Lots of offseason left but... this sucks, doesn't it?

[Brock Beauchamp]

I never considered the Cubs having more than a single-digit chance to sign Ohtani but the Glasnow news is troublesome (and then there's the Soto trade). And I'm just not hearing any chatter about the Cubs in any significant free agent deals.

What is going on? Obviously, I'm pretty new to the Cubs community but this feels like the Cubs are operating as if they're a mid-market team. I know many of you have complained about this in the past but... yikes. This sucks.

[Tryptamine]

12 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I never considered the Cubs having more than a single-digit chance to sign Ohtani but the Glasnow news is troublesome (and then there's the Soto trade). And I'm just not hearing any chatter about the Cubs in any significant free agent deals.

What is going on? Obviously, I'm pretty new to the Cubs community but this feels like the Cubs are operating as if they're a mid-market team. I know many of you have complained about this in the past but... yikes. This sucks.

This is why I've been playing the Eyeore about this offseason from the beginning. Ricketts wont spend like a major market and Jed is happy to try and prove himself to be the smartest guy in the room rather than take the talent that is available. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The Glasnow trade is the first thing that's really discouraged me, because there aren't a ton of really electric arms out there that can help differentiate in the postseason, while it's easier to slug your way into and through the playoffs even if you don't have one of the 5 best hitters in the game.  There's still some reasonable paths to taking a step up for next year, but I'm getting concerned that the pitching side of it is not going to have the dynamism I'm hoping for.

[Jason Ross]

12 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I never considered the Cubs having more than a single-digit chance to sign Ohtani but the Glasnow news is troublesome (and then there's the Soto trade). And I'm just not hearing any chatter about the Cubs in any significant free agent deals.

What is going on? Obviously, I'm pretty new to the Cubs community but this feels like the Cubs are operating as if they're a mid-market team. I know many of you have complained about this in the past but... yikes. This sucks.

Honestly, my fear is that the Cubs have a small-market mentality with a big budget. I've feared for a few years that what the Cubs aim to do is "Cleveland, but more expensive". This would play out perfectly in a scenario where the Cubs decide, through a combination of acquisition cost, their defenses' ability to maximize ground balls, and contract, to go with Shane Bieber over Tyler Glasnow. And that's not the worst logic, but it's also not the way I feel a team like the Cubs should be built. Use your advantage. 

I might be proven wrong, and I really hope I am. But this is my fear. At some point you can't worry about min/maxing every single penny on an acquisition. Sometimes it's just about getting the better player.

[chibears55]

59 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I never considered the Cubs having more than a single-digit chance to sign Ohtani but the Glasnow news is troublesome (and then there's the Soto trade). And I'm just not hearing any chatter about the Cubs in any significant free agent deals.

What is going on? Obviously, I'm pretty new to the Cubs community but this feels like the Cubs are operating as if they're a mid-market team. I know many of you have complained about this in the past but... yikes. This sucks.

I just never let myself get overly excited about the offseason with the cubs because I just dont expect them to make big moves.

If they do, then I'll be happy, like with the Counsell hiring, if not, then it just buisness as usual on the Northside.

I think Carter Hawkins kinda spilled the beans a bit on what their plan is for this offseason when he mentioned about not blocking certain prospects with new additions. 

Cubs basically need a 1B, 3B, and CF as far as position players goes, they dont really have a guy outside of Mervis for 1B, so they can get a quality bat there. They do have Shaw and a couple other SS that could possibly move to 3B and PCA for CF, so the most likely scenario for those two spots this offseason is to add a 1 or 2 yr bridge player to fill in til they're ready. 

 

[Soul]

I'm having a hard time believing they acquire Counsell then just not do anything substantial to improve the roster.  But it's starting to look like that.  If that's the case, I'd say Counsell made a huge mistake coming here.  He had a good thing going in Milwaukee, and there was no reason to think it wasn't going to continue.

[Bertz]

I'll say I don't care at all about vibes or mentality or any of that stuff.  Also you don't get extra WAR for acquiring a guy in November vs. doing it in January.  

What I do care about is wins, and the options for adding a lot of them are quickly becoming limited. On the offensive side, this winter was always going to be either an awesome Soto/Ohtani party or something fairly boring.  Hopefully someone like Alonso or Bregman is more available than we think, but much more likely we're probably looking at two bats in the 110-120 wRC+ range.

That would be fine if Jed goes hard on the run prevention front.  That's even  getting tenuous though.  Setting aside Yamamoto (and assuming the Glasnow trade goes through) there are four arms we're pretty certain are available that project to 3+ WAR: Snell, Montgomery, Imanaga, and Cease.  Bieber has some durability questions but is probably at that level on a rate basis.  Given that Jed whiffed on doing anything fun on offense, he kind of needs to pull down at least one, ideally two of these guys.

Maybe the trade market is a lot more robust than we realize, but things do not look great right now.