Cubs sign Hector Neris to 1yr /$9m with options

[Jason Ross]

 

[LBiittner]

1 minute ago, 1908_Cubs said:

 

Bravo 

Standing Ovation 

[gocubs218]

Got him for less than Robertson. What a steal.

[WhyCantWeWin]

that's a very solid deal, guess they are done with the bullpen now. 

[Bertz]

Neris' velo went the wrong way last year, and with all the innings he's thrown the last few years I worry it's not coming back.  That said I think even at 93-94 he's a quality setup option.  He's just probably not the elite guy he was a few years ago.

[17 Seconds]

kind of insane how cheaply imanaga and neris came

[thawv]

Cubs sign Neris 1/9

[Petrey10]

Club option for year 2 if over 60 appearances. 
 

lots of walks tho..

[Bertz]

So right now, the pen looks like this:

CL - Alzolay

SU - Merryweather, Nerris

MR - Leiter, Almonte, one of Cuas/Little/Palencia

LR - Smyly, Assad or Wesneski

I assume Jed is done adding to the pen, at least guys with locked in roster spots.  But it wouldn't be that hard to squeeze in one more reliever, and you could argue the group needs a traditional left on left option.

[Rob]

Weren't there rumors that Neris was looking for like $50M and a possible starting gig a la Hicks?

I'm glad this isn't that.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

5 minutes ago, Bertz said:

So right now, the pen looks like this:

CL - Alzolay

SU - Merryweather, Nerris

MR - Leiter, Almonte, one of Cuas/Little/Palencia

LR - Smyly, Assad or Wesneski

I assume Jed is done adding to the pen, at least guys with locked in roster spots.  But it wouldn't be that hard to squeeze in one more reliever, and you could argue the group needs a traditional left on left option.

Neris being historically pretty split neutral might be a hint.  He's exceeded a .340 wOBA against LHH just once in his career(back in 2018), and across his 2 years in Houston he was better against LHH(.241 wOBA) than RHH(.260).  Add in Leiter as an opposite-handed specialist, and Merryweather not having stark splits either, and you feel like you can get after them multiple ways.  That said with Smyly being the only literal one it certainly would seem like it opens the door for Little to seize any opportunity, though he's not had much trouble with RHH either.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

6 minutes ago, Rob said:

Weren't there rumors that Neris was looking for like $50M and a possible starting gig a la Hicks?

I'm glad this isn't that.

I don't recall the starting bit, but yes one of the more speculative Dominican reporters claimed he wanted 3/50.

[Bertz]

1 minute ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Neris being historically pretty split neutral might be a hint.  He's exceeded a .340 wOBA against LHH just once in his career(back in 2018), and across his 2 years in Houston he was better against LHH(.241 wOBA) than RHH(.260).  Add in Leiter as an opposite-handed specialist, and Merryweather not having stark splits either, and you feel like you can get after them multiple ways.  That said with Smyly being the only literal one it certainly would seem like it opens the door for Little to seize any opportunity, though he's not had much trouble with RHH either.

Yeah I'm guessing, particularly with it looking like there will be 3 lefties in the rotation, that they're fine being a little righty heavy.  

[Jason Ross]

There's likely some regression in store...his BABIP was super low, the velocity was down a tick, and the LOB% is very high...but a solid back end reliever all in all. He has some closing experience, so in the event of an Alzolay injury can step up. 

Having him with options are good. The Cubs can cut bait if he's hurt or really regressed, Neris can stick around if he'd like if he's good or choose to leave. 

I'll try to dig deeper into the "why" but his GB% has basically nosedived last two years. Wonder if there's a pitch mix change to bring that up a bit to use our infield more. Cubs are some of the best at velocity increases too. 

B+ signing all in all.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

4 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Yeah I'm guessing, particularly with it looking like there will be 3 lefties in the rotation, that they're fine being a little righty heavy.  

The other thing it makes me wonder about is them keeping their options open in trade, similar to how Busch didn't necessarily slam any doors on the position player side.  Neris is kinda like the deluxe version of Leiter, and we've speculated that they might have lost some faith in Leiter after he lost the feel for his split.  A couple of the relievers they've been connected to are from small market teams that have some level of competitive aspirations, I could see a result where the capper on the offseason is Leiter going with a prospect for like Tanner Scott, who would really make that group look formidable and also stay on brand with long term resources being committed for that type of player/production.

[Bertz]

11 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

The other thing it makes me wonder about is them keeping their options open in trade, similar to how Busch didn't necessarily slam any doors on the position player side.  Neris is kinda like the deluxe version of Leiter, and we've speculated that they might have lost some faith in Leiter after he lost the feel for his split.  A couple of the relievers they've been connected to are from small market teams that have some level of competitive aspirations, I could see a result where the capper on the offseason is Leiter going with a prospect for like Tanner Scott, who would really make that group look formidable and also stay on brand with long term resources being committed for that type of player/production.

This actually leads to a related convo which is how much more is left in store for the offseason. 

Right now the team is $30M under the LT and a Chapman or Bellinger away from having a reasonably complete roster.  Do we think Jed is just holding out to get one of them at ~$25M per annum for as few years as he can commit to and then calling it a winter?  Or is the team going to run the $250Mish payroll we've been expecting all winter?  In which case there's room for another move or three. 

[NorthsideAvenger]

Means no Ryne Stanek, correct?

[SOFNR]

That's a nice pickup at a good price. Glad to see they got it done.

[Tryptamine]

I'm pretty neutral on this. The contract was less than I expected him to get, but man I would rather have had Robertson for only 2M more. 

[Stratos]

His velocity went down by 1.3 mph and his BABIP was very low so we'll see.   Don't like the gb% either.  Most other metrics are really good though, like whiffs, chase, most batted ball data.  Solid signing, didn't think they'd spend this much on a reliever.

[Tryptamine]

Seeing as the general offseason chat thread is closed, I suppose this is as good a place as any. WIth Neris getting 9M, that brings them down to roughly 46M. You figure another roughly 6 million to save for in season trades at the deadline. That leaves them 40M left. Bellinger is probably 27 of that, leaving them with 13M. What do they spend it on? I kind of feel like a trade is coming because there's really no one that it makes a lot of sense to spend it on. They don't need more SP depth(Maeda/Paxton), They don't need more 1B/DH types (Belt/JDM). 

[Tryptamine]

10 minutes ago, Stratos said:

His velocity went down by 1.3 mph and his BABIP was very low so we'll see.   Don't like the gb% either.  Most other metrics are really good though, like whiffs, chase, most batted ball data.  Solid signing, didn't think they'd spend this much on a reliever.

He's probably more a 3.5 ERA guy this year than anything close to what he was in 2023, but he should still be solid. 

[Stratos]

If they sign Bellinger they're right up against the LT, with about 5m in space.  That's before any possible incentives, midseason trade, callups etc.  If they sign Bellinger they could be done for the offseason if LT is their limit.

[jersey cubs fan]

2 hours ago, Petrey10 said:

Club option for year 2 if over 60 appearances. ..

[Stratos]

4 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Seeing as the general offseason chat thread is closed, I suppose this is as good a place as any. WIth Neris getting 9M, that brings them down to roughly 46M. You figure another roughly 6 million to save for in season trades at the deadline. That leaves them 40M left. Bellinger is probably 27 of that, leaving them with 13M. What do they spend it on? I kind of feel like a trade is coming because there's really no one that it makes a lot of sense to spend it on. They don't need more SP depth(Maeda/Paxton), They don't need more 1B/DH types (Belt/JDM). 

They were at about 199m before the signing..  5m buffer gives them 24m left.  Just enough for Bellinger