubs are gonna have to play around some dead weight in a few years, sure, but they're great now. Meanwhile the Brewers won't have any 36-year old SPs dragging down their payroll, but they're mediocre now and they'll be mediocre then. Good luck with that.

[imb]

"Cubs regain their edge in NL Central by signing Yu Darvish"

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=8026

 

who would write such a thing wow

[Old Style]

all the guys acting like they're baseball geniuses for pointing out that the back ends of long FA deals for pitchers are rough is really cracking me up. Like no horsefeathers, that's the bargain you make. It would be sick if we could all be the Astros or whatever and have a WS caliber roster based on home grown dudes and short-commitment trades, but the rest of us who are trying to win the world series need good players now.

 

Lester is gonna be injured or bad at the end of his deal and I won't regret the signing in a second. Zobrist was awful last year and I couldn't stand watching him come to the plate but he's a horsefeathering Cubs legend for 2016.

 

The Cubs are gonna have to play around some dead weight in a few years, sure, but they're great now. Meanwhile the Brewers won't have any 36-year old SPs dragging down their payroll, but they're mediocre now and they'll be mediocre then. Good luck with that.

[gobigred]

Did Lackey ever officially retire?

[Ram1380]

 

Here's the Cub's payroll outlook for the next few years with Darvish. I assume Gimenez will make more than the league minimum if he's in the majors, but haven't seen any details, otherwise 2018 should be pretty much locked in.

 

To me the big takeaway is how well set up the team already is for 2019. Horsefeathers will happen for sure, but as of right now we'll be walking into an insanely loaded FA class with money to burn and no holes that need to be filled.

 

Honest question...according to that chart how/where is the money to burn at..?

 

Again, honest question because I REALLY don't know these things...and from the looks of that, aren't they over/under by 3.9 in the "red"...just trying to gain an honest understanding as I have Cardinal fans telling me that Harper would put us over the luxury cap by the 30 million (if that is what he commands)

 

ANY help would be appreciated. As maybe I am missing/reading things wrong...certainly wouldn't be the first time.

[gobigred]

Hope he stays

[nobull]

"Cubs regain their edge in NL Central by signing Yu Darvish"

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=8026

 

who would write such a thing wow

Article was well written. The headline was crap.

[r_mack]

"Cubs regain their edge in NL Central by signing Yu Darvish"

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=8026

 

who would write such a thing wow

Article was well written. The headline was crap.

Doubt Law wrote the headline, ESPN has people for that

[Cubswin11]

Hope he stays

Of course that human troll tries to put a bad spin on this

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Just saw the title of an ESPN Insider article that says that the signing of Darvish has allowed the Cubs to "regain" control in the division. I'd love to know who they thought was in control yesterday

 

it's weird because it was keith law

 

From Keith Law's chat before Yu signed:

 

Jimmy: Cubs win Central fairly easily this year?

Keith Law: No, Jimmy from Chicago

 

:roll:

[Transmogrified Tiger]

ANY help would be appreciated. As maybe I am missing/reading things wrong...certainly wouldn't be the first time.

 

The distinction is that they're trying to stay in the green this year so they can fly into the red next year with less worry. Depending on their tolerance for total payroll and the penalties for luxury tax they might have to make a tweak to fit in Harper's deal(like selling off the last year of Zobrist's deal by attaching a prospect), but already being in the red for 2019 is not a large concern.

[Post Count Padder]

Hope he stays

I think that's mostly Rogers being an ass. Monty definitely wants to start but I don't think he'll throw a tantrum over it. He'll get a few starts this season for sure.

 

A thing I've wondered in the past, would it be weird to go 6 man rotation most of the season? Or rotate Monty and Chatwood out of the 5th spot?

[Thusly Boned]

ANY help would be appreciated. As maybe I am missing/reading things wrong...certainly wouldn't be the first time.

 

The distinction is that they're trying to stay in the green this year so they can fly into the red next year with less worry. Depending on their tolerance for total payroll and the penalties for luxury tax they might have to make a tweak to fit in Harper's deal(like selling off the last year of Zobrist's deal by attaching a prospect), but already being in the red for 2019 is not a large concern.

 

The idea isn't so much to avoid paying the LT at all (though that would be ideal), but to keep the number of years crossing that threshold to a minimum (to minimize the repeat offender escalators), right?

 

And once the Cubs get out from under their current TV deal, that should take a lot of the edge off of paying the LT.

[nobull]

 

who would write such a thing wow

Article was well written. The headline was crap.

Doubt Law wrote the headline, ESPN has people for that

Yes they are called headline writers. I know he did not.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

If you're the kind of person who really cares about getting efficiency out of your free agent dollars, I can see not liking this. Pitchers suck, six years for pitchers really sucks, and opt-outs are *really* bad.

 

But if you're the kind of person who likes it when you add really good pitchers to a really good baseball team, who cares about that nerd stuff.

[Clem Fandango]

[shnsajax]

If you're the kind of person who really cares about getting efficiency out of your free agent dollars, I can see not liking this. Pitchers suck, six years for pitchers really sucks, and opt-outs are *really* bad.

 

But if you're the kind of person who likes it when you add really good pitchers to a really good baseball team, who cares about that nerd stuff.

 

We are singing Harper in 9-10 months and a new massive tv deal. I want an evil empire, not an accountant.

[Cubswin11]

The Brewers Insider guy has moved to twitter after a pretty fun blowup to read on their board but lol....

 

https://twitter.com/high_heat_19/status/962566720752967680

 

[shnsajax]

Has anyone tweeted Kato yet?