Cubs offseason chit chat...

[thawv]

1 hour ago, 17 Seconds said:

the nl central is right there for us to take. don't horsefeathers it up, jed

As of right now, the Cubs are favorite to win the central, and 6th favorite to win the NL pennant.  Vegas knows they are going to be strong this year. 

[Rcal10]

2 minutes ago, thawv said:

As of right now, the Cubs are favorite to win the central, and 6th favorite to win the NL pennant.  Vegas knows they are going to be strong this year. 

Or Vegas know people from Chicago bet the Cubs! 

[Rex Buckingham]

 

rumored price for Glasnow per Reds beat writer on mlb.com 

What's your first offer? Mine would probably be Assad, I imagine they would counter with Ben Brown or Wicks

[Rcal10]

1 minute ago, Rex Buckingham said:

 

rumored price for Glasnow per Reds beat writer on mlb.com 

What's your first offer? Mine would probably be Assad, I imagine they would counter with Ben Brown or Wicks

Assad Or Wesnecki.

[Bertz]

1 minute ago, Rex Buckingham said:

 

rumored price for Glasnow per Reds beat writer on mlb.com 

What's your first offer? Mine would probably be Assad, I imagine they would counter with Ben Brown or Wicks

Brown+change for Glasnow feels right.  That said I wonder if with the litany of injuries the Rays have had at SP the higher floor/lower ceiling of Assad might be preferable.  Assad and a stronger 2nd piece might be a win/win from both the Rays and Jed's perspective?

[CubinNY]

I'd just as soon pass on Glasnow, really. You can't pitch from the IL, and at some point that is where he's going to be. 

[Jason Ross]

27 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Brown+change for Glasnow feels right.  That said I wonder if with the litany of injuries the Rays have had at SP the higher floor/lower ceiling of Assad might be preferable.  Assad and a stronger 2nd piece might be a win/win from both the Rays and Jed's perspective?

Not that I think Wesneski would be the only return, but Hayden Wesneski seems like typical "Rays guy". Sweeper slider, lots of funk...I wonder how much he would interest them. 

[CubinNY]

2 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Not that I think Wesneski would be the only return, but Hayden Wesneski seems like typical "Rays guy". Sweeper slider, lots of funk...I wonder how much he would interest them. 

At this point is he considered a starting pitcher? 

[Jason Ross]

5 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

At this point is he considered a starting pitcher? 

I think it's certainly questionable. Last year was a weird year for Hayden, as he seemingly added a little bit of velocity and then lost the control of the fastball he had at the end of 2022. He's susceptible to LHH today, but he's got one great pitch, and a fastball that could get back to being fine. The Rays really enjoy multi-inning guys, and I could see them taking Wes in as a "mutli-inning" type, working on a way to attack LHH and transitioning him back into the rotation. I think as of today he isn't, but I don't think the idea of him being a SP is dead, either, if that makes sense.

The Rays have a way of working with some guys like him. 

[Tryptamine]

Not that I'm at all Jealous of spending $50M in 2024 on Lynn/Gibson/Gray, but it must be nice to see your team making moves. I know there's lots of time, but come on Jed, give us something to get hyped about.

[CubinNY]

3 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Not that I'm at all Jealous of spending $50M in 2024 on Lynn/Gibson/Gray, but it must be nice to see your team making moves. I know there's lots of time, but come on Jed, give us something to get hyped about.

I think Ohtani is daming up the market. All the big spenders are waiting to see what happens. 

[thawv]

2 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Or Vegas know people from Chicago bet the Cubs! 

This is so true!  I knew a guy that worked at the sports book at the Riviera.  He said that everybody that comes to Vegas from Chicago makes a bet on them.  The odds are always lower because of that.

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, CubinNY said:

I think Ohtani is daming up the market. All the big spenders are waiting to see what happens. 

Probably true. Maybe a small deal can be done by the Cubs, but I doubt they do much until Otani is settled.

[Jason Ross]

Yeah, I'd guess the Cubs are going to be in on Ohtani first and foremost. The good news is that because the Cubs are generally chasing the big fish here (Ohtani, Yamamoto, Imanaga, Soto) they're not really very behind. I also think there's optimism Ohtani gets done this week. Not calling a guarantee, but if you want to avoid media frenzy there's little better time to sign than the week before the WM's.

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Yeah, I'd guess the Cubs are going to be in on Ohtani first and foremost. The good news is that because the Cubs are generally chasing the big fish here (Ohtani, Yamamoto, Imanaga, Soto) they're not really very behind. I also think there's optimism Ohtani gets done this week. Not calling a guarantee, but if you want to avoid media frenzy there's little better time to sign than the week before the WM's.

Honestly a good FO would have plan be ready to go if Ohtani went elsewhere. I would guess the pivot won’t be that long if they don’t get him. Maybe Soto, Bichette, Alonso, Glasnow, etc….. Maybe something we never saw coming. I think once Ohtani is settled the Cubs will move quickly. And I hope it is this week.

[Jason Ross]

9 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Honestly a good FO would have plan be ready to go if Ohtani went elsewhere. I would guess the pivot won’t be that long if they don’t get him. Maybe Soto, Bichette, Alonso, Glasnow, etc….. Maybe something we never saw coming. I think once Ohtani is settled the Cubs will move quickly. And I hope it is this week.

