Levine: Alex Bregman Open to Short-Term Deals, Cubs Have Talked to Scott Boras About It

[SOFNR]

33 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Im just thinking here but maybe Bregman just dont want to go back to Houston or play in Detroit and just waiting on the Cubs who just may be trying to get a trade done for Nico before finalizing a deal with Bregman. 

Maybe Tucker and Pressly has convinced him to join them in Chicago 🤷‍♂️

Moving Nico who is owed 11.5 this season and add someone like Michael King who owed 4 mil this season,  can give the Cubs and extra 7.5 towards using on Bregman and or maybe towards another reliever. 

It possible they can be trying get a 3rd team involved on this

 

Couple things here.

Bregman wants the best deal period. I dont think he ends up here, but if he does it will because the Cubs are offering more money in the short term and a chance to opt out.

I believe Micheal Kings AAV will count for 7.75  this year. Not 4.

The Padres want to shed salary. That's the main reason they'd be moving King. That trade would do the opposite. 

Edited February 7, 2025 by SOFNR

[squally1313]

To be fair to chibears, he mentioned getting a third team involved in some sort of lose Hoerner/pick up King situation. Hoerner to Seattle, Ford to San Diego, King to the Cubs as a (very loose) framework. 

[Rcal10]

20 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

To be fair to chibears, he mentioned getting a third team involved in some sort of lose Hoerner/pick up King situation. Hoerner to Seattle, Ford to San Diego, King to the Cubs as a (very loose) framework. 

True, but does Seattle want to take on salary? I thought they were looking to move some too? I get your point and chibear did say that. But I don’t think Seattle would be the team. 

Edited February 7, 2025 by Rcal10

[Jason Ross]

Excluding the Padres, who are in a weird ownership-battle between children that could involve lawsuits, I think Hoerner's contract is good enough and Hoerner is good enough that even teams who are signaling that they might not be overly interested in adding money would consider it. At $10m real world cash, and four wins, and signed for two years...that's a pretty darn good deal. I really wouldn't be surprised to see teams like a Seattle be interested in that contract for prospects if it came to it, despite the public signal. 

[squally1313]

14 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

True, but does Seattle want to take on salary? I thought they were looking to move some too? I get your point and chibear did say that. But I don’t think Seattle would be the team. 

I mean, those are nitty gritty details. Take on Haniger and a portion of his salary or whatever. 

[Rcal10]

5 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

I mean, those are nitty gritty details. Take on Haniger and a portion of his salary or whatever. 

Which team is taking on Haniger? The point of dealing Nico is too also lower salary. So that isn’t the Cubs. The point of moving King is too also lower lower salary so that isn’t the Padres. You may call it nitty gritty details but they are details that would make this impossible to complete. 

[squally1313]

17 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Which team is taking on Haniger? The point of dealing Nico is too also lower salary. So that isn’t the Cubs. The point of moving King is too also lower lower salary so that isn’t the Padres. You may call it nitty gritty details but they are details that would make this impossible to complete. 

I mean I just threw out names. If the Mariners can't stomach a $12m 4 win player, fine, I guess. I'm sure some team could. If every team is supposedly looking to lose salary, either now or in a hypothetical future, then yes, trades seem very hard to accomplish. 

[Bertz]

Just now, squally1313 said:

I mean I just threw out names. If the Mariners can't stomach a $12m 4 win player, fine, I guess. I'm sure some team could. If every team is supposedly looking to lose salary, either now or in a hypothetical future, then yes, trades seem very hard to accomplish. 

And conversely if budgets are so widely  tapped out league wide you can do a hell of a lot of work with the $20M left in Jed's pocket after hypothetically losing out on Bregman.  

You can't worry in both directions.  Well, you *can* but it's especially silly.

[squally1313]

10 minutes ago, Bertz said:

And conversely if budgets are so widely  tapped out league wide you can do a hell of a lot of work with the $20M left in Jed's pocket after hypothetically losing out on Bregman.  

You can't worry in both directions.  Well, you *can* but it's especially silly.

Yeah exactly. No one can take on salary? Fine, find the most desperate team (ie the Padres) and fleece them (for Cease and/or King).  

Or, there are teams that can take on salary? Cool, they probably want a really good second baseman/shortstop at $12m a year and would happily toss some controlled names at the Padres to send King our way. 

[chibears55]

2 hours ago, Randall Simon said:

It wouldn't be King, because the Pads are known to be trying to dump salary. A Nico for King swap would result in SD adding salary, which they would not agree to.  

Why i mentioned a 3rd team, nico goes to say Seattle,  and Seattle sends the Padres prospects 

[CubinNY]

The Cubs are so good at not leaking I hate it.

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

And conversely if budgets are so widely  tapped out league wide you can do a hell of a lot of work with the $20M left in Jed's pocket after hypothetically losing out on Bregman.  

