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

[Post Count Padder]

The Marlins apparently asked the Braves for Albies and prospects for Realmuto. No way we're meeting their crazy demands.

[Backtobanks]

The Marlins apparently asked the Braves for Albies and prospects for Realmuto. No way we're meeting their crazy demands.

 

Why wouldn't they ask for Albies and prospects when they have every team desiring Realmuto? Aim high because they don't need to trade him.

[Cubswin11]

I think Ozzie Albies might just be 2B Almora. From May on for the rest of the season he hit .254/.294/.409 .304 wOBA 87 wRC+ 5% BB rate and hit only 10 HRS from June on and only 4 after the ASB. His minor league numbers aren’t all that special either.

 

Not saying they should trade him for Realmuto but it’s not a crazy ask, imo, he’s not in the Acuna, Soto, Vlad Jr class of prospects/young players. Selling high on him might be smart if they can get Realmuto and replace him in a deep FA MIF market.

[Backtobanks]

I think Ozzie Albies might just be 2B Almora. From May on for the rest of the season he hit .254/.294/.409 .304 wOBA 87 wRC+ 5% BB rate and hit only 10 HRS from June on and only 4 after the ASB. His minor league numbers aren’t all that special either.

 

Not saying they should trade him for Realmuto but it’s not a crazy ask, imo, he’s not in the Acuna, Soto, Vlad Jr class of prospects/young players. Selling high on him might be smart if they can get Realmuto and replace him in a deep FA MIF market.

 

 

That's my point, the Marlins ought to ask for the moon because everybody is after Realmuto. I agree that the Braves should think about such a deal because it's easier to get an adequate 2B than a top C. Of course it all depends on the other prospects included in the deal. That being said, Albies' numbers are pretty impressive for a 21 year old switch-hitting 2B with 5 years of control left.

[Sammy Sofa]

I think Ozzie Albies might just be 2B Almora. From May on for the rest of the season he hit .254/.294/.409 .304 wOBA 87 wRC+ 5% BB rate and hit only 10 HRS from June on and only 4 after the ASB. His minor league numbers aren’t all that special either.

 

Not saying they should trade him for Realmuto but it’s not a crazy ask, imo, he’s not in the Acuna, Soto, Vlad Jr class of prospects/young players. Selling high on him might be smart if they can get Realmuto and replace him in a deep FA MIF market.

 

 

That's my point, the Marlins ought to ask for the moon because everybody is after Realmuto.

 

That's not the point of Cubswin11's post at all.

[Backtobanks]

I think Ozzie Albies might just be 2B Almora. From May on for the rest of the season he hit .254/.294/.409 .304 wOBA 87 wRC+ 5% BB rate and hit only 10 HRS from June on and only 4 after the ASB. His minor league numbers aren’t all that special either.

 

Not saying they should trade him for Realmuto but it’s not a crazy ask, imo, he’s not in the Acuna, Soto, Vlad Jr class of prospects/young players. Selling high on him might be smart if they can get Realmuto and replace him in a deep FA MIF market.

 

 

That's my point, the Marlins ought to ask for the moon because everybody is after Realmuto.

 

That's not the point of Cubswin11's post at all.

 

 

The rest of my post pointed out that Albies is pretty valuable even though he slumped during the 2nd half. Again a 21 yr. old playing regularly on a division winning team with 5 years of control left is a really valuable asset. Cubswin11 thinks that Albies is going to digress and they ought to sell high on him and I'm not agreeing or disagreeing. I'm just pointing out that they might be giving up a star (plus other prospects) for another star.

[Cubswin11]

 

 

That's my point, the Marlins ought to ask for the moon because everybody is after Realmuto.

 

That's not the point of Cubswin11's post at all.

 

 

The rest of my post pointed out that Albies is pretty valuable even though he slumped during the 2nd half. Again a 21 yr. old playing regularly on a division winning team with 5 years of control left is a really valuable asset. Cubswin11 thinks that Albies is going to digress and they ought to sell high on him and I'm not agreeing or disagreeing. I'm just pointing out that they might be giving up a star (plus other prospects) for another star.

He slumped once the calander hit May. It was a far longer period than just the 2nd half and like I said his minor numbers don’t jump out like crazy to think he won’t just be a similar version of that May on player vs the 1.000 OPS guy in Mar/Apr moving forward. Which is still a somewhat useful and okay player but nothing overly special and certainly not a star. I don’t think him and a pitching prospect for Realmuto is a ridiculous ask by the Marlins and I don’t think it’s something the Braves should turn down right away. It could very likely be the highest value Albies ever has and I think he’s more a 1.5-3 win player moving forward and there’s like 10 FAs they can sign that can play the MIF to replace him for not a ton of years/money.

[Cubswin11]

The Mariners are apparently trying to attach Seager to Haniger to dump salary. Their Segura move today was a pure salary dump. Maybe there's a way to dump both Chatwood and Heyward to clear room for Bryce......

 

First trade: Chatwood, Kintzler, Zack Short and Adbert (and/or some other non Amaya prospects, include Amaya if you must) to the Mariners for Kyle Seager, Dee Gordon and Mitch Haniger. The money works out with us sending out $30.5 million and taking back $82.5 (plus whatever Haniger's salary is this year but that doesn't matter after the next trade and he won't make a lot anyways as he's still team controlled or just in to arbitration) so it nets us to taking on $52 million and adds about $8 mil to our LT.

 

Second trade: Heyward (maybe we pay a little, say $15-20 million netting us $85-90 million or so in savings) and Haniger to the Braves for a pitcher, let's say Fried to throw in the bullpen mix.

