General Offseason Priorities

[Jason Ross]

15 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I believe Tread is considered ahead of Driveline at this point you just don't hear about it as much because he doesn't spend as much time on Twitter as Kyle Boddy.

The Cubs are leaning pretty heavily into the pitching side of things this offseason. First, the Japanese firm and now Zombro. Interesting to see the team place a heavy investment on that side of things. Not trying to read more into it other than I like the proactive nature. 

[Jason Ross]

On the Zombro hiring, here's an interesting comment made from the Tread Athletics twitter. 

Quote

He will be working closely with Cubs Leadership in Player Acquisitions, leveraging his unique skill-set to drive value for this storied Organization.

 

[Bertz]

@enosarris.bsky.social on Bluesky

BSKY.APP

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Tyler Zombro to the Cubs, Passan is reporting. Great hire, imo, more than a few pitchers have sung his praises...

 

Jordan Wicks to start throwing 97 confirmed

 

[Stratos]

9 hours ago, CubinNY said:

Jed = Ricketts

That means maybe Ricketts doesn't renew himself next offseason?

[Stratos]

8 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Agreed. It really is hard to separate the two of them. On one hand Tom is setting the budget and is clearly not interested in giving a guy a 10-12 year deal. But on the other end, I think Jed agrees with that philosophy. I also agree with what you said earlier. If/when Tom replaces Jed it will be with the same sort of guy. 

Why would he not extend Jed then?

I think it's difficult to know what is Jed and what is a Tom directive.   We're all just speculating with no real evidence. 

[Post Count Padder]

So today is a big 40 man roster shuffle around the league. Our 40 man is full but one or several of these guys are probably gone: Madrigal, Wisdom, Davis, Wingenter, Hollowell, Zastryszny (I missed us getting him back apparently).

[Rcal10]

16 hours ago, Stratos said:

Why would he not extend Jed then?

I think it's difficult to know what is Jed and what is a Tom directive.   We're all just speculating with no real evidence. 

I am not sure I follow. What evidence is needed? All that is being said is TR and Jed appear to agree with a plan on team building.  Hasn't the last several years kind of shown what that plan is? 
 

Just because Jed agrees with Ricketts way to run a team doesn’t mean Ricketts will be happy with his work if they don’t make the playoffs again next year. I believe that TR does set the budget and does have a certain philosophy of how he wants his team built.  I would think he would believe his plan is good enough to actually win. So just because Jed also believes this philosophy, that does not give him free reign to continually underperform what TR expects. So that is why he didn’t just extend him. I am sure there are many potential GM’s that would be fine taking the job with the Cubs, even if it meant they need to follow certain philosophies. And I would think TR would sign one who does believe in his plan. 

[Tryptamine]

I'm seeing very little in the way of the Cubs being linked to Crochet which fits with Jed's MO of being afraid of his shadow. A lot of mentions of the Red Sox and Phillies, some with Baltimore but no one expects Baltimore to stop prospect hugging enough to get a deal done.

[Jason Ross]

Just now, Tryptamine said:

I'm seeing very little in the way of the Cubs being linked to Crochet which fits with Jed's MO of being afraid of his shadow. A lot of mentions of the Red Sox and Phillies, some with Baltimore but no one expects Baltimore to stop prospect hugging enough to get a deal done.

If there's a positive, it's that the Cubs generally operate, especially in the trade market, very quietly. If we're looking at our last few trades of consequence, there was no smoke. The Michael Busch thing came out of left field, They also completed the Morel for Parades trade without any pre-warning. 

If and when the Cubs make a trade this offseason, I suspect it'll come with little smoke around it.

[thawv]

6 hours ago, Post Count Padder said:

So today is a big 40 man roster shuffle around the league. Our 40 man is full but one or several of these guys are probably gone: Madrigal, Wisdom, Davis, Wingenter, Hollowell, Zastryszny (I missed us getting him back apparently).

They only have to remove 1 guy today for Caissie.  That's Adbert.   I personally don't see any other guy that needs to be protected from the Rule 5 draft. 

Thursday is the big day to non tender guys and remove them from the 40. 

[LBiittner]

1 minute ago, thawv said:

They only have to remove 1 guy today for Caissie.  That's Adbert.   I personally don't see any other guy that needs to be protected from the Rule 5 draft. 

Thursday is the big day to non tender guys and remove them from the 40. 

Alienado?

[Post Count Padder]

Ah forgot about Adbert. I know he's out for all of 2025 and probably some of 2026 but I really hope they bring him back on a minors deal to keep him around during and after his rehab.

[thawv]

10 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Alienado?

If a team thinks he's ready for the bigs next season, then yes.  I don't think he's a big league player right now.  Especially jumping from AA.  My opinion.  

[LBiittner]

Good point thawv 

 

[LBiittner]

Is Cowles worth dumping Nicky? 

Jed gave up mljr for Cowles a few months ago. 

[thawv]

25 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Is Cowles worth dumping Nicky? 

Jed gave up mljr for Cowles a few months ago. 

Maybe?  I don't think he's ready for the bigs either.  He has less than 400 PA's in AA.  Maybe a team thinks that he can make the jump?  I really don't think anybody but Caissie should be protected. 

[LBiittner]

38 minutes ago, thawv said:

Maybe?  I don't think he's ready for the bigs either.  He has less than 400 PA's in AA.  Maybe a team thinks that he can make the jump?  I really don't think anybody but Caissie should be protected. 

Cowles added at the expense of b. Davis.

