The 2018-2019 Cubs Offseason Rumors & Discussion Thread AKA The Rickettssss take a dump on EVERYTHING

[UMFan83]

2 years in a row the cardinals have seemingly fleeced someone in a trade.

 

Bet Theo would love a redo on the Q/Eloy trade. Yikes.

I'm never going to complain about the Chapman trade because we won the title, but he paid like 130 cents on the dollar for him too.

 

I feel like in season trades can often vary wildly on value depending on a number of factors that aren’t there in the offseason.

[imb]

Britton actually seems like a Cubs kind of move in the bullpen. He’s going to be pretty cheap for a guy with his pedigree, is a little younger than Miller or Robertson, and still averaged 95 MPH/11% whiff rates on his sinker.

 

There even seems to he an obvious way to improve. He drew 25% whiff rates on his breaking ball but only threw it 7% of the time. During his career he usually mixes in about 12% breaking balls for a ~20% K rate.

 

We don’t have money for Harper are you crazy *goves $:1 million to Hamels and Britton*

[Post Count Padder]

Justin Hancock signed with the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan. Now we have nothing to show for the Matt Szczur trade. Edited December 6, 2018 by Post Count Padder

[Brian]

Here's Ken Rosenthal skyping Smoltz from his bedroom to tell you that he thinks the Cubs will respond to the Goldschmidt move, it may be small it may be large, it may be one move it may be a couple... they also would have done this without the Goldschmidt move.

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[Cubswin11]

Here's Ken Rosenthal skyping Smoltz from his bedroom to tell you that he thinks the Cubs will respond to the Goldschmidt move, it may be small it may be large, it may be one move it may be a couple... they also would have done this without the Goldschmidt move.

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It’s awfully vague but pair it with his/Athletics article yesterday about Theo maybe being up to something/lurking on Bryce and maybe he’s starting to hear things on us. Hopefully big things.

[Backtobanks]

Theo quote from today's Tribune: "And there will be winters when we do acquire a big name, and there will be winters that we don't acquire a big name. I don't know what category this winter will fall into yet, but there's a chance there's going to be a winter where we don't acquire a big name from outside the organization. That does not represent failure."

 

 

That sounds to me like he's preparing us for some unpleasant news.

[Cubswin11]

We’re interested in Soria. As the 2nd relief pitcher added (if we assume we are adding 2) I’m fine with it. As the main one that would be underwhelming.

 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-joakim-soria-20181206-story.html

[Transmogrified Tiger]

We’re interested in Soria. As the 2nd relief pitcher added (if we assume we are adding 2) I’m fine with it. As the main one that would be underwhelming.

 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-joakim-soria-20181206-story.html

 

I dunno, Soria’s age adds some risk, but all relievers are gambles and that might make it possible to get a reliever so high up the list with less of a commitment https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=80&type=8&season=2018&month=0&season1=2017&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0

[Transmogrified Tiger]

To add on to that, Soria could make a lot of sense as a short term guy who can close. You have him locking down the 9th and don't have to worry as much about scrambling in the 9th because Morrow needs more rest than normal. Strop, Morrow, and Edwards are great setup men, Cishek and Montgomery are great rubber armed middle relievers, and then you have a slew of guys for the bottom 2 spots*: Chatwood, Kintzler and Duensing are there til traded/DFA'd, Rosario, Wick, Maples, Mekkes, maybe Alzolay, etc

 

*Admittedly with Morrow and Edwards and the possibility of Monty spot starts it's more likely to be 3 spots a big chunk of the year, but even if you remove one of them the top 5 relievers are still plenty good.

[Bertz]

Consider this scenario: The Cubs move Zobrist to a contender for some prospects. They then use that money to sign a top-tier reliever, bring in a contact hitter like Brantley or Markakis and then could still make a move to add an infielder via trade. And the prospects added via the Zobrist trade would allow them to maintain the depth of the farm system Epstein is focused on rebuilding. Someone like the Kansas City Royals’ Whit Merrifield would be at the top of the list, while Philadelphia Phillies infielder Cesár Hernández would make sense as well.

