Article: Let's Talk About the Cubs' Options With Regard to Kyle Hendricks

[KCCub]

9 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

That is kind of my point. I think IF Hendricks is completely healthy you will see a guy throw 180 innings at around a 3.40-3.85 era. Solid starter. Just not so sure they don’t need more than that. They need a TOR starter, IMO. 

They absolutely need a TOR, I don’t think there’s any question about that. 

[Rcal10]

42 minutes ago, KCCub said:

They absolutely need a TOR, I don’t think there’s any question about that. 

The issue is if Stroman comes back and they sign Hendricks they have 4 veterans in the rotation. And the payroll of the rotation is pretty high. You then have Wicks, Aasad and Wesnecki as well as other young guys soon to be on the tram. They may justify not going after a TOR guy because of what they have. That is my concern if they keep Hendricks. 

[KCCub]

7 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

The issue is if Stroman comes back and they sign Hendricks they have 4 veterans in the rotation. And the payroll of the rotation is pretty high. You then have Wicks, Aasad and Wesnecki as well as other young guys soon to be on the tram. They may justify not going after a TOR guy because of what they have. That is my concern if they keep Hendricks. 

That would be poor management if they use extending Hendricks on a cheaper AAV contract as justification for not going after a TOR. Especially knowing Stroman is only on the books for one year. This year has showed us teams need a plethora of SP, with injuries being at an all time high. They can do it by FA or via a trade, but adding a TORP is a must this off-season imo. 

[Backtobanks]

53 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

The issue is if Stroman comes back and they sign Hendricks they have 4 veterans in the rotation. And the payroll of the rotation is pretty high. You then have Wicks, Aasad and Wesnecki as well as other young guys soon to be on the tram. They may justify not going after a TOR guy because of what they have. That is my concern if they keep Hendricks. 

Wicks or Wesnecki could be part of a package for a TOR starter.

[Rcal10]

50 minutes ago, KCCub said:

That would be poor management if they use extending Hendricks on a cheaper AAV contract as justification for not going after a TOR. Especially knowing Stroman is only on the books for one year. This year has showed us teams need a plethora of SP, with injuries being at an all time high. They can do it by FA or via a trade, but adding a TORP is a must this off-season imo. 

Not going to get an argument out of me. I agree 100%. But I also have followed this team a long time. And I have seen how the FO and ownership work. My concern will be the FO suggesting they like their young guys to fill whatever spots they need. 

[Stratos]

10 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Probably more wishful thinking than anything else, tbh. However I do feel at times we tend to write a guy out the first sign of decline. And often it is just nagging injuries. If you look at those years, actually Kyle was only bad for the last 2 months of 21’ and then bad in only 16 starts in 22’, when they finally took him out of the rotation and put him on the IL for good. In 21’ he was trending towards a typical Kyle year. At the end of July he was at a 3.71 era. I think between losing all the guys you played with for so long and just being on a bad team that last 2 months of the season was more of an anomoly. As for 22’ if I remember correctly (and I may not) I feel he had nagging problems all year until they finally decided he has enough to get him out of the rotation. I just feel last year was more of the old Kyle and I also feel it is more likely repeated than his last half of 21’ and the 22’ season. I think he will be much closer to a 3.50 guy than a 4.80 guy. So a number 3 or very good #4 starter. 
But, again, the issue with me is the Cubs need a frond or the rotation guy. So even a decent Kyle may not be worth signing if it prevents them from going after a TOR guy. 

Kyle was essentially batting practice (around 7.40 ERA) over 3 of the 6 months in 2021, and was bad in 2 of 3 months in 2022.  We can't go on assumptions and feelings even though we love the guy, we only have the numbers to go by, and he was pitching poorly.

This is also an assumption, but I think it's possible they rode him too hard in 2021 after COVID.  He only pitched 81 IP in the COVID shortened 2020 season, then they pitched him 181 IP in 2021.  Your muscles etc can atrophy if you aren't pitching as much, his arm may not have been able to handle a full season load in 2021 like previous seasons, which may have caused the injury, and hurt his effectiveness in the last 2 months of 2021 when he was horrible because he might have been gassed.

Anyways, it's all speculation.  It could be age as well, who knows, fans only have the #'s to go by, and there's some red flags.  The K rate was also down last year.

[Cuzi]

On 10/22/2023 at 12:51 PM, Rcal10 said:

The issue is if Stroman comes back and they sign Hendricks they have 4 veterans in the rotation. And the payroll of the rotation is pretty high. You then have Wicks, Aasad and Wesnecki as well as other young guys soon to be on the tram. They may justify not going after a TOR guy because of what they have. That is my concern if they keep Hendricks. 

There's a simple solution. If Stroman opts in, you trade Stroman.

[squally1313]

1 hour ago, Cuzi said:

There's a simple solution. If Stroman opts in, you trade Stroman.

For what

[Cuzi]

10 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

For what

Any number of directions. There's plenty of teams out there trying to compete that could use Stroman.

The Twins rotation is about to get gutted

Orioles

Red Sox

Yankees

Take your pick. The Cubs have a handful of Stromans in their rotation. If him opting in creates such a problem for the budget then get rid of him. They signed him to trade him in the future in the first place. Its why he got 2 years and no NTC.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

On 10/22/2023 at 12:51 PM, Rcal10 said:

The issue is if Stroman comes back and they sign Hendricks they have 4 veterans in the rotation. And the payroll of the rotation is pretty high. You then have Wicks, Aasad and Wesnecki as well as other young guys soon to be on the tram. They may justify not going after a TOR guy because of what they have. That is my concern if they keep Hendricks. 

The Cubs had 8 different guys start at least 7 games last year, they can't and won't be afraid of not having a clear opening for Wicks or other younger SP in the opening day rotation because it's certain that will come through injury or ineffectiveness.  The bigger problem is not of rotation slots but simply the likely amount of money they have to spend in total.  Unless you find a really smart trade for a strong SP without much cost, it gets hard to both add that additional SP and make the investments they want to make in the offense and the pen.

[CubinNY]

On 10/22/2023 at 1:46 PM, Backtobanks said:

Wicks or Wesnecki could be part of a package for a TOR starter.

Wesnescki has no trade value whatsoever. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

you can just say you don't think Wesneski has much trade value, you don't have to exaggerate with absolutist language that is obviously not true.

[CubinNY]

10 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

you can just say you don't think Wesneski has much trade value, you don't have to exaggerate with absolutist language that is obviously not true.

sorry, Wesneski doesn't have very much trade value. Or what the Cubs would likely get for him will not help them in the short term and probably not the long term either. He's a failed starter who can't get LHH out. Unless he can reinvent himself like Adbert, he's fungible.

[Billy62]

On 10/20/2023 at 5:47 PM, Rcal10 said:

That $25M for Bellinger is not the teams option. The only person who will decide on Bellinger is Bellinger. And he isn’t going to come back for the one year. 

I think what we saw from Bellinger this season was the real Cody Bellinger. I know he is going to be expensive, but if you want to build a winner, it will be a short list of people you want to build around. I don't want to see the Cubs get wrapped up in another bank-breaking long-term deal like they did with Soriano. But three-four years might be an option. I would hate to just lose a player of this caliber to a higher bidder.

Edited November 7, 2023 by Billy62
missed word