Cubs acquire Ryan Pressly

[Transmogrified Tiger]

 

[KCCub]

1/$14m left on his contract. Anxious to see the return. Looks like velo and K% was down last year, but still had a solid year. Hopefully he has another good year left in the tank. 

[CubinNY]

Jed can do trades. I wonder who they are giving? Canario? Is that enough, who else? 

[Bertz]

Nice, I wanted Pressly during certain variations of the Tucker deal.

I would rank him pretty close to Kenley Jansen among the FA RPs, so at his salary the player return needs to be nominal.  One of our relievers feeling the roster squeeze like Keegan Thompson?

[WhyCantWeWin]

Weren’t they looking to dump his salary to make some other roster moves? Would be hilarious if they managed to get something of value for him now that the market thinned out 

[KCCub]

3 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Weren’t they looking to dump his salary to make some other roster moves? Would be hilarious if they managed to get something of value for him now that the market thinned out 

Various reports that it's a last ditch effort to open a roster spot and free some cash for Bregman. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Yeah I really like Pressly, I'd be down for this. I think he's a good fit. I'm a little susprised they weren't able to expand the Tucker deal to include him. It wasn't exactly a secret that he was available. 

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Weren’t they looking to dump his salary to make some other roster moves? Would be hilarious if they managed to get something of value for him now that the market thinned out 

What is considered value, though? If they got Thompson or Canario is that value? Each is a potential dfa from the Cubs. 

[Rcal10]

11 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Jed can do trades. I wonder who they are giving? Canario? Is that enough, who else? 

This would be good use of Canario IF the Cubs then sign a decent right handed bat for the bench. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Pressly is a good reliever, but he's also on 14 million and has an NTC.  I would suspect the return here is very minimal or the Astros are taking on a chunk of the deal.  Maybe both.

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Pressly is a good reliever, but he's also on 14 million and has an NTC.  I would suspect the return here is very minimal or the Astros are taking on a chunk of the deal.  Maybe both.

I think I would rather the Cubs take the entire contract and give little up. Not like they are using that money anyway. Give them back Canario or Thompson. Someone they have to take off the 40 man for Pressley, Berti or any other late addition they plan on acquiring. Even with the $14M they still have another $16M to $18M for 2 bench bats. 

Edited January 23, 2025 by Rcal10

[Bertz]

Ryan Pressly took a step back last year, but he was still 29th among relievers in Stuff+ (one spot ahead of AJ Puk, two spots behind Luke Weaver) and 44th in xFIP (two spots behind Luke Weaver, 4 behind Tanner Scott).  So yes he's declined but he's gone from elite to still very good.

ZiPS projects him for a 3.35 ERA.  Probably knock a 10-15 points off of that in the conversion from Houston to Wrigley.

[Dfan25]

Looks like Bob May have jumped the gun here , but anyway . If the deal happens , my Guess is Keegan Thompson or Canario . With the signing of Berti , they have no space for Canario . 
 

They need a 1B on this roster and  Thompson is out of options and likely DFA anyway when they add another reliever 

Edited January 23, 2025 by Dfan25

[Rcal10]

1 minute ago, Dfan25 said:

Looks like Bob May have jumped the gun here , but anyway . If the deal happens , my Guess is Keegan Thompson or Canario . With the signing of Berti , they have no space for Canario . 
 

They need a 1B on this roster and  Thompson is out of options and likely DFA anyway when they add another reliever 

Another reliever after Pressley? I think they are done with pen arms, but who knows🤷. But they might and should add another bat or two. So with Pressley, Berti and at least one more addition, I think guys like Thompson and Canario are definitely dfa candidates. 

[NorthsideAvenger]

27 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

 

 

Is it possible that Pressly is using his NTC as a negotiating ploy to get the Cubs to add another year to the deal? If so, would that deter anybody?

[Rcal10]

1 minute ago, NorthsideAvenger said:

Is it possible that Pressly is using his NTC as a negotiating ploy to get the Cubs to add another year to the deal? If so, would that deter anybody?

At this point, no. But maybe the Astros kick in totaling $5M for the two years? Something like that. And if not, still get the deal done. 

[Post Count Padder]

I like Pressly but not the idea of giving up assets for one year of a reliever. 

If we can expand the deal, they have this prospect I like named Cam Smith. Wonder what it would take.

[