2020 roster

[Backtobanks]

When Bryce Harper went to Philly, I had the random thought that KB would be joining him when he reached FA. Why not start that move this off season? Trade KB for Nola & Hernandez & Pivetta/Irvin. Keep Castellanos and sign Rendon.

 

Did you forget that PTR owns the Cubs?

[Post Count Padder]

I do think there's something there with the Phillies. They need pitching badly and have expendable position players. I really do think a Chatwood for Hernandez deal makes sense with others involved. Pivetta wasn't that good this year. I'd rather have Eflin if any of them but I don't think they give up on him just yet. Could probably add Almora to the deal too. Maybe see if we can help them get out of Robertson's contract if we think he'll be healthy.

[17 Seconds]

it's weird because as disastrous as this season was, i actually feel better about the cubs going forward than i did last offseason. a lot of the most important players with question marks bounced back this season. contreras, bryant, rizzo, darvish, and schwarber all had years that signficantly boosted the outlooks of their futures. they are all a year older and all have a year less control, but i am waaaaayyyyyy more optimistic of that group (and their current trade value) than i was 6 months ago.

 

the core is dysfunctional as hell and needs to be broken up or changed around, but the talent and value players is still there. if i had faith in theo (i don't know if i do), i'd be confident that we have enough talent and resources to go back to winning 90+ games just by switching things around.

[UMFan83]

What do we do if Yu opts out?

[CoolHandLuke]

What do we do if Yu opts out?

 

Thank the maker and get Cole.

[The_Achiever]

it's weird because as disastrous as this season was, i actually feel better about the cubs going forward than i did last offseason. a lot of the most important players with question marks bounced back this season. contreras, bryant, rizzo, darvish, and schwarber all had years that signficantly boosted the outlooks of their futures. they are all a year older and all have a year less control, but i am waaaaayyyyyy more optimistic of that group (and their current trade value) than i was 6 months ago.

 

the core is dysfunctional as hell and needs to be broken up or changed around, but the talent and value players is still there. if i had faith in theo (i don't know if i do), i'd be confident that we have enough talent and resources to go back to winning 90+ games just by switching things around.

 

I feel a little of this too. Even Heyward had a pretty good year outside of the leadoff/Joe stuff.

 

Starting pitching is still a huge question mark. Have to replace Hamels now and Q/Lester next year. Maybe even sooner, those guys all struggled this year. Theo needs to fix the rotation now and I'm not sure he can.

[ScrubMD]

Bryant for Betts

Contreras for Jon Gray or equivalent

 

Sign Grandal

Sign or trade for someone to platoon with Heyward in CF

 

 

RF- Betts

1B- Rizzo

SS- Baez

LF- Schwarber

C - Grandal/Caratini

3B- Bote

CF- Heyward/platoon

2B- Hoerner

 

Gray

Hendricks

Darvish

Lester

Quintana/Chatwood/Alzolay

 

Bullpen: I don't even want to try to sort out that horsefeathering train wreck.

[Tryptamine]

Why would we trade 2 years of Bryant for one of Betts?

[Cubswin11]

Why would we trade 2 years of Bryant for one of Betts?

Yeah, that doesn’t make much sense. Mookie also will make $7-10 mil more than KB in arbitration this year

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I would for sure be down with getting Betts, but also more, for the extra year of Bryant.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I don't want to be annoying so I promise I won't say this every time it comes up, but every proposal that includes trading Bryant I have to scream into a pillow to avoid deleting out of spite. It is a bad idea and you should feel bad for considering it, you very bad people you.

[muntjack]

I agree. I just think about Bryant on the 2002 Cubs, or the 2010 Cubs or the 2013 Cubs and laugh about how differently he would be perceived. We've become pretty spoiled.

[Sammy Sofa]

I don't want to be annoying so I promise I won't say this every time it comes up, but every proposal that includes trading Bryant I have to scream into a pillow to avoid deleting out of spite. It is a bad idea and you should feel bad for considering it, you very bad people you.

 

He's forever trapped in the Dead Zone of technically being too valuable to trade, but he's doomed to not actually be as great as the Cubs desperately need him to be.

 

Also: his skeleton is an antique.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I don't want to be annoying so I promise I won't say this every time it comes up, but every proposal that includes trading Bryant I have to scream into a pillow to avoid deleting out of spite. It is a bad idea and you should feel bad for considering it, you very bad people you.

 

He's forever trapped in the Dead Zone of technically being too valuable to trade, but he's doomed to not actually be as great as the Cubs desperately need him to be.

 

Also: his skeleton is an antique.

 

Yup. Love KB when he's healthy. The problem is that even when he's playing, he's not healthy for like two or three months. I'm a bit worried his body is not going to get better but might actually keep breaking down.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Outside of the shoulder thing, and he has a 5 fWAR season this year saying it's behind him, what other career threatening injuries has Bryant had? Please add and don't subtract former MVPs in their 20s

 

Not career threatening. But for two months now he's had a knee that has apparently hurt his production. That's coming off a season in which he had a bad shoulder for like four months.

 

The Cubs aren't going to trade him, but they are going to try.

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, this is 2 seasons in a row where he's had long, prolonged, nebulous injuries. Feel free to blame plenty of that on the Cubs' terrible medical staff, please, but it's the kind of thing that tends to not get better as players get older, and just the vague ongoing nature in both cases is worrisome. It speaks to how talented he is that he still put up the season he did (per Fangraphs; BR is not as much of a fan) as hurt as he was.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Not career threatening. But for two months now he's had a knee that has apparently hurt his production. That's coming off a season in which he had a bad shoulder for like four months.

 

The Cubs aren't going to trade him, but they are going to try.

 

This knee thing is a whole different level from the shoulder, where he missed 60 games and otherwise played like a 2-3 maybe 4 WAR player. This knee thing killed his August but he's got a .955 OPS in September. rWAR is maybe suggesting that his time at 3B may be coming to a close, buns, but otherwise the bat and power are back. I don't hate 2nd contract Bryant to basically end up a souped up Nelson Cruz these days

 

He also has missed multiple games due to the knee earlier this month and will likely miss the last six with an ankle injury. The guy is banged up a lot, that's all.

 

No way I'm touching KB on a seven or eight year contract after he turns 30, assuming the money is also large.

 

ETA: Unless Bryant is willing to take roids and the NL gets a DH.

[Cubswin11]

Why do we think Bryant is getting a 7-8 year contract as a 30 year old? Because I don’t think that’s a guarantee at this point and think 4-6 years is much more likely the range he falls in. If he’d want an 8+ year deal then doing an extension this offseason is how he gets that (I absolutely do an 8 year extension for him this offseason too, if he’s willing). Edited September 23, 2019 by Cubswin11

[The SABR Gamer]

it's weird because as disastrous as this season was, i actually feel better about the cubs going forward than i did last offseason. a lot of the most important players with question marks bounced back this season. contreras, bryant, rizzo, darvish, and schwarber all had years that signficantly boosted the outlooks of their futures. they are all a year older and all have a year less control, but i am waaaaayyyyyy more optimistic of that group (and their current trade value) than i was 6 months ago.

 

the core is dysfunctional as hell and needs to be broken up or changed around, but the talent and value players is still there. if i had faith in theo (i don't know if i do), i'd be confident that we have enough talent and resources to go back to winning 90+ games just by switching things around.

 

Even Heyward had a pretty good year outside of the leadoff/Joe stuff.

 

Meh.

 

2018:

Offensive value: 3.7

wRC+: 99

WAR: 2.0

 

2019:

Offensive value: 3.7

wRC+: 102

WAR: 1.9

 

He's still mediocre.

[The SABR Gamer]

I don't want to be annoying so I promise I won't say this every time it comes up, but every proposal that includes trading Bryant I have to scream into a pillow to avoid deleting out of spite. It is a bad idea and you should feel bad for considering it, you very bad people you.

 

He's forever trapped in the Dead Zone of technically being too valuable to trade, but he's doomed to not actually be as great as the Cubs desperately need him to be.

 

Also: his skeleton is an antique.

 

 

Lol this is a post by someone with a bad grasp on both how good KB is and how good the Cubs need him to be. I mostly like you, but sometimes shut up.

[The SABR Gamer]

Yeah, this is 2 seasons in a row where he's had long, prolonged, nebulous injuries. Feel free to blame plenty of that on the Cubs' terrible medical staff, please, but it's the kind of thing that tends to not get better as players get older, and just the vague ongoing nature in both cases is worrisome. It speaks to how talented he is that he still put up the season he did (per Fangraphs; BR is not as much of a fan) as hurt as he was.

 

The lower BR WAR is because of his defense, which can easily be viewed as sample variance, especially since the rating is very inconsistent with the rest of his career and with the other methods of evaluating his defense. You cherry pick a ton, and it devalues your bitching.

[Sammy Sofa]

[The SABR Gamer]

 

Because I don't care to post enough. This is a weak ass response lol, I'm right and you don't have a rebuttal.

[squally1313]

it's weird because as disastrous as this season was, i actually feel better about the cubs going forward than i did last offseason. a lot of the most important players with question marks bounced back this season. contreras, bryant, rizzo, darvish, and schwarber all had years that signficantly boosted the outlooks of their futures. they are all a year older and all have a year less control, but i am waaaaayyyyyy more optimistic of that group (and their current trade value) than i was 6 months ago.

 

the core is dysfunctional as hell and needs to be broken up or changed around, but the talent and value players is still there. if i had faith in theo (i don't know if i do), i'd be confident that we have enough talent and resources to go back to winning 90+ games just by switching things around.

 

Even Heyward had a pretty good year outside of the leadoff/Joe stuff.

 

Meh.

 

2018:

Offensive value: 3.7

wRC+: 99

WAR: 2.0

 

2019:

Offensive value: 3.7

wRC+: 102

WAR: 1.9

 

He's still mediocre.

 

He needs to be platooned, and ideally the platoon is still in right field (though the latter part is pretty unlikely at this point).

 

.838 OPS against RHP, 116 wRC+

.558 OPS against LHP, 46 wRC+

[Bryants Disco Ball]

He also has missed multiple games due to the knee earlier this month and will likely miss the last six with an ankle injury. The guy is banged up a lot, that's all.

 

You can do this kind of injury listing for pretty much anyone, probably mostly worse. Bottom line he's played 147 games this year minimum and other than 2018 has played minimum 151 games a year in the MLs since 2015. That makes it seem like durability is an overrated/overstated knock.

 

I mean, I guess we can go back and forth on this.

 

I think KB's body breaking down is a concern, based on the last two seasons. The 147 games is a mirage, other than to break anybody's narrative that he is somehow soft. Dude played through an injury the past two months.

 

I also don't think anyone is implying KB is not an awesome hitter and a huge asset to a team. I know all I'm saying is that I'm not confident his body is going to age well in upcoming seasons and I have no issue with looking to move him for something that makes sense, considering I also don't think they are resigning him after 2021.