Winter Meetings catch all

[gocubs218]

There are not many known impact left handed bats available. Makes me think a trade for that is more likely. 

[Jason Ross]

1 minute ago, CubbyBlue2008 said:

Reads more like Ohtani/Soto with bullpen pieces to supplement to me. Which makes no sense with Ohtani/Soto momentum basically gone.

Yeah, it's odd. I can't tell if it's "smokescreen" for Glasnow/Hoskins like we all think. I can't tell if maybe we're misreading the offseason. It's a weird comment. 

[CubbyBlue2008]

Just now, 1908_Cubs said:

Yeah, it's odd. I can't tell if it's "smokescreen" for Glasnow/Hoskins like we all think. I can't tell if maybe we're misreading the offseason. It's a weird comment. 

I guess we shall see. If Glasnow/Hoskins is the base of the start of the offseason, they better be dealing for another big bat.

[Rcal10]

36 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

It means I somewhat answered the posters question about what the cubs possibly offered by telling him what I had saw.

🤷‍♂️

Ok, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t go 10 years. I would think every Ohtani offer from all teams has opt outs. So not sure why the Cubs offering opt outs is relevant to any discussion on their offer. I would think that was assumed. 

[Thusly Boned]

2 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Yeah, it's odd. I can't tell if it's "smokescreen" for Glasnow/Hoskins like we all think. I can't tell if maybe we're misreading the offseason. It's a weird comment. 

It seems to me that the only thing that is clear here is that very few people (if any, outside of the FO) has any idea what is going on here. Even the most connected people seem to be fumbling around in the dark on most fronts.

Thing might turn out very badly, but I am reserving all judgement until things actually start happening, and we're a good bit further down the road. "Reading the offseason" seems laughably futile at the moment.

 

[Jason Ross]

2 minutes ago, XZero77 said:

It seems to me that the only thing that is clear here is that very few people (if any, outside of the FO) has any idea what is going on here. Even the most connected people seem to be fumbling around in the dark on most fronts.

Thing might turn out very badly, but I am reserving all judgement until things actually start happening, and we're a good bit further down the road. "Reading the offseason" seems laughably futile at the moment.

 

Yeah, it's fair. I think the easy guesses right now are Glasnow and Hoskins. There's smoke on both. But we've seen in the past the team pull things out of thin air (Counsell. Suzuki) and just because there's smoke, doesn't mean these will happen. It'll be interesting to see where it goes. I certainly hope the aspirations remain sky high for this team. 

[Bertz]

22 minutes ago, CubbyBlue2008 said:

This contradicts the Hoskins/Glasnow being primary targets storyline, so that’s weird.

I would guess he means specifically at the meetings and the Hoskins/Glasnow discussions that have pretty clearly happened were last week.  I don't think we have a lot of instances of Jed outright lying (he's more of a lie of omission type), and the Glasnow/Hoskins stuff has come from a lot of directions including some generally reliable ones.

[CubinNY]

38 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Well, what I'll say is this: Sharma just dropped an article in the Athletic. And to give it a quick summary, it doesn't appear there's any surprising moves coming. It's very much that Hoyer is doing this patiently and his way, and he won't jump the market. It talks about Glasnow and Hoskins specifically. But also very much comes to a conclusion that could easily draw you to these being the biggest acquisitions the Cubs are likely to make. 

That doesn't mean they'll be the only moves. Hell, we haven't acquired either yet (though both feel fairly inevitable, if we're being honest). But I think that's the most likely scenario here. 

If they have another mid market offseason they can expect that the season ticket wait list that they lost (has been one since 2003) will continue to be lost.

I’m not sure they actually care being as they now mostly own Wrigleyville. 
 

it’s a philosophy and model they are trying to pull off that requires a lot to go right and has only been successful in a few places. 
 

In the meantime the money keeps rolling in by the pallet. 

[Jason Ross]

9 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I would guess he means specifically at the meetings and the Hoskins/Glasnow discussions that have pretty clearly happened were last week.  I don't think we have a lot of instances of Jed outright lying (he's more of a lie of omission type), and the Glasnow/Hoskins stuff has come from a lot of directions including some generally reliable ones.

I would consider that still odd, though. Be weird to have those conversations before the WM's, then show up to the meetings and, well, just not continue them. You'd think he'd be wanting to finish those deals, especially if the Cubs are pivoting from Ohtani. 

But maybe that's just me. 

