Ohtani to Dodgers for an ungodly amount of money

[Dfan25]

Heyman says the Cubs are looking at Matt Chapman / Bellinger and Rhys Hoskins but are waiting on Ohtani first .

 

Also read something about Jesse Rogers saying Hoyer isn’t in Nashville due to personal reasons , not Ohtani related .

[UMFan83]

8 minutes ago, Dfan25 said:

Heyman says the Cubs are looking at Matt Chapman / Bellinger and Rhys Hoskins but are waiting on Ohtani first .

 

Also read something about Jesse Rogers saying Hoyer isn’t in Nashville due to personal reasons , not Ohtani related .

They are really taking that “Ohtani wants no leaks” thing seriously

 

but seriously, if it is personal reasons it is possibly serious for the president of baseball operations to miss some/all of the winter meetings. Hope everything is ok

Edited December 5, 2023 by UMFan83

[Tryptamine]

11 minutes ago, Dfan25 said:

Heyman says the Cubs are looking at Matt Chapman / Bellinger and Rhys Hoskins but are waiting on Ohtani first .

 

Also read something about Jesse Rogers saying Hoyer isn’t in Nashville due to personal reasons , not Ohtani related .

Well this is incredibly ominous. Let's make up for missing on an elite player by throwing lots of money at much worse ones.

[gocubs218]

I mean Atkins pretty much said the same thing. 

we really think it’s a coincidence that Jed, Atkins and Friedman aren’t at the meetings? 

[CubbyBlue2008]

All those executives happened to have personal conflicts on the same weekend for the only collective big weekend for all front office execs? Please.

[JD94]

15 minutes ago, CubbyBlue2008 said:

All those executives happened to have personal conflicts on the same weekend for the only collective big weekend for all front office execs? Please.

Right. Ohtani doesn’t want it out there, so obviously you do nothing to jeopardize the situation… you simply say “personal reasons, not related to Ohtani.” 

[Stratos]

2 hours ago, Dfan25 said:

If they don’t get Ohtani and Rogers is right about them not having interest in Soto , I have no idea how they will build an offense . Rhys Hoskins isn’t near enough 

I think they'd likely need Hoskins + another decent bat to get to where they were last year offensively.  Hoskins was a 130 wRC+ guy, but coming back from injury you might expect more like 110-120 wRC+.  Maybe someone like Belt or another DH or 1B/3B type.

Wildcards are Canario and Mervis, hopefully we get some decent performance out of one of them next year.  Canario can DH or possibly platoon in CF with Tauchman.

If we can improve on what we got from 1B/DH the first 2-3 months of last season we'd be in a better spot already.

The nice thing is we'll have a number of hitters besides Mervis/Canario knocking on the door in AAA that may help in the 2nd half of 2024:  PCA, McGeary, Davis, Murray, Caissie.  A bunch of guys in AA might also make their debut in a pinch:  Shaw + others lesser likely in Triantos, Alcantara, Ballesteros.

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, Dfan25 said:

Heyman says the Cubs are looking at Matt Chapman / Bellinger and Rhys Hoskins but are waiting on Ohtani first .

This could also be Cubs-fed leverage in Ohtani negotiations.  Or just Boras being Boras haha.

[UMFan83]

Blue Jays met with Ohtani in FL today

 

[WhyCantWeWin]

20 minutes ago, Stratos said:

This could also be Cubs-fed leverage in Ohtani negotiations.  Or just Boras being Boras haha.

Why would the Cubs leak that they are waiting to pursue other players because they are waiting on an Ohtani to decision first give them any leverage?

 

People don't like him on here but Chapman is a Jed kind of player. Can be had on a shorter term high AAV contract and he plays strong defense. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

1 hour ago, Stratos said:

This could also be Cubs-fed leverage in Ohtani negotiations.  Or just Boras being Boras haha.

I really wish I could find the "you know who is interested in my client? *puffs cigar* the Chicago Cubs" tweet

[Stratos]

Counsell is coming to Nashville for the Winter Meetings on Tuesday, Jordan Bastian reports.  Sounds like he may be in LA for the Cubs pitch.

Good article about what Hawkins said about this offseason: https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-preparing-for-shohei-ohtani-decision

[Stratos]

50 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Why would the Cubs leak that they are waiting to pursue other players because they are waiting on an Ohtani to decision first give them any leverage?

 

People don't like him on here but Chapman is a Jed kind of player. Can be had on a shorter term high AAV contract and he plays strong defense. 