 

This is from Sharma's athletic article this morning, and reads like a mad libs of ways to make me hate this offseason

[Cubswin11]

The idea of trading Zobrist isn’t that crazy to me in the right sequence of move, those names mentioned as replacements are horsefeathering gross though. Like trading him gets a decent prospect, clears his money and let’s us add a good RP, Lowrie and Brantley I’m in for that sequence of moves.

[Sammy Sofa]

Beyond Russell's situation being awful because it's so awful, it gets a little added suckiness because of how the Cubs went relatively quickly from basically have a traffic jam at 2B and SS to, "OMG, I hope Baez can keep it up at SS, and I hope Zobrist can stay alive at 2B." Zobrist looked so good last year that he would have been a prefect candidate to easily move this offseason to free up some money. Now they arguably can't move him because they need the MI depth.

[Tim]

Zobrist is a great sell-high candidate, unlike most others on the team. I'd be more than fine with moving him in the right sequence of events.

 

What won't make people happy is that it *might* mean the Cubs are serious about keeping Russell.

[Brian]

I don't think the return will be interesting enough for a 38 year old that will need to work a catchers schedule (at most) to be effective. Unless they are at a a charging players for the vending machine level of having no money.

[Cubswin11]

I don't think the return will be interesting enough for a 38 year old that will need to work a catchers schedule (at most) to be effective. Unless they are at a a charging players for the vending machine level of having no money.

I bet you could get a Monty type guy for him, for what Monty was at the time of the trade. At least. Former highish rated prospect, current team doesn’t have a role for him. Like the Braves have some guys like this, Fried for example. Braves want/need a corner OF and Albies might be a SS with Swanson having surgery and just sucking in general.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Cubswin11

[Sammy Sofa]

I don't think the return will be interesting enough for a 38 year old that will need to work a catchers schedule (at most) to be effective. Unless they are at a a charging players for the vending machine level of having no money.

 

Yeah, I don't see them getting anything decent back for him. I think all the value would be in that it would be likely the Cubs could get a team to take all of his salary this year for not much in return in the way of players.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I can see Zobrist being a part of some type of 'turn a paperclip into a mansion' series of moves. For example, if the return for Zobrist meets or exceeds the cost to get Cesar Hernandez, then that's basically a free 5 million. Happ and Bote's presence also make it easier to replicate his expected performance for less if that's the route you want to go down.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

This doesn't make baseball sense, but Zobrist is the one guy I want to stay with the Cubs until he retires. That hit was just too important and iconic for me.

[Gilby]

If we don't get Harper, I'd like to go all in with bullpen additions. That way when 6 of our relievers inevitably break down in September, we have more than one guy we can depend on.

[Bertz]

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This is going to be a really good winter to build out a bullpen on the cheap

[Cubswin11]

 

This is going to be a really good winter to build out a bullpen on the cheap

It is an incredibly deep class of FA RPs. Good thing we have Duensing and Kintzler making like $9 million........

 

Also it’s the first day of winter meetings and almost every team is rumored to want/need RPs, Buster is being pretty hyperbolic there. Plenty of RPs will be signing contracts soon enough. They’re probably all waiting on Kimbrel/Britton/Miller to set the market.

[Bull]

Yeah apples to oranges. Give numbers from December 10 last year. What he’s saying may be true but the numbers are disingenuous.

[Cubswin11]

 

[d_money]

Yeah apples to oranges. Give numbers from December 10 last year. What he’s saying may be true but the numbers are disingenuous.

Collusion!

[Cubswin11]

 

 

I terms of veteran leader bench player, Jeff Sullivan did a “30 moves for every team” article on ESPN today. He mentioned Chatwood for Russell Martin as our trade.

 

Martin is owed $20 million (just this year then a FA with a $16.5 LT hit) Chatwood is owed $25.5 over the next 2 (12.6 LT hit). Seems like definitely there’s something to work with there. Could even work in Kintzler or Duensing this year to mitigate the extra LT and cash hit then pay them cash next year and throw in a prospect for their troubles.