 

We'd come out around $30 million in real money in savings and lower our LT hit for the year by ~$13 million. We could then go sign Bryce and trade off 1-2 of Almora/Happ/Schwarber/Gordon/Seager for either some more savings/prospect/relief pitcher.

 

Opening day position players could be something like (12):

 

1. Willy C

2. Vic/Backup FA C

3. Rizzo 1B

4. Zobrist 2B/OF

5. Javy SS/3B/2B

6. KB 3B/OF

7. Bryce OF

8-11. 4 of Almora OF, Gordon 2B/SS/OF, Seager 3B/maybe OF or 2B, Happ OF/3B/2B, Schwarber OF

12. FA who can play CF (most likely)

 

 

This is all likely nonsense and a waste of but there could be something there with the Mariners to set this series of events off. Even if we don't get Bryce that first trade leaves us with Haniger as a consolation prize and then we can trade off still from the Happ/Schwarber/Gordon/Seager group for either savings or other needs.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Cubswin11

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I think it’s probably easier to bridge the gap between Haniger and Happ for Atlanta and just cut out the middle man than it is to get the Ms to trade Haniger and Seager for a return that headlines some low ceiling prospects. You can at least dream on Kelenic and Crawford maximizing their potential and being plus MLBers, that’s a real hard sell with any non-MLB player the Cubs might trade.

[Cubswin11]

I think it’s probably easier to bridge the gap between Haniger and Happ for Atlanta and just cut out the middle man than it is to get the Ms to trade Haniger and Seager for a return that headlines some low ceiling prospects. You can at least dream on Kelenic and Crawford maximizing their potential and being plus MLBers, that’s a real hard sell with any non-MLB player the Cubs might trade.

Very true. But if they view Gordon and Seager as pure dead weight and are willing to attach Haniger like it’s rumored we could maybe find some common ground there. They should just maximize Haniger by himself because Gordon and Seager aren’t crippling but they didn’t do that with Diaz. Maybe they view Amaya as a plus guy at a premium spot? Hell maybe even include Marquez?

 

My main idea is to just get the Mariners trade done now then sort out the roster from there. At worst you have Haniger, which is a nice upgrade and can sell off on some other guys (Happ, Schwarber, Almora) to fill out the roster. Plus Gordon and Seager as bench/platoon options (Seager at 3B and KB in OF vs RHP, Gordon in the LaStella last bench spot role and backup SS aren’t bad at all) and we could maybe eventually use Haniger and/or others to clear Heyward if needed to make room for Bryce.

[Cubswin11]

It’s Loxas....

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[Named After Maddux]

It’s Loxas....

 

 

I’ve always been very skeptical of Loxas, but I think this is likely true. I mean it’s almost negligence for a team in contention to not check in with any reliever on the market. Granted I know he just seems to throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. This could be that.

I will say maybe he is somewhat connected. Loxas actually posted about the Cubs being interested in Realmuto possibly at the expense of Contreras and then Craig Mish reported the same thing a day or two later. I’m still surprised.

[Brian]

feels like it's been about 3 years since the wild card game

[Thed Hoyerstein]

feels like it's been about 3 years since the wild card game

 

3 years and nearly 2 months to the day!

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/images/1/2/0/153638120/100715_chc_schwarber_hr_med_x035b5dg.gif

[Cubswin11]

It’s Loxas....

 

 

I’ve always been very skeptical of Loxas, but I think this is likely true. I mean it’s almost negligence for a team in contention to not check in with any reliever on the market. Granted I know he just seems to throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. This could be that.

I will say maybe he is somewhat connected. Loxas actually posted about the Cubs being interested in Realmuto possibly at the expense of Contreras and then Craig Mish reported the same thing a day or two later. I’m still surprised.

Yeah I definitely don’t doubt we are interested in and have likely had talks about Miller. There’s connections/familiarity to Theo and the FO of having him on the Red Sox in the past and we were in on him in 2016 and a lefty RP like him makes a lot of sense to target. I agree that I doubt Loxas has any serious sources or connections though. It’s connecting dots at best by him and making educated guesses.

[Cubswin11]

I’m happy to hear we might be targeting a veteran backup C, I’m also happy to hear it won’t be McCann

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[Bertz]

They're totally going to spend $30m on Hamels, a reliever, and a backup catcher and then try and tell us with a straight face that they didn't have the money for Bryce, aren't they?

[Sammy Sofa]

They're totally going to spend $30m on Hamels, a reliever, and a backup catcher and then try and tell us with a straight face that they didn't have the money for Bryce, aren't they?

 

[Brian]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

 

Bot Stove

@BotStove

Randomly generated, fiercely plausible MLB transaction rumors.

 

[Southpaw19]

Bleacher Report released their "Top 25 Free Agent Predictions" prior to the Winter Meetings beginning. They only have the Cubs signing Zach Britton for 3/$33M.

[Cubswin11]

Bleacher Report released their "Top 25 Free Agent Predictions" prior to the Winter Meetings beginning. They only have the Cubs signing Zach Britton for 3/$33M.

I’d be okay with that move for that money. It would be nice to be able to add him and Robertson

[Hunter]

At this point, the Cubs been so tentatively linked to so many players, that it seems n one has a clue what the Cubs are doing. We should also change this thread title. There is nothing swift about this off-season.

[The_Achiever]

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.

[d_money]

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.

You had to bring it up, didn’t you?

[Andy]

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.