2018-19 Other Team Offseason Transactions Not Worth a New Thread

[Cubswin11]

Jays are paying $16-18 million of his salary. Between just cutting and eating all of Tulo’s money and now this amount they’re eating I’m surprised we didn’t work out a Chatwood or Heyward swap for one of or both Tulo/Martin. Seemed to make sense and they fill some needs.

[Bertz]

Jays are paying $16-18 million of his salary. Between just cutting and eating all of Tulo’s money and now this amount they’re eating I’m surprised we didn’t work out a Chatwood or Heyward swap for one of or both Tulo/Martin. Seemed to make sense and they fill some needs.

 

That would be a good tea leaf in the "we're actually going to add players" direction. Might mean we're not willing to do a bad contract swap, and instead want the money off the books.

 

Or it could be just another log on the fire of this horsefeathering Max Bialystok offseason.

[Bluescale]

So they have two spots for Torres, Grigorious, Tulo and LeMahieu. Trade coming?

Tulo is no lock to he healthy a whole year and Didi may miss most of the season. Torres at short, DJ at 2B, Tulo backs both up if healthy/gets some DH at bats

 

Well, since they have such a dearth of infielders, we've got one they can have for a bag of peanuts...

[Bluescale]

Jays are paying $16-18 million of his salary. Between just cutting and eating all of Tulo’s money and now this amount they’re eating I’m surprised we didn’t work out a Chatwood or Heyward swap for one of or both Tulo/Martin. Seemed to make sense and they fill some needs.

 

I'm starting to wonder if the Ricketts' took away Theo and Jed's phones, and put them in the corner or something. They're not signing players. They're not trading players. Are they even still alive?

[Cubswin11]

For fucks sake, a 1 year deal and we have “closing opportunities.”

 

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[imb]

we may not be in on cody allen because he just sucks butt

[Cubswin11]

we may not be in on cody allen because he just sucks butt

Worse guys are “closers.” He’s likely mostly fine there in the regular season and let the better guys handle the leverage spots. Especially on a 1 year deal, there’s no risk.

[imb]

[marq=left][/marq]

we may not be in on cody allen because he just sucks butt

Worse guys are “closers.” He’s likely mostly fine there in the regular season and let the better guys handle the leverage spots. Especially on a 1 year deal, there’s no risk.

 

as tight as things are, there will be much better uses of that money in-season. the risk is that you use already limited resources on a worthless position and then fill it with a bad player

[Cubswin11]

[marq=left][/marq]

we may not be in on cody allen because he just sucks butt

Worse guys are “closers.” He’s likely mostly fine there in the regular season and let the better guys handle the leverage spots. Especially on a 1 year deal, there’s no risk.

 

as tight as things are, there will be much better uses of that money in-season. the risk is that you use already limited resources on a worthless position and then fill it with a bad player

Right. But I’m assuming we would at least have the little it takes for him on a 1 year deal and for any in season deals needed for the pen. He’d make the pen stronger on paper to start the year and at least let us re-evaluate around June or whenever Morrow is back what needs to be added or who shifted to what roles. It sucks to be this poor I guess.

[imb]

[marq=left][/marq]

Worse guys are “closers.” He’s likely mostly fine there in the regular season and let the better guys handle the leverage spots. Especially on a 1 year deal, there’s no risk.

 

as tight as things are, there will be much better uses of that money in-season. the risk is that you use already limited resources on a worthless position and then fill it with a bad player

Right. But I’m assuming we would at least have the little it takes for him on a 1 year deal and for any in season deals needed for the pen. He’d make the pen stronger on paper to start the year and at least let us re-evaluate around June or whenever Morrow is back what needs to be added or who shifted to what roles. It sucks to be this poor I guess.

 

why wouldnt they have just re-signed chavez

[Cubswin11]

[marq=left][/marq]

 

as tight as things are, there will be much better uses of that money in-season. the risk is that you use already limited resources on a worthless position and then fill it with a bad player

Right. But I’m assuming we would at least have the little it takes for him on a 1 year deal and for any in season deals needed for the pen. He’d make the pen stronger on paper to start the year and at least let us re-evaluate around June or whenever Morrow is back what needs to be added or who shifted to what roles. It sucks to be this poor I guess.

 

why wouldnt they have just re-signed chavez

At this point of the offseason, yeah. I'd obviously love to have him back. I wonder if they didn't want to get in to another Duensing situation and give a guy a 2+ year deal who was older, with a spotty history and only based off of a month or two of work, or they didn't think Ricketts was serious about the spending limits being so strict and they thought they could aim higher eventually getting some money to work with (he did sign really early in the offseason), or maybe spending real is that reigned in right now. Everything sucks.

[imb]

Jesse Chavez sucks too. If we’re going to lament them not signing good players at least let them actually be good players...

