Cubs Meeting With Japanese Ace Roki Sasaki

[Stratos]

They need a Japanese draft.  To hell with this west coast garbage

[Bertz]

Just now, KCCub said:

 

 

[Jason Ross]

Such is life. Was always a long shot. 

[WhyCantWeWin]

Not surprised but still disappointed. Hard to fault him though given the direction of the team

[Bobson Dugnutt]

Oh well. Now trade for a SP.

[imb]

3 minutes ago, Stratos said:

They need a Japanese draft.  To hell with this west coast garbage

The cubs eventually need to field a roster good enough to lure a single good FA

[SOFNR]

6 minutes ago, Bertz said:

 

.

Edited January 13, 2025 by SOFNR

[SOFNR]

7 minutes ago, KCCub said:

 

Ugh. It's nice to have official word the Cubs are out. It sucks the Padres won't have a resolution for a while.

[Randall Simon]

12 minutes ago, imb said:

The cubs eventually need to field a roster good enough to lure a single good FA

No they don't. Ricketts seems just fine and dandy missing the playoffs every year.  

[Irrelevant Dude]

15 minutes ago, imb said:

The cubs eventually need to field a roster good enough to lure a single good FA

They just prefer to use their money to lure several mediocre free agents instead.

[ILMindState]

Why limit yourself to 1 good one when you can have several bad to mediocre ones?

Edited January 13, 2025 by ILMindState

[imb]

Wonder what the excuse will be this time

[NorthsideAvenger]

As long as it's not the Dodgers, I'm fine with missing out on Sasaki.

[Bertz]

7 minutes ago, imb said:

Wonder what the excuse will be this time

Why do you think this is something that requires an excuse? 

[Rcal10]

8 minutes ago, imb said:

Wonder what the excuse will be this time

Excuse for what? Sasaki chose another team. 

[Bertz]

I'd love to hear anyone explain how a decision process that has the Phillies and Braves being eliminated in round 1 and the Blue Jays making it to the finals is all or even mostly about on field baseball factors.

[JBears79]

The whole thing waa a farce anyway to avoid the rumors of a handshake deal already in place with the Dodgers, which everyone already knows is true.  

[ToolDRT]

The concerning part about this is that now Jed has to actually do his job. That’s terrifying. Not blaming him for this one. But Tucker* aside, this has been a terrible offseason. 

* working under the assumption Tucker is a one year rental to try and save a mediocre executive his job. 

[Jason Ross]

45 minutes ago, JBears79 said:

The whole thing waa a farce anyway to avoid the rumors of a handshake deal already in place with the Dodgers, which everyone already knows is true.  

I dont think that was ever the case. And today, based on rumors and etc, would handicap the Padres as the favorite. 

[imb]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

Why do you think this is something that requires an excuse? 

oh im sorry, are we getting bonus points here for being obtuse now? the cubs yet again tried and failed to present themselves as an acceptable location for a top FA. There's always an excuse for why we couldn't sign a guy, or why he picked another team, and so on. At some point, they need to lure one of these guys to Chicago, and if they can't do that, they need to win without them. So far they're failing in FA (at times failing to even try!) and failing on the field.

[imb]

1 hour ago, ToolDRT said:

The concerning part about this is that now Jed has to actually do his job. That’s terrifying. Not blaming him for this one. But Tucker* aside, this has been a terrible offseason. 

* working under the assumption Tucker is a one year rental to try and save a mediocre executive his job. 

you absolutely can blame Jed. he's managed this roster for how many years now? And every year the top FAs hit the market as *perfect* options for our roster, and we either don't try, can't try, or try and fail. Any idiot could trade some spare parts for Kyle Tucker. At some point he needs to succeed at the actual difficult parts of his job. 

[JHBulls]

Roki Sasaki was too expensive anyway. 

[Jason Ross]

I really don't think the Cubs can be blamed here, and I say that as someone who has little reason to defend the team overall. This one couldn't be brute forced with money. The Cubs were one of a handful of teams who received an in-person meeting (beating out teams like Boston, Atlanta, and Philadelphia) and ended up on par (as in-out before the final round) with the Yankees and the Mets. The Cubs have had some pretty good press on their treatment of Japanese players and how well they do bringing them to the States comfortably, and are starting to do a better and better job with building pitching infrastructure. 

The reality of this one is likely beyond the scope of something Jed Hoyer, Tom Ricketts and the Chicago Cubs in general could offer. It could be geographically related (in that it's climate or location is not what Roki would like), it could be the size of the city, or maybe Roki just preferred the plan the Jays, Dodgers or Padres came up with (and it doesn't necessarily make them the right ones). I can't say what reason swayed him, but the one thing I trust in the org is to dutifully make a strong presentation to a player coming from Japan. 

This isn't really meant to be a positive "we tried" thing - more or less, for for once, the Cubs probably did everything they could reasonably be expected to do. You can't gun-to-head someone and with a lack of financial flexibility here for all teams, you can't give him an offer he just couldn't turn down. They can't punt the rest of the offseason - they need work. But this is one I can understand as long as there's an earnest push to continue to fill the team with talent. I'll be upset if the team uses this as a "take my toys and go home" moment for the offseason, however. 

[imb]

1 minute ago, 1908_Cubs said:

But this is one I can forgive as long as there's an earnest push to continue to fill the team with talent.

[Jason Ross]

3 minutes ago, imb said:

Let me live in my fantasy land!