Cubs offseason chit chat...

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, SOFNR said:

Naw. He's not the same level of star as Ohtani and he doesn't bring in as much revenue. Ohtani was a rare case of best player in the league/international star. 

And Soto doesn’t pitch, too. I can see $500M for Soto, but he isn’t getting more than Ohtani. 

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

I don’t want Polanco instead of Morel. I would be ok with him with Morel. He is an upgrade if Madrigal or Wisdom. 

Guess it depends where they plan to play Morel and what they do at 1b and DH.  Don't really want Madrigal or Wisdom at 3b either.

[Rcal10]

4 hours ago, Stratos said:

Guess it depends where they plan to play Morel and what they do at 1b and DH.  Don't really want Madrigal or Wisdom at 3b either.

If the Cubs did sign Bellinger and Hoskins and then trades for either Polanco or Lowe, between Hoskins, Morel and the guy they got in the trade they can fill 1st, 3rd, and DH. So what they do with Morel is just make sure he is in the line up. Best case scenerio is he can handle 3rd. Then Polanco/Lowe and Hoskins share 1st and DH. I honestly don’t want Morel traded. They need his power somewhere. And now that DH is still open there is no need to deal him, even while hoping he may be able to handle 3rd or 1st. They fill all the positions if need with solid players. 

[Cubs420psd]

 

If this is actually true it makes me feel a little better, I really need to know that ricketts is willing to sign someone to a mega contract because that's what it's looking like it's going to take if you want to be a consistent contender (unless you are the Brewers or Rays which are the exception)

[Transmogrified Tiger]

19 minutes ago, Cubs420psd said:

 

If this is actually true it makes me feel a little better, I really need to know that ricketts is willing to sign someone to a mega contract because that's what it's looking like it's going to take if you want to be a consistent contender (unless you are the Brewers or Rays which are the exception)

1) I don't for one second believe the folks at "Third Down Thursdays" have the inside scoop any more than Charles the Cat or any other pop-up Twitter personality

2) However, that conclusion(the money is there if the front office thinks it's a good idea) has always been the case, and takes a willful ignorance of the facts(top of market deals for Heyward and Lester during a competitive cycle, paying a posting fee for Seiya, etc) as well as every statement they've ever made on the topic to reach a different conclusion.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Cubs get connected to Josh Naylor on the Cleveland side: 

Quote

On the same day, it was learned that the Cubs, Pirates and Mariners showed interest in Naylor at the just-completed winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee. The Guardians are in listening mode when it comes to trying to improve on their disappointing 76-86 finish last season. They have already discussed possible deals for right-handers Shane Bieber and Emmanuel Clase.

It goes on to say imply that there isn't a ton of urgency to trade Naylor(especially since the Guardians struggled offensively more than on the mound), but they have so much payroll uncertainty being part of the Bally deal that they basically have to sit out Free Agency for now.  That combined with Naylor being Arb 2 and his heir apparent(Manzardo) recently being acquired means it could be a possibility.

[gocubs218]

Would love a package of either Bieber or Clase with Naylor. 

 

[17 Seconds]

both are scary but i'd take clase over biebs 

[Jason Ross]

1 minute ago, gocubs218 said:

Would love a package of either Bieber or Clase with Naylor. 

 

Eh. Pass on both if possible. I think Bieber is fine, but the Cubs need strike out power in the rotation. Clase is going to be far too expensive I hate the idea of sinking legitimate trade capital into a RP.

Naylor, however, is a guy I'd like,

[17 Seconds]

not sure if cool or psychotic  (watch when he gets to the dugout after the 2nd home run)

Edited December 10, 2023 by 17 Seconds

[Bertz]

I really like grabbing pretty much any combo of the three Cleveland guys.  And they would loooooooovvvveeeeeeeeee either of Morel or Canario.  Honestly maybe both.

[Illiterate Scholar]

Man does Naylor look exactly like Almora's fat twin brother. 

Somewhat interesting that's the 2nd first baseman we've been linked to when coaches were supposedly sent to the DR to work with Morel on that position. A larger package with Cleveland would make some sense. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I'm still struggling with Bieber being a particularly good target.  He's basically Stroman redux in terms of general profile and productivity expectations, and I'd hope for a SP better than that being acquired.  With only 1 year to FA, if you pair him with Glasnow you're creating quite the post-2024 cliff in the rotation(Glasnow, Bieber, Hendricks), and the other better SP options(Yamamoto, Cease, etc) are much harder to pull off.  

