Nick Castellanos is a bad mother[bleep]

[badger]

He deserves his own thread.

 

.365/.405/.743, .466wOBA, 190 wRC+, with 1fwar in 18 games with the Cubs*.

 

Setting all that aside seems like an awesome dude and teammate and probably pisses off old school fans of the game with his enthusiasm.

 

Shell out some cash and sign him up, PTR, you cheap piece of horsefeathers and awful human being.

 

 

*does not include tonight

[CyHawk_Cub]

Shell out some cash and sign him up, PTR, you cheap piece of horsefeathers and awful human being.

 

[Wharfrat1976]

Take it easy there sizzlechest.

 

A new broom always sweeps good.

[Sammy Sofa]

Shell out some cash and sign him up, PTR

 

[narrator]He didn't.[/narrator]

[Derwood]

BDN

[Regular Show]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

*Castellanos' OPS is now 1.214(!) in 79 ABs.

[BigSlick]

Castellanos now has the 6th highest war of Cubs position players in 84 PAs lmao

 

That does tend to happen if you hit 8 dongers in 19 games and never commit an out

[jersey cubs fan]

So let it be written...

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[Clem Fandango]

So let it be written...

 

 

lol like 16 or 17 of those outs in Detroit would be dongs in Wrigley. Dude had a legitimate gripe about playing there, I'm glad he made his frustrations known and got himself shipped out to the Cubs

[abohnhoff]

What's a contract extension for him look like? 2/$32m? 3/$45m?

[jersey cubs fan]

What's a contract extension for him look like? 2/$32m? 3/$45m?

4/62

[Brian]

What kind of contract is he even looking at getting? Unless the market changes from the last two years, it should be pretty reasonable.

 

He'll have just turned 28 to start next season, so not exactly at the wrong side of 30 but closer than the guys that are going to get real long term deals.

 

Dexter got 5/82.5 (at 14.5 per year with 10mill bonus) at 31, but that was pre baseball market crash.

 

3/50 for McCutchen also at 31 but he's also has an MVP on his resume

 

3/39 for Jay Bruce at 30

 

So, does something like 3/4 years at around 15 per year seem realistic?

 

This is starting to feel like the Hamels situation, where he was picked up purely as a rental but he's becoming a guy where they say they need him both on the field and in the clubhouse.

[Brian]

What's a contract extension for him look like? 2/$32m? 3/$45m?

4/62

 

ha, I made a long post and looked up contracts all while the same question I posed and an answer (about what I came up with) happened while I was doing it

[UMFan83]

Setting all that aside seems like an awesome dude and teammate and probably pisses off old school fans of the game with his enthusiasm.

 

Don't know about that. He's had some comments about statistics and stuff that the old school guys surely love. Plus he's white so the enthusiasm is perfectly ok with the old schoolers.

[ConstableRabbit]

Sign me up for more Nicky C.

[Bertz]

What kind of contract is he even looking at getting? Unless the market changes from the last two years, it should be pretty reasonable.

 

He'll have just turned 28 to start next season, so not exactly at the wrong side of 30 but closer than the guys that are going to get real long term deals.

 

Dexter got 5/82.5 (at 14.5 per year with 10mill bonus) at 31, but that was pre baseball market crash.

 

3/50 for McCutchen also at 31 but he's also has an MVP on his resume

 

3/39 for Jay Bruce at 30

 

So, does something like 3/4 years at around 15 per year seem realistic?

 

This is starting to feel like the Hamels situation, where he was picked up purely as a rental but he's becoming a guy where they say they need him both on the field and in the clubhouse.

 

McCutchen is probably the best comp except for the age component. That probably gets him to something like the 4/62 Jersey threw out there.

 

While I'm hesitant to look at anything regarding payroll optimistically, they should have enough flexibility to do a deal like that and make a few moves for the pen even if payroll only increases modestly.

[Andy]

Setting all that aside seems like an awesome dude and teammate and probably pisses off old school fans of the game with his enthusiasm.

 

Don't know about that. He's had some comments about statistics and stuff that the old school guys surely love. Plus he's white so the enthusiasm is perfectly ok with the old schoolers.