[Bertz]

3 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I would consider that still odd, though. Be weird to have those conversations before the WM's, then show up to the meetings and, well, just not continue them. You'd think he'd be wanting to finish those deals, especially if the Cubs are pivoting from Ohtani. 

But maybe that's just me. 

Rays might not be ready to pull the trigger (waiting for Cease or Yamamoto) or maybe Jed wants to get the official rejection on Ohtani (at $25M Glasnow is potentially an "instead of" rather than an "in addition to").  Or any number of things.  We've seen stuff get held up without it necessarily being an issue.  For instance there was a ton of smoke around Swanson last year and then it died down for a week because of his wedding, and then he signed during his honeymoon.

[Jason Ross]

14 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Rays might not be ready to pull the trigger (waiting for Cease or Yamamoto) or maybe Jed wants to get the official rejection on Ohtani (at $25M Glasnow is potentially an "instead of" rather than an "in addition to").  Or any number of things.  We've seen stuff get held up without it necessarily being an issue.  For instance there was a ton of smoke around Swanson last year and then it died down for a week because of his wedding, and then he signed during his honeymoon.

Yeah, I'm not really worried they're held up, more so, I find it odd that the Cubs aren't finishing those up right now and instead seem to either be waiting on them or are doing something else. Glasnow has a market, for example, and I doubt the Rays are just waiting on us. Hoskins probably has more time with Ohtani being the cog in the bat-market. 

Like I said, I could be reading into it too much. Only that I find the concept that the Cubs have spent the last four days on bullpen arms and left handed bats mostly a bit strange considering everything. It's not the comment I'd expect to hear for a team who's been most connected to a starting pitching and a right handed hitter, neither of whom they've acquired yet.

I could also just be trying to make myself believe the offseason will be better than what it probably seems on the surface. Which will still largely be fine, but lacking from what I think the Cubs should ultimately be doing as we previously discussed, so take that into consideration with my view hah.

Edited December 7, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[jersey cubs fan]

People talking themselves into the Hoskins as biggest free agent signing is actually okay storyline is funny. 

[squally1313]

2 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

 

We just have to accept that our head baseball guy has a plan and it doesn't involve locking players in for a decade at increasingly higher costs.  I don't mind the general strategy but I HATE the unwillingness to make exceptions.  If you aren't willing to make an exception for Ohtani, you aren't going to for anyone. 

This assumes that the Ohtani decision just comes down to who offers the most money then, right? Does it give anyone any pause in that case that the 'Cubs getting Ohtani' conclusion relies on the Dodgers being like 'oh man, that's too much money, not worth it, we're out'?

[JHBulls]

3 hours ago, Tryptamine said:

I'll take it with a grain of salt, because it's too stupid to be true, but if Hoskins is the big FA signing, Jed shouldn't go to bed tonight employed by the Chicago Cubs.

Jed will be going to bed confident his job is safe if Hoskins is the big signing. Because the Ricketts will go to happy that Jed is operating the way they want him to operate. 

[LBiittner]

Eduardo Rodriguez to the Dbacks

[LBiittner]

ERod gets potentially 100m

[gocubs218]

This seems really weird.

 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Maybe they know that all of their infielders are in for regression and are trying to cash in while they can

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, gocubs218 said:

There are not many known impact left handed bats available. Makes me think a trade for that is more likely. 

Discussions with agents of Ohtani, Soto, Bellinger, Belt, Candelario (switch hitter)?

[We Got The Whole 9]

1 hour ago, gocubs218 said:

This seems really weird.

 

India has been on the block the last month 

[s2obed]

Candyman has agreed to deal with the Reds.

Edited December 7, 2023 by s2obed

[WhyCantWeWin]

6 minutes ago, s2obed said:

Candyman has agreed to deal with the Reds.

Relieved tbh, he's solid but he was crap as a Cub and I thought Hoyer would overpay for him. 

[Tryptamine]

Well that's 2 of the teams the Cubs were fighting for the final playoff spot last year who got significantly better tonight. Meanwhile Jed is on hands and knees in the hotel lobby looking for change under the vending machines. 

[gocubs218]

8 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Well that's 2 of the teams the Cubs were fighting for the final playoff spot last year who got significantly better tonight. Meanwhile Jed is on hands and knees in the hotel lobby looking for change under the vending machines. 

The Reds did not get significantly better, come on. People woulda bitched had Jed brought him back. 

[chibears55]

20 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Relieved tbh, he's solid but he was crap as a Cub and I thought Hoyer would overpay for him. 

Nah, he got Wisdom and Madrigal manning 3B until Shaw is ready 🙄