 

A mega deal for all 3 Guardians + Yamamoto & Hoskins is probably the best case scenario in that permutation?  You'd take a chunk out of the farm and probably Morel, but you've added Bellinger's QO pick(and not signed any QO FA) to reinforce,  and have another potential QO guy in Bieber next year if he pitches well.  You probably have to punt 3B with incumbents or Rios-level pickups, but Naylor + Hoskins is a good bit of offensive depth and Yamamoto + Bieber + Clase is a huge shot in the arm of the pitching staff.

[Tryptamine]

I'm ok with grabbing Bieber, questions and all,  because I don't think the cost will be that high. Clase will cost significantly more and still comes with a lot of his questions. I'm not comfortable giving Cleveland the assets they'd receive with that type of uncertainty surrounding Clase, even if his down year in 2023 was still quite good.

[CubinNY]

This is a bold move I can see them making. It checks off all their boxes for how they want to build a team. The only question is how much pain in terms of prospects. If they put the consensus top five in a box and remove them. Then include Wesneski, Wicks, Amaya, or Morel in some combination I think that would be great. I really don’t know how much interest they’d have in Beiber though. 

[Tryptamine]

So at this point last year, the Cubs had Bellinger and Taillon already announced and in the next week would go on to announce Boxberger, Dansby and Smyly. 

[Jason Ross]

Yeah, the market all around is likely very much just about to uncork. I'd guess we have a few acquisitions between the two Sundays.

[Bertz]

1 hour ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I'm still struggling with Bieber being a particularly good target.  He's basically Stroman redux in terms of general profile and productivity expectations, and I'd hope for a SP better than that being acquired.  With only 1 year to FA, if you pair him with Glasnow you're creating quite the post-2024 cliff in the rotation(Glasnow, Bieber, Hendricks), and the other better SP options(Yamamoto, Cease, etc) are much harder to pull off.  

 

A mega deal for all 3 Guardians + Yamamoto & Hoskins is probably the best case scenario in that permutation?  You'd take a chunk out of the farm and probably Morel, but you've added Bellinger's QO pick(and not signed any QO FA) to reinforce,  and have another potential QO guy in Bieber next year if he pitches well.  You probably have to punt 3B with incumbents or Rios-level pickups, but Naylor + Hoskins is a good bit of offensive depth and Yamamoto + Bieber + Clase is a huge shot in the arm of the pitching staff.

Yeah I mentioned Bieber + Glasnow last night but that's probably more of an either/or because as you say that makes next winter pretty tough.  Bieber and a FA (whether that's Yamamoto, Imanaga, or Montgomery) still leaves you room for 2 bats of substance.   Glasnow would either have to be the sole SP acquired or paired with a trade for someone fairly cheap (one of the Mariner arms?).

I really need Jed to make his first move because there's just too many options and contingincies right now.  Once he's made one or two it's easier to follow that throughline. 

[LBiittner]

Is there such a thing as being too lefthanded in the starting rotation?

with already Steele and Wicks, does imanaga or Montgomery make sense?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

3 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Is there such a thing as being too lefthanded in the starting rotation?

with already Steele and Wicks, does imanaga or Montgomery make sense?

I don't think that's a huge concern as long as they aren't very similar profiles(velocity, pitch mix, release point, etc), and I don't think that's the case here.  Also I suspect there's a very real chance Wicks is not one of the 5 best starters on the roster by Opening Day and starts the year in Iowa.

[LBiittner]

Personally, I really like Wicks. I.hope Jed keeps him. 

[JBears79]

I like Naylor but I guess I'd rather just sign Hoskins for money. Wouldnt be mad if they traded for Naylor though

[ToolDRT]

20 minutes ago, JBears79 said:

I like Naylor but I guess I'd rather just sign Hoskins for money. Wouldnt be mad if they traded for Naylor though

Can we do both, while swapping them from dh to first base? Would ease Hoskins back onto the field and gives us a bat with some pop on each side of the plate. I could see Morel going in a  multiplayer deal with Cleveland too, which opens up dh. 

[Rex Buckingham]

1 hour ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I don't think that's a huge concern as long as they aren't very similar profiles(velocity, pitch mix, release point, etc), and I don't think that's the case here.  Also I suspect there's a very real chance Wicks is not one of the 5 best starters on the roster by Opening Day and starts the year in Iowa.

I think it's pretty much ideal that Wicks would be our 6th best starter to open the season. Start him in Iowa and have him ready to go when the first injury hits

[ToolDRT]