General Offseason Priorities

[Stratos]

9 hours ago, Cuzi said:

Take your pick.

Bellinger isn't some brick wall to signing or trading for a better RF/DH. Bellinger can ride the pine for all I care. Just because he opts in doesn't mean the Cubs should just throw their hands up in the air and forget about every possible outfielder/DH that would make the team better.

If they want a bat upgrade from Bellinger I think they'd be able to trade him, especially if they ate a few milliojn of salary.

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, Stratos said:

If they want a bat upgrade from Bellinger I think they'd be able to trade him, especially if they ate a few milliojn of salary.

I don’t think they get much, if anything for Bellinger. And if you eat some of his contract they have less money to spend on his replacement. 

[Stratos]

9 hours ago, Bertz said:

The Padres last winter traded their uber elite inner circle hall of fame caliber bat for metric ton of young pitching.  This year their best offensive player is more or less tied with Seiya Suzuki, and yet they're the current favorites to win the world series.

Get more good players, reduce playing time given to bad players.  It's as simple as that.  The matter of fact way it's talked about that the Cubs specifically need a "big bat" is not couched in much (any?) evidence.

Agree with this.  If the Cubs got just average WAR out of 3B and catcher they would have been pushing around 88-89 wins.  If the pen and/or offense wasn't terrible for months they'd be over 90 wins.  It's obviously really bad for a team when a bad player is getting hundreds of PA's and can negate much of the gains from acquiring a great player.

A great player doesn't hurt obviously, but if you're looking to add 5 WAR to the team there's more than 1 way to skin a cat. 

[Stratos]

5 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I don’t think they get much, if anything for Bellinger. And if you eat some of his contract they have less money to spend on his replacement. 

Yeah but if its a money dump they don't have to get anything for Bellinger.  They could get some crummy A-ball non-prospect and eat a few million and get some takers.

I don't mind if he comes back, but i might prefer a bigger HR bat, and a change to our offensive formula probably wouldn't hurt.  Get the best hitter you can and they can DH if need be, put Suzuki in RF if we need to.

[Joj]

Willson Contreras.  Lol.  You serious, Clarks?

[Backtobanks]

Saw this trade proposal on MLBTR:

Dansby Swanson for Sean Murphy and Jorge Soler.  

[Cuzi]

36 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

Saw this trade proposal on MLBTR:

Dansby Swanson for Sean Murphy and Jorge Soler.  

Nope.

Drake Baldwin is in the same spot as O'Hoppe on the Phillies. Rather have him.

[Stratos]

2 hours ago, Backtobanks said:

Saw this trade proposal on MLBTR:

Dansby Swanson for Sean Murphy and Jorge Soler.  

I probably do this trade.

[squally1313]

5 hours ago, Backtobanks said:

Saw this trade proposal on MLBTR:

Dansby Swanson for Sean Murphy and Jorge Soler.  

the absolute hardest of passes. 

[CubinNY]

Swanson isn't going anywhere. They love him. 

[Bertz]

So it is not this simple, but Murphy and Soler were combined half as valuable as Swanson this year while having a payroll hit of only $2M less.

[Rcal10]

I’m not in favor of trading our 4 WAR SS for a catcher coming off a season where he hit under .200, and he still has several more years at about $12M a year annual, and a guy who does hit some homers, but is position less. And if Bellinger does come back, I’m not even sure where Soler plays. This would lead to more trades that, to me, are senseless. Bellinger isn’t going anywhere. And Happ and Suzuki have NTC. I don’t see how those guys get moved. And, frankly, don’t see why the cubs would move either of them so Soler can play. 

[mul21]

14 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I’m not in favor of trading our 4 WAR SS for a catcher coming off a season where he hit under .200, and he still has several more years at about $12M a year annual, and a guy who does hit some homers, but is position less. And if Bellinger does come back, I’m not even sure where Soler plays. This would lead to more trades that, to me, are senseless. Bellinger isn’t going anywhere. And Happ and Suzuki have NTC. I don’t see how those guys get moved. And, frankly, don’t see why the cubs would move either of them so Soler can play. 

You, nor anyone other than Cody, have zero clue if this is true or not.  I have no idea why people think speaking in absolutes like this ever makes any sense.

[squally1313]

I just kinda assumed Soler was a salary dump to line up the money. He can't field, he's barely above average against RHP anymore....I guess you can make Suzuki play right field and can DH him against lefties? Bellinger being here or not being here has very little to do with whether I want him on the roster at all (I don't). 

[Rcal10]

28 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

I just kinda assumed Soler was a salary dump to line up the money. He can't field, he's barely above average against RHP anymore....I guess you can make Suzuki play right field and can DH him against lefties? Bellinger being here or not being here has very little to do with whether I want him on the roster at all (I don't). 

I don’t either. Just playing it out as to what happens if this was actually a thing. As mul21 pointed out, none of us knows if this is even anything other than a totally  baseless rumor. That said, not something I would consider. 