ONKC at adbert byebye

[Post Count Padder]

Caissie and Cowles added. Adbert and Brennen Davis DFA'd. 

Hoping both come back. I love Adbert and hoping Davis can finally stay healthy but I can't fault him if he goes to someone like the Angels or A's or White Sox with open competitions at several positions.

[Bertz]

12 minutes ago, Post Count Padder said:

Caissie and Cowles added. Adbert and Brennen Davis DFA'd. 

Hoping both come back. I love Adbert and hoping Davis can finally stay healthy but I can't fault him if he goes to someone like the Angels or A's or White Sox with open competitions at several positions.

I'd guess Adbert's decently likely to re-sign on a minor league deal.

Brennen's gone gone though, like you're saying probably to a team with an easier outfield to break into.

[Jason Ross]

Bummed to see both ended up DFA'd as they were both fun prospects. Injuries are a bitch and derail careers. For their sake I hope they both find good homes. For our sake, I hope at least Adbert resigns on an MiLB deal, but for Brennen, his best bet is likely a different organization with a different mix in the OF.

[Post Count Padder]

4 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Bummed to see both ended up DFA'd as they were both fun prospects. Injuries are a bitch and derail careers. For their sake I hope they both find good homes. For our sake, I hope at least Adbert resigns on an MiLB deal, but for Brennen, his best bet is likely a different organization with a different mix in the OF.

Yeah several times when we weren't playing well I was hoping for a token call up so he could make his debut with us but then like a bad joke, he got hurt again.

[Stratos]

8 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

I am not sure I follow. What evidence is needed? All that is being said is TR and Jed appear to agree with a plan on team building.  Hasn't the last several years kind of shown what that plan is? 
 

Just because Jed agrees with Ricketts way to run a team doesn’t mean Ricketts will be happy with his work if they don’t make the playoffs again next year. I believe that TR does set the budget and does have a certain philosophy of how he wants his team built.  I would think he would believe his plan is good enough to actually win. So just because Jed also believes this philosophy, that does not give him free reign to continually underperform what TR expects. So that is why he didn’t just extend him. I am sure there are many potential GM’s that would be fine taking the job with the Cubs, even if it meant they need to follow certain philosophies. And I would think TR would sign one who does believe in his plan. 

We have no idea what is a Ricketts directive or not, or what Jed believes in or not.  All of these discussions are done behind close doors.  The only thing we really know is that Tom very likely sets the maximum payroll since its his money and not Jed's.  If Jed could have a 280m payroll every year he would.  We have no idea about Jed's true feelings on big star contracts, for example.

If Jed disagrees with something Tom wants it doesn't matter, Tom is the boss.  Is Jed going to quit because of it?  I wouldn't, there's only 30 of his job in the world.  Jed and most other people are going to publicly go along with it, he certainly isn't going to air his disagreements with his boss in public.

I think Tom likely sets certain parameters (e.g. max payroll) and Jed does everything he can to win within those parameters.  We don't know what those parameters are.

Jed going into 2025 with an expiring contract isn't good though, I think it would mean that Ricketts is at least not 100% happy with Jed's work within those parameters the last few years, which is understandable given the results.

[Stratos]

53 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I'd guess Adbert's decently likely to re-sign on a minor league deal.

Brennen's gone gone though, like you're saying probably to a team with an easier outfield to break into.

If I were either of them I'd probably go to another team.  On the small chance that maybe they have better or different systems at preventing injuries and it makes some kind of difference.  I agree Davis is probably gone for good for the reason you stated too.

I still like Davis a lot when he's healthy, I hope he does well.

Edited November 20, 2024 by Stratos

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, LBiittner said:

Cowles added at the expense of b. Davis.

ONKC at adbert byebye

Probably a decent chance we see Cowles in the MLB at some point this year.  Only a career 3 games in AAA but he's older and probably more advanced.  A likely bench INF candidate at some point.  Plays SS/3B/2B, sort of a poor man's Matt Shaw (with more historic K% issues lol).  Vazquez in the convo too for the INF bench but might not have the bat.  I guess Mastrobuoni might be still around too, though there's gonna be lots of infielders in AAA.

Then there's Madrigal, and also Wisdom.  Non-tender deadline is Nov 22.

 

[Rcal10]

19 minutes ago, Stratos said:

We have no idea what is a Ricketts directive or not, or what Jed believes in or not.  All of these discussions are done behind close doors.  The only thing we really know is that Tom very likely sets the maximum payroll since its his money and not Jed's.  If Jed could have a 280m payroll every year he would.  We have no idea about Jed's true feelings on big star contracts, for example.

If Jed disagrees with something Tom wants it doesn't matter, Tom is the boss.  Is Jed going to quit because of it?  I wouldn't, there's only 30 of his job in the world.  Jed and most other people are going to publicly go along with it, he certainly isn't going to air his disagreements with his boss in public.

I think Tom likely sets certain parameters (e.g. max payroll) and Jed does everything he can to win within those parameters.  We don't know what those parameters are.

Jed going into 2025 with an expiring contract isn't good though, I think it would mean that Ricketts is at least not 100% happy with Jed's work within those parameters the last few years, which is understandable given the results.

Your last paragraph answers the question you had when you said if Jed and Ricketts are interchangeable why not extend Jed? It doesn’t matter if Jed shares Tom’s philosophy. You are right, we all just assume Jed feels the same way. But really that doesn’t matter anyway. He agreed to build the team based on Ricketts plan. But as I said and now you just said, if Jed doesn’t win within the parameters of the plan Tom will probably let him go. So that would be the reason to not extend him,