He's half-Hispanic, although white-passing, I guess. (Cue the "Hispanic is not a race" flame war)

[Brian]

Going by my rough math there's about 30-35 million less signed for 2020 than was signed opening day 2019... not including pre-arb and arb raises

 

(that's assuming Rizzo option picked up at +3.5 and Morrow bought out for -6, and Q picked up)

[Transmogrified Tiger]

While I'm hesitant to look at anything regarding payroll optimistically, they should have enough flexibility to do a deal like that and make a few moves for the pen even if payroll only increases modestly.

 

Just to put this into greater context, this year's LT payroll is right around 235, 245 if you think they would've been able to do the same salary stuff without Zobrist spending most of the year on the restricted list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VJ9nVwD1eUJabnL9tuQuxJa1K2oM2HXyqJS8Od0pMIo/pubhtml

 

edit: woah, it embedded, that's fun

 

Material increases in LT payroll for next year:

 

Bryant Arb3

Baez Arb2

Schwarber Arb2

Contreras Arb1

Rizzo option

Hendricks extension

 

Staying on the high side to be safe, that's probably around 30 million. Let's be super safe and call it 35 million for the other prearb/arb increases(Kemp, Caratini, Wick, etc).

 

And then the salary leaving:

 

Hamels 20

Zobrist 14

Morrow 10.5

Cishek 6.5

Strop 6.25

Kintzler 5

Duensing 3.5

 

There's probably a couple mil more too from various relievers leaving like Brach, Cedeno, and Montgomery. Add that all together and if you put your thumb to the wind you can see somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million to spend before removing any guaranteed salary at the low(Russell, Descalso) or high(Chatwood, Heyward) end. Considering you need substantial bullpen help and maybe an SP too(depending on your view of Graveman, Alzolay, etc), it's going to be tight. Next year is the one year crunch that has been coming, since after it you have the first core shakeup(Lester, Rizzo, Quintana all FA).

[squally1313]

Any Castellanos signing probably marks the end of Schwarber in Chicago. Which is fine if we're getting anywhere close to this version of Nick going forward. But I don't think you can run both those guys in the outfield for a full season and not have it cost you defensively.

 

So Castellanos at $15-$20m a season (plus whatever Schwarber can get you via trade) vs Schwarber with 2 more years of arbitration.

[UMFan83]

What kind of contract is he even looking at getting? Unless the market changes from the last two years, it should be pretty reasonable.

 

He'll have just turned 28 to start next season, so not exactly at the wrong side of 30 but closer than the guys that are going to get real long term deals.

 

Dexter got 5/82.5 (at 14.5 per year with 10mill bonus) at 31, but that was pre baseball market crash.

 

3/50 for McCutchen also at 31 but he's also has an MVP on his resume

 

3/39 for Jay Bruce at 30

 

So, does something like 3/4 years at around 15 per year seem realistic?

 

This is starting to feel like the Hamels situation, where he was picked up purely as a rental but he's becoming a guy where they say they need him both on the field and in the clubhouse.

 

McCutchen is probably the best comp except for the age component. That probably gets him to something like the 4/62 Jersey threw out there.

 

While I'm hesitant to look at anything regarding payroll optimistically, they should have enough flexibility to do a deal like that and make a few moves for the pen even if payroll only increases modestly.

 

Absolutely....based on my calculations we are losing ~$76 million from the books not including Arb increases by KB, Javy, Russell (if tendered), Schwarber, Almora and Contreras. That will bring it down to like what $50m? Biggest holes we'd need to replace are 1 starter (Hamels) and 3 pen guys (Strop, Cishek, Kintzler). The rest of the contracts we're losing were either not big factors on the 2019 Cubs or guys we've acquired throughout the season (like Phelps and Lucroy).

 

Edit: Damn TT crushed my "analysis"

Edited August 22, 2019 by UMFan83

[Old Style]

I didn't realize Castellanos was only 27.

[David]

I didn't realize Castellanos was only 27.

he was one of the prospects we were rumored to be after in one of the trades in the early tank days. we were also rumored to be after jacob turner (before he got bad and we got him) from the tigers. I just cant remember who the hell we were shopping. garza, maybe?

 

 

edit - yep, garza.

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/01/cubs-tigers-talking-matt-garza.html

[Clem Fandango]

Oh man, Turner and Matusz I was irrationally excited about. Here we had a great pitching coach who just fixed Arrieta and two arms that were once elite prospects. I was convinced one of them would be salvaged and turned into something special.

 

Some guys just suck horribly.

[BigSlick]

i also want emphasize again how much of a boost going from like, the third worst hitter in the major leagues, to nick castellanos on a tear