Yeah, the Cubs aren't on a "Ohtani or we're fucked" plan for the offseason, certainly.

[Stratos]

On 11/26/2023 at 6:48 PM, ToolDRT said:

You nearly killed me! It was 1am and I thought you found Ohtani news somewhere 🤣🤣

Hahaha sorry!

[Stratos]

On 11/26/2023 at 4:10 PM, chibears55 said:

Lester only cost 20 and 25 mil per his first 2 seasons and they added around him with Heyward,  Zobrist, Ross, Lackey, and it was a 7 yr deal.

Big Big difference then just adding Ohtani for 40 to 50 per  for 10 to 15 yrs, and not really adding much around him if that would be their intentions because of the Threshold. 

The Cubs have committed significant money on several players already, I don't think timing is going to be an issue.  I think as a team the Cubs start peaking somewhere between 2025-2027 most of the better prospects are up and still making pre-arb salaries.  Ohtani should still be in his prime years for the next 4 seasons or so...unless his arm doesn't recover 100% from the surgery.  The good thing is he's been through TJS before and recovered fully (though a 2nd surgery isn't exactly a good sign), but there's no guarantee any pitcher recovers 100% from TJS, e.g. Noah Syndergaard.

It will be a matter of if they're willing to go over the CBT threshold and by how much.  If they sign Ohtani I can't see them affording another TORP with going over.  For the next couple of seasons I think they should go over the CBT line until more cheap surplus starts coming to the MLB team from the prospects.

[gocubs218]

Any interest in Bregman? I read today Astros might make him available. Like Soto and Alonso, he’s a Boras client that has one year left. 

[Jason Ross]

3 minutes ago, gocubs218 said:

Any interest in Bregman? I read today Astros might make him available. Like Soto and Alonso, he’s a Boras client that has one year left. 

Interest? Yes. It'd be hard to find a match, though. The Astros don't seem like "take an immediate step back" is on the menu right now, so they'd want MLB-now players. The Cubs have PCA and Horton (who's unlikely to be dealt for one year of Bregman, regardless of how good he is) and Christopher Morel (who, unless the Astros seemingly rate him differently as a 3b, would likely have the same "what the hell do we do with this guy?" quandry) as players they could offer but don't super fit either teams' desires. It would be hard to envision the teams matching up in my brain but maybe someone is more creative than I in this regards.

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Interest? Yes. It'd be hard to find a match, though. The Astros don't seem like "take an immediate step back" is on the menu right now, so they'd want MLB-now players. The Cubs have PCA and Horton (who's unlikely to be dealt for one year of Bregman, regardless of how good he is) and Christopher Morel (who, unless the Astros seemingly rate him differently as a 3b, would likely have the same "what the hell do we do with this guy?" quandry) as players they could offer but don't super fit either teams' desires. It would be hard to envision the teams matching up in my brain but maybe someone is more creative than I in this regards.

Speaking of Morel, did you notice he played 3rd in the DR the other day. Wonder if the Cubs told them to play him there? Until the Cubs close the door on him at 3rd I am not giving up the hope they play him there. 

[Jason Ross]

31 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Speaking of Morel, did you notice he played 3rd in the DR the other day. Wonder if the Cubs told them to play him there? Until the Cubs close the door on him at 3rd I am not giving up the hope they play him there. 

He's played SS and LF as well. As I said originally, I don't think the Cubs control a daily lineup. But I also think it's pretty obvious he won't be playing much, if any, of those positions with the Cubs (he sucks in LF, Swanson and Hoerner would be ahead of him at SS). So I don't read much into him playing 3b. The interesting thing to me was always the quote from the Cubs that he was going to play 1b. That's clearly from the Cubs.

I still remain pretty unconvinced the Cubs feel he can play 3b. There will be little until the Cubs actually commit to him playing 3b that will change that at this stage. Maybe he will. I'll be glad to be wrong.

Edited November 28, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[Rcal10]

2 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

He's played SS and LF as well. As I said originally, I don't think the Cubs control a daily lineup. But I also think it's pretty obvious he won't be playing much, if any, of those positions with the Cubs (he sucks in LF, Swanson and Hoerner would be ahead of him at SS). So I don't read much into him playing 3b. The interesting thing to me was always the quote from the Cubs that he was going to play 1b. That's clearly from the Cubs.

Another quote from the Cubs was “we know he can play 2nd and 3rd” . In fact that was said right before he said he wanted him to play 1st. So we shall see. 

[Jason Ross]

5 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Another quote from the Cubs was “we know he can play 2nd and 3rd” . In fact that was said right before he said he wanted him to play 1st. So we shall see. 

We shall. At this point, until the Cubs play him there (or don't), probably not worth to consistently rehash it over the next 4 months. We both know how we feel, and as said, I'll be glad to be wrong. Hell, he might be traded and we'll never know! 

Edited November 28, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

We shall. At this point, until the Cubs play him there (or don't), probably not worth to consistently rehash it over the next 4 months. We both know how we feel, and as said, I'll be glad to be wrong. Hell, he might be traded and we'll never know! 

Well if he is traded I think that would mean he couldn’t play 3rd. So we will know. And if one of us is wrong I think we can agree it would be better if you are wrong😀

Edited November 28, 2023 by Rcal10