Because it shows they're interesting in other players and don't need Ohtani.  But more likely it's Boras being Boras.  It's all nonsense speculation really, we have no idea.  But I wouldn't be surprised if the report is true to the extent that the Cubs did their due diligence and at least contacted Boras to inquire on Chapman (and the others).

Jed also likes to avoid players outside their prime years where possible.  I don't think Chapman is impossible but it doesn't seem a perfect fit.  I think Hoskins fits better if they miss on Ohtani, he definitely has the power the Cubs are looking to add.

[UMFan83]

20 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Counsell is coming to Nashville for the Winter Meetings on Tuesday, Jordan Bastian reports.  Sounds like he may be in LA for the Cubs pitch.

Good article about what Hawkins said about this offseason: https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-preparing-for-shohei-ohtani-decision

Fwiw Rosenthal is reporting that Ohtani was rumored to be in Florida today meeting with the Blue Jays so maybe that’s where they were, just probably not in LA.  It’s interesting that Ohtani met at the Blue Jays spring training complex. Maybe he just happened to be in FL. I suspect he won’t visit every teams complex though

[JHBulls]

6 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Seems like he’s guessing

Again I don’t think these guys have any idea what’s actually going on

Is Bob blinking Morse code?

Edited December 5, 2023 by JHBulls

[JHBulls]

6 hours ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I wish my job was just to make horsefeathers up until someone told me the answer.

In all fairness to all the other guys who make horsefeathers up, we call the above clip of Bob making horsefeathers up a Tuesday.

[thawv]

13 hours ago, 1908_Cubs said:

It sounds as if the Blue Jays GM, Ross Adkins is not in Nashville currently. He is going to zoom in for his daily press meetings because of a "conflict of schedule". It appears, as well, as though Jed Hoyer is not present in Nashville currently, either. Make of it as you wish.

Unless he's meeting with Ohtani, having a conflict of interest is just hard to believe.  He didn't know the winter meetings were this week?  I'd say Adkins is focused on Ohtani  

[thawv]

7 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

The one about not blocking prospects? Who do they have coming up at 3B? Shaw the kid with 70 abs in AA?

But if Chapman is longer than a year, he'll be blocking Shaw.  With that said, I think Shaw is up this year some time.

[Jason Ross]

I've been doing some thinking and some sleuthing, and I think I've come to logical conclusion (feel free to tell me I'm just tinfoil-hat-crazy, too). 

Okay, so reports on Saturday were that Ohtani was in San Francisco to meet with the Giants. Monday, it appears as though Ohtani was in Florida with the Jays. But then you have Sunday...kind of a big blank day, no? Perhaps Ohtani took in some NFL football, a beer, and hanging out with friends, but I have a feeling that didn't happen. As well, there was the report that teams were coming to LA to meet with Ohtani for final meetings, but considering he went to SF and Toronto after (if reports are correct) it seems weird that would be the case, So maybe...what if it wasn't all teams on Saturday making their final pitch/meetings/tours of facilities but the two LA teams (one of which was a team he didn't need to tour, because, he's been an Angel for half a decade). Geographically, if Ohtani were making his tour around the other clubs, it would make sense that he would go from LA to SF, and this feels like it could be accomplished in a single day, like...Saturday. But again...Sunday....It'd make a lot of sense if Ohtani did something Sunday. And, again, thinking logically, planning a trip, geographically around the nation, well Chicago just so happens to be between San Francisco and Florida, and would have made quite the logical stopping place for a visit, wouldn't it have? And conspicuously, Jed Hoyer wasn't in Nashville Sunday. Neither was Craig Counsell. It really wouldn't make a ton of sense if they're both still in LA (Sunday and Monday) if they were meeting with him on Saturday. We know he's not in LA any more; he was in Florida Monday.

What I'm trying to get at is this: I think Shohei Ohtani was in Chicago Sunday. And I think the Cubs got him in and out without any leaks. Considering the Cubs were capable of doing this with Seiya Suzuki and Craig Counsell, it would track based on history. I could be way off, and fair, I'm going off logic/guessing. Both his trips to Toronto and San Francisco ended up getting reported/leaked in some way or fashion. If he got in and out of Chicago with zero leaks, I wonder how this helps on the final choice. If Ohtani is truly worrisome of leaks and quietness, which, if he' visiting teams in their cities during the Winter Meetings, you could argue is another reason to believe that, then the Cubs making this happen could help.

 

Edit: I'd also like to point out, the Cubs may have met in Arizona (someone else suggested this to me elsewhere, credit to him). Closer to the West Coast, easier to keep quiet. But regardless, I think very much so that the Cubs had their sit down with Ohtani on Sunday.