[thawv]

On 10/8/2024 at 12:11 AM, Stratos said:

These guys are up for arbitration, plus Alzolay (who will def get non-tendered), any of them could get non-tendered:

• Yency Almonte (5.143): $2.2MM
• Julian Merryweather (4.109): $1.3M
• Trey Wingenter (4.049): $1.4MM
• Nate Pearson (4.005): $1.4MM
• Jimmy Herget (3.069): $900K
• Colten Brewer (3.063): $800K
• Keegan Thompson (3.006): $1MM

I think that Pearson is he only guy on this list getting tendered.  Adbert is also a non tender 

[thawv]

On 10/8/2024 at 12:46 PM, Backtobanks said:

It's hard to have a well-rested bullpen when modern day baseball shoots for 5 innings from the starter.

Another problem is the one inning crap with 3-4 different guys every game.  A pen guy should be able to go 2-3 innings standing on his head.  Then he gets 3 days off.  With 8 guys in the pen, nobody will be overused.  

[squally1313]

21 minutes ago, thawv said:

Another problem is the one inning crap with 3-4 different guys every game.  A pen guy should be able to go 2-3 innings standing on his head.  Then he gets 3 days off.  With 8 guys in the pen, nobody will be overused.  

Why do you think teams employ the bullpen guys that way?

[LBiittner]

Happy 35th Birthday to Tomoyuki Sugano.

Will he be one of the two starting pitchers jed wants? Projected $15-20m per

[Stratos]

11 hours ago, Bertz said:

So it is not this simple, but Murphy and Soler were combined half as valuable as Swanson this year while having a payroll hit of only $2M less.

Murphy was hurt so his overall stats this year aren't particularly reflective of his ability.  The previous 2 seasons he was a 5 WAR catcher.  With a backup catcher that's potentially 6 WAR out of the catcher position, which is a massive upgrade over the negative WAR we got this year.  I wouldn't bank on that but wouldn't bank on 4-5 WAR out of Swanson again either.  Both are the same age and could start regressing at any time.  Murphy is about 10m AAV cheaper.

Swanson is replaceable with Nico, and Shaw needs a position to play anyways.  A 5 WAR catcher isn't replaceable within the org or in FA nor anything within about 3 WAR of that.  If a better trade were available for a younger/cheaper catcher i'm sure Jed would take it.

Soler could be traded if we wanted.  Even if we had to eat some money we still likely save money between the difference in Swanson and Murphy's AAV.  We could use Soler's power at DH but not wild about his age and contract.

Edited October 12, 2024 by Stratos

[Cuzi]

No one is buying low on Sean Murphy with their best player in MLB.

[Bertz]

9 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Murphy was hurt so his overall stats this year aren't particularly reflective of his ability.  The previous 2 seasons he was a 5 WAR catcher.  With a backup catcher that's potentially 6 WAR out of the catcher position, which is a massive upgrade over the negative WAR we got this year.  I wouldn't bank on that but wouldn't bank on 4-5 WAR out of Swanson again either.  Both are the same age and could start regressing at any time.  Murphy is about 10m AAV cheaper.

Swanson is replaceable with Nico, and Shaw needs a position to play anyways.  A 5 WAR catcher isn't replacement within the org or in FA nor anything within about 3 WAR of that.  If a better trade were available for a younger/cheaper catcher i'm sure Jed would take it.

Soler could be traded if we wanted.  Even if we had to eat some money we still likely save money between the difference in Swanson and Murphy's AAV.  We could use Soler's power at DH but not wild about his age and contract.

"Don't worry, he was just bad because he was hurt" is not especially convincing.  Especially at catcher, where history is riddled with Jonathan Lucroy types who go from star to schlub overnight because of injury. 

I would ultimately guess Sean Murphy is still a good player.  I would not use our 4 win shortstop to try and find out.

[Backtobanks]

17 minutes ago, Bertz said:

"Don't worry, he was just bad because he was hurt" is not especially convincing.  Especially at catcher, where history is riddled with Jonathan Lucroy types who go from star to schlub overnight because of injury. 

I would ultimately guess Sean Murphy is still a good player.  I would not use our 4 win shortstop to try and find out.

The reason you would use Swanson is because of his contract. As Stratos posted, he is easily replaced with Nico for a lot less money and you open a spot for Shaw or Busch if Bellinger stays.  The offense would look pretty good with Bellinger, Busch/Shaw, Hoerner, Paredes, Happ, PCA, Suzuki, Murphy, and Soler.

[Cuzi]

6 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

The reason you would use Swanson is because of his contract. As Stratos posted, he is easily replaced with Nico for a lot less money and you open a spot for Shaw or Busch if Bellinger stays.  The offense would look pretty good with Bellinger, Busch/Shaw, Hoerner, Paredes, Happ, PCA, Suzuki, Murphy, and Soler.

We are the Cubs, not the Oakland A's. Swanson's contract is not a deciding factor on his future with the team.

[chibears55]

Gonna need a new 3td base coach, Willie Harris got let go today