Winter Meetings thread

[squally1313]

Can you give him a $20m signing bonus too? Make him a $35m guy for his purposes in 2025, but keep the luxury tax hit to arb number. 

[Tim]

1 minute ago, Tryptamine said:

Someone's going to make him a starter. I don't see a fit here if you're bringing back a starter from Seattle, let alone adding Sasaki.

Really, write in the preferred late inning option. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5987064/2024/12/11/astros-cubs-kyle-tucker-seiya-suzuki-trade/

Rosenthal and Rome (Astros beat guy)

 

Quote

 Chicago Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki and corner infielder Isaac Paredes are two players the Houston Astros are targeting in a possible trade for right fielder Kyle Tucker, sources briefed on the discussions told The Athletic on Wednesday.

Talks are fluid, and the teams have exchanged a variety of names. Any Cubs package for Tucker, 27, likely would include prospects as well. Third baseman Cam Smith, Chicago’s first-round pick in 2024, is another player in whom the Astros are interested.

Quote

Suzuki might be out of reach for the Astros. A league source said that the Cubs are highly unlikely to move him, and they seemingly prefer to deal first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger in a separate trade. But the Astros’ interest in Suzuki and Paredes signals the team wants to remain competitive even if it trades Tucker and loses free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman, with whom they are negotiating.

It also goes on to say that after Soto's deal, a Tucker extension is probably in the 400-500 million range.

[Cuzi]

Not possible the Astros are targeting Suzuki. They have no interest in him, or so I was told.

[chibears55]

40 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

Feel like if the Cubs deal from their starting infield then it creates too much of a ripple. If you trade Paredes, who do you replace him with? At the same time Bellinger is still out the door and with Tucker firmly in RF then Suzuki is out the door. If you trade Busch its the same deal.

The tweet didnt say they require a MLB ready corner infielder and the Yankees dont even have one to offer up. Deal from the pitching depth first. Assad, Wicks, Brown.

Like I was saying before,  they can trade Paredes and play Shaw at 3B, he was playing there during winter league tournament.

[Tryptamine]

9 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5987064/2024/12/11/astros-cubs-kyle-tucker-seiya-suzuki-trade/

Rosenthal and Rome (Astros beat guy)

 

It also goes on to say that after Soto's deal, a Tucker extension is probably in the 400-500 million range.

They are aware Tucker is only under contract for 1 year, right? Asking for a 3-3.5 fWAR 3B, whom the Cubs have no backup for, and who is under control for 3 more years and a first round pick who has rocketed up prospect boards is a bit absurd.

[17 Seconds]

so much smoke

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I won't re-do my previous rambling in full, but if it's Paredes instead of Busch, you could do everything the same, hopefully grab Jorge Polanco for 8ish million, and then you get down to only needing SP for about 15 million.  At that point a Cease deal would seem pretty possible?

Happ/Tucker/Seiya/Busch/Swanson/Polanco/Hoerner/Kelly/PCA

Steele/Cease/Shota/Taillon/Boyd

Finnegan/Hodge/Pearson/Morgan/Miller/Merryweather/Little/Assad

The lineup is a bit shallow, but that's almost certainly a division winner on paper.

[chibears55]

Rizzo looks to be going to the Pirates

[Transmogrified Tiger]

2 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

They are aware Tucker is only under contract for 1 year, right? Asking for a 3-3.5 fWAR 3B, whom the Cubs have no backup for, and who is under control for 3 more years and a first round pick who has rocketed up prospect boards is a bit absurd.

Tucker is one of the rarest commodities around(a consistent 5 win player) on only 15ish million and will get you a QO pick on the back end if you don't extend him.  It's gonna hurt to acquire him.  That said, I don't think Paredes + Smith is an outcome that's particularly likely.

[Cuzi]

3 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

They are aware Tucker is only under contract for 1 year, right? Asking for a 3-3.5 fWAR 3B, whom the Cubs have no backup for, and who is under control for 3 more years and a first round pick who has rocketed up prospect boards is a bit absurd.

Asking for Paredes AND top prospects is a bit much, but I wouldn't hesitate for 1 second to offer up Cam Smith.