 

the point is if they were ever remotely willing to spend $9 million on someone like cody allen, they would have just done 2/8 on chavez months ago

[Cubswin11]

Right. But I’m assuming we would at least have the little it takes for him on a 1 year deal and for any in season deals needed for the pen. He’d make the pen stronger on paper to start the year and at least let us re-evaluate around June or whenever Morrow is back what needs to be added or who shifted to what roles. It sucks to be this poor I guess.

 

By what? Being a recognizable-ish name? It isn’t the stats since he’s giving up way too many HRs, K’ing fewer guys, and walking more batters

I do believe a little in a guy having "closer experience" being a thing. So that plays a role. As I've maintained all year, my main interest in him was in this scenario where he could just be had for really cheap. He wasn't a guy I had to have at any cost. I think he's still plenty fine for the traditional closer role, it's the "easiest" job to do in theory so he doesn't even need to be the best relief pitcher just show he has had success in that role to me. Let the actually good relief pitchers handle the leverage situations during the year and look at upgrades/shifting roles as the year goes on. I'm fine missing on him, but think for a 1 year deal he would've been a perfectly fine addition.

[Cubswin11]

Jesse Chavez sucks too. The guy’s given ip nearly FORTU HRs the past two seasons, and was not particularly good in the first half. If we’re going to lament them not signing good players at least let them actually be good players...

I think the HR numbers can partially be explained by him being a SP in 2017 and also pitching in Texas for a good chunk of the year last year. He probably is HR prone with his approach of pounding and being around the zone regardless, but being a starter and pitching in Texas probably brings out some extremes. There needs to be some context there.

[Cubswin11]

I do believe a little in a guy having "closer experience" being a thing. So that plays a role. As I've maintained all year, my main interest in him was in this scenario where he could just be had for really cheap. He wasn't a guy I had to have at any cost. I think he's still plenty fine for the traditional closer role, it's the "easiest" job to do in theory so he doesn't even need to be the best relief pitcher just show he has had success in that role to me. Let the actually good relief pitchers handle the leverage situations during the year and look at upgrades/shifting roles as the year goes on. I'm fine missing on him, but think for a 1 year deal he would've been a perfectly fine addition.

 

The Cubs for the most part already have that guy you’re talking about in Morrow, who has been better when healthy the past two season and was doing just fine in that role (closing without being the team’s actual best reliever at the time, Edwards was crushing it then plus Strop and Cishek were holding up). Chasing another one of those shaky non-elites, one whose periphs have been going backwards for years now, is not all that appealing and honestly is settling the franchise into this role of mingling among very good teams without ever separating to become truly great during a still cracked open window.

 

.

Morrow is absolutely our best relief pitcher when healthy. I'd rather have him available for leverage spots vs traditional closing spots if he could handle the role from a physical stand point (which how they've talked he probably just needs to be a regular closer during the year and be used whenever he warms up and be on a strict schedule until the postseason).

 

As for the latter part, we've been over our thoughts on building out the bullpen and I don't want to rehash that.

[Deeg]

How can any responsible plan for the bullpen possibly be contingent on Morrow staying healthy?

[Bertz]

As much of a wet butt as this offseason has been, I can't complain too much about the approach to the bullpen. If you're not going to go big for someone then just wait until February and grab like Ryan Madson or Oliver Perez for a couple million.

 

Zach Britton definitely would have been cool though.

[Cubswin11]

[Bertz]

Machado to either the Yankees or Dodgers and Bryce to the Phillies seems like a fait accompli at this point.

[Cubswin11]

I’ll guess Twins, Rangers, Angels, Padres and Braves as mystery teams for him. Assuming the mystery team is a spot he doesn’t love outside of $$.

[Bertz]

I’ll guess Twins, Rangers, Angels, Padres and Braves as mystery teams for him. Assuming the mystery team is a spot he doesn’t love outside of $$.

 

The Twins are a really good guess. I saw on Twitter that they're currently in line for their lowest payroll since I believe '02. If not one of them than at the very least Keuchel.

[Cubswin11]

I’ll guess Twins, Rangers, Angels, Padres and Braves as mystery teams for him. Assuming the mystery team is a spot he doesn’t love outside of $$.

 

The Twins are a really good guess. I saw on Twitter that they're currently in line for their lowest payroll since I believe '02. If not one of them than at the very least Keuchel.

Yeah and I saw they have like $300k on the books in guaranteed money in 2020. They could front load the horsefeathers out of a deal to him as a way to sway him and let him opt out after 2-3 years.

[JennieGarthAlgar]

I sometimes forget that the Twins are still a MLB team

[Cubswin11]

[Cubswin11]

Don’t really get the point in either side doing an extension, but okay.