You can't worry in both directions.  Well, you *can* but it's especially silly.

You can. I agree. But the teams trying to dump salary seem to also want major league talent back. Doesn’t make sense. But the Padres don’t want to trade Cease or King just for prospects. Seattle isn’t interested either. I keep going back to Phillies and Yankees. If the Cubs and SD are satisfied with each saving maybe $3M in salary does Nico to NY, King to the Cubs and Schmidt to SD make sense? Maybe SD throws a prospect to someone. . 

[Dfan25]

Blue Jays GM said any add they do from this point on will likely be via trade ( FWIW . As long as the Cubs offer is the highest on AAV , they have a chance here .  
 

It could take about one more week of waiting , but I think they have a chance . All this I want 6 years talk , could be Boras trying to get the Cubs to meet in between ( 5 years ) I don’t think the Cubs will go 5 , but even at 4 / 120 it could get done . 

[gflore34]

Obligatory - I'm shocked the Dodgers haven't made this all academic by swooping in and signing him.

Edited February 7, 2025 by gflore34

[Dfan25]

 

[17 Seconds]

did Tom write that?

[CubinNY]

4 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

did Tom write that?

lol, WTF? 

You have to think they are talking about bang for the buck, given their expected position by the end of the year. 

But that's loser talk, bank WAR now, and worry about sorting it out later. 

[CubinNY]

Also, Cubs brass is definitely reading NSBB.

[We Got The Whole 9]

They need to sign him and not trade Nico. This WPA talk feels directly related to what you actually gain by adding him and trading Nico. 

 

It doesn't feel like they are too concerned if he doesn't sign with them.

[UMFan83]

13 minutes ago, Dfan25 said:

 

What a weird statement.  I know there are a few moving pieces here that would affect "win probability" (contract AAV/length and follow up moves being 2 big ones) but seems strange to suggest they don't already have a pretty good idea of what adding him would bring to the team, while potentially subtracting Nico, playing Shaw at 2B, adding a pitcher, etc.  I would hope they have a giant computer that shoots projections for all these scenarios within seconds and that they did their initial due diligence weeks if not months ago.

Edited February 7, 2025 by UMFan83

[Ding Dong Johnson]

10 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Also, Cubs brass is definitely reading NSBB.

Cubs brass can't read

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, Ding Dong Johnson said:

Cubs brass can't read

What would be awesome is if this organization didn’t get all hung up on the LT BS. Sign him and keep Nico. And if they need help at the deadline get it. For that matter, sign him, keep Nico and trade for either Cease or King NOW. That is what a big market should do. If the Astros signed Bregman they would be getting close to the next level in LT. Yet, they are still in it. Haven’t heard anyone suggest they are not because of fear of the FIRST LT line. Dbacks sign Burnes when they already had a rotation in place and are not a large market. Yet I don’t hear anything about them and their payroll. Then there is the large market Cubs. Put on your damn big big pants, stop playing the fans for fools and build a team that could win a WS. And if it cost $255M for the roster, than that is the cost. 

[gflore34]

6 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

What would be awesome is if this organization didn’t get all hung up on the LT BS. Sign him and keep Nico. And if they need help at the deadline get it. For that matter, sign him, keep Nico and trade for either Cease or King NOW. That is what a big market should do. If the Astros signed Bregman they would be getting close to the next level in LT. Yet, they are still in it. Haven’t heard anyone suggest they are not because of fear of the FIRST LT line. Dbacks sign Burnes when they already had a rotation in place and are not a large market. Yet I don’t hear anything about them and their payroll. Then there is the large market Cubs. Put on your damn big big pants, stop playing the fans for fools and build a team that could win a WS. And if it cost $255M for the roster, than that is the cost. 

Start acting like a Big Market team, there's no reason they shouldn't dominate the NL Central.  LT be damned, putting forth the best possible team, winning, will ultimately generate more revenue.

[Randall Simon]

Thinking about filling out the bench on the cheap, how much would guys like Whit Merrifield, Connor Joe, Brendan Rodgers, Joey Wendle or Brian Anderson cost? 

I realize these aren't sexy names, but if we need an additional bench bat on the cheep...

[Stratos]

Just a note that after the Pressly trade with us (where they got a prospect in return) the Astros have dipped under the LT and are at 236m in LT payroll right now.  

They were at 262m and over the LT last year, but in the few years prior were under the tax.  It may be that they want to reset this year and are out on Bregman.

Dumping a good player like Pressly might be a sign they're trying to get under the tax and are done adding.  The only significant player they added this year was Walker at 1b.

What might show they're still in on Bregman is that Altuve has been working out in LF the last couple of weeks,  but that could just be for flexibility.  They have Paredes and Cam Smith.

IMO when they added Paredes and Cam Smith they were probably out on Bregman longterm.