[Tryptamine]

I'm almost dreading a Tucker trade if these asks are accurate. He's crazy good, but it's 1 year and then you have to lock him up for 400-500M, assuming he'll even be open to an extension. 

[Backtobanks]

19 minutes ago, Tim said:

• Cubs add Tucker (Wicks, Caissie, Horton) 
• Cubs send Bellinger to NYY (best prospect we can land)
• Cubs trade Hoerner to Seattle for the best of their starters you can get for Nico (Woo?)
• Cubs sign Jeff Hoffman
• Cubs finalize deal with Carson Kelly
• (Hopefully) Cubs sign Sasaki

I'm not sure if you can sign a player to a future contract and have it start to count against the cap the following season. I feel like I've seen that before, but I may be hallucinating there. If possible, though, get that done with Tucker so he's playing at $16M this year. Otherwise just get him extended and work out getting under the cap later.

The team is strong enough to stick Shaw at 2B from day one and live with the lumps. Maybe he does really well and you qualify for the bonus draft pick at the end of the year.

Hitters: PCA / Tucker / Seiya / Happ / Paredes / Busch / Swanson / Shaw / Kelly & Amaya, bench dudes

SP: Shota / Steele / Taillon / Woo / Boyd / Sasaki (PLEASE)  + Assad / Brown / Wesneski

RP: Hoffman / Hodge / Pearson / Miller / Morgan / etc.

You're going to need to add a prospect or two to get Woo or any of the other Mariner starters besides Castillo.

[Tryptamine]

8 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

Asking for Paredes AND top prospects is a bit much, but I wouldn't hesitate for 1 second to offer up Cam Smith.

If it's like Cam Smith and Triantos, sure go for it. If it's Cam Smith on top of a guy who has been a top 10 3B over the last 3 years, then yeah no thanks.

[Cuzi]

Just now, Tryptamine said:

I'm almost dreading a Tucker trade if these asks are accurate. He's crazy good, but it's 1 year and then you have to lock him up for 400-500M, assuming he'll even be open to an extension. 

Lock him up then. Trading and signing Tucker is the only saving grace to not even making a horsefeathers phone call to Juan Soto.

[Bertz]

6 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5987064/2024/12/11/astros-cubs-kyle-tucker-seiya-suzuki-trade/

Rosenthal and Rome (Astros beat guy)

 

It also goes on to say that after Soto's deal, a Tucker extension is probably in the 400-500 million range.

Using Paredes is nice because it presumably knocks the prospect freight WAY down, making a subsequent trade for a SP still pretty doable.

The 3B market is horsefeathers though, so we're basically locking into Shaw with a high end backup like a Rojas or Moncada IMO.

[Jason Ross]

I like Parades. I like Cam Smith, If that's the backbone of that trade, I make it. 

[squally1313]

9 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

Not possible the Astros are targeting Suzuki. They have no interest in him, or so I was told.

Hand up, that's my bad. 

[Cuzi]

2 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Using Paredes is nice because it presumably knocks the prospect freight WAY down, making a subsequent trade for a SP still pretty doable.

The 3B market is horsefeathers though, so we're basically locking into Shaw with a high end backup like a Rojas or Moncada IMO.

I would wonder what the Phillies would ask for in addition to Bellinger in a Bohm deal. Their ask from the Mariners was completely absurd, though.

[Tryptamine]

11 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I like Parades. I like Cam Smith, If that's the backbone of that trade, I make it. 

In the modern MLB where 3B is a wasteland and just 6 months ago we were complaining about how bad 3B options were, I'm not looking to move on from a top 10 3B unless I'm getting full value. The Astros getting 3 years of a top 10 3B for 1 year of an admittedly much better player sounds reasonable. I'm not throwing a guy who could be a top 20 prospect in baseball 6 months from now on top of it.

[KCCub]

 

 

[LBiittner]

This is like hold your breath day and continually refreshing the latest mlb news all afternoon.

I'm loving it 😍 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Not gonna venture to Musklandia to find the specific tweet, the important thing is the text here is Rome the Astros guy again

 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Hard not to be enthralled right now. If Jed turned Morel and Bigge into the lead piece for Tucker that's a nice feather in the cap.

[17 Seconds]

5 minutes ago, KCCub said:

 

 

What does the full tweet say?