Edited December 5, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[Rcal10]

16 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I've been doing some thinking and some sleuthing, and I think I've come to logical conclusion (feel free to tell me I'm just tinfoil-hat-crazy, too). 

Okay, so reports on Saturday were that Ohtani was in San Francisco to meet with the Giants. Monday, it appears as though Ohtani was in Florida with the Jays. But then you have Sunday...kind of a big blank day, no? Perhaps Ohtani took in some NFL football, a beer, and hanging out with friends, but I have a feeling that didn't happen. As well, there was the report that teams were coming to LA to meet with Ohtani for final meetings, but considering he went to SF and Toronto after (if reports are correct) it seems weird that would be the case, So maybe...what if it wasn't all teams on Saturday making their final pitch/meetings/tours of facilities but the two LA teams (one of which was a team he didn't need to tour, because, he's been an Angel for half a decade). Geographically, if Ohtani were making his tour around the other clubs, it would make sense that he would go from LA to SF, and this feels like it could be accomplished in a single day, like...Saturday. But again...Sunday....It'd make a lot of sense if Ohtani did something Sunday. And, again, thinking logically, planning a trip, geographically around the nation, well Chicago just so happens to be between San Francisco and Florida, and would have made quite the logical stopping place for a visit, wouldn't it have? And conspicuously, Jed Hoyer wasn't in Nashville Sunday. Neither was Craig Counsell. It really wouldn't make a ton of sense if they're both still in LA (Sunday and Monday) if they were meeting with him on Saturday. We know he's not in LA any more; he was in Florida Monday.

What I'm trying to get at is this: I think Shohei Ohtani was in Chicago Sunday. And I think the Cubs got him in and out without any leaks. Considering the Cubs were capable of doing this with Seiya Suzuki and Craig Counsell, it would track based on history. I could be way off, and fair, I'm going off logic/guessing. Both his trips to Toronto and San Francisco ended up getting reported/leaked in some way or fashion. If he got in and out of Chicago with zero leaks, I wonder how this helps on the final choice. If Ohtani is truly worrisome of leaks and quietness, which, if he' visiting teams in their cities during the Winter Meetings, you could argue is another reason to believe that, then the Cubs making this happen could help.

Love for this to be true. And, it could be. But I think the Cubs are going to come out of this without Ohtani. Hope the hell I am wrong, but IMO it doesn’t look promising. 

[Brian707]

10 hours ago, Tryptamine said:

Watch, after all this, we're going to find out 2 months from now that the Cubs's interest was nothing more than an inquiry phone call and they never even made an offer.

This outcome is most likely the most accurate when we get to February 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, thawv said:

But if Chapman is longer than a year, he'll be blocking Shaw.  With that said, I think Shaw is up this year some time.

I don’t really want Chapman, but I also wouldn’t worry about him blocking anyone. I also don’t think Shaw will be up this year. If Shaw could play and the Cubs do have Chapman they will figure it out. He will play. My bigger Chapman issue is I do not feel he helps the team offensively that much. And it will probably get worse as he ages. Plus, if they did something like Chapman and Hoskins (as an example) and let Morel DH they would be very right handed hitting heavy. Not loving this.

[Jason Ross]

6 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Love for this to be true. And, it could be. But I think the Cubs are going to come out of this without Ohtani. Hope the hell I am wrong, but IMO it doesn’t look promising. 

Well, two things here:

1. I want to clarify; nothing in that post was suggesting they'll come out of this with Ohtani. Only explaining that I think the timeline matches up that the Cubs were meeting with Ohtani on Sunday based on his other meetings and timelines. 

2. If the Cubs were able to get Ohtani in and out without leaks, however, that would likely go to the idea that it doesn't look promising. In many ways this is the opposite of almost any other FA, where smoke may not be a good thing. The less smoke, the better, here. It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. Without leaks, it will look less promising to the media, but it also may not be the case internally. I really can't say, but the lack of reporting here could also be viewed as a positive.

I still think it's unlikely the Cubs get Ohtani. The Dodgers have to be the favorites. But I don't think anything we've heard in the media has changed how I feel about the Cubs being less promising than, say, two weeks ago.

Edited December 5, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[Outshined_One]

Unless there's a pitch lab for infielders to improve velocity on their throws (and knowing the Cubs, maybe there is), I wouldn't set your heart on Shaw at 3B any time soon.

[Tim]

3 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

Unless there's a pitch lab for infielders to improve velocity on their throws (and knowing the Cubs, maybe there is), I wouldn't set your heart on Shaw at 3B any time soon.

I'm pretty sure his arm is better than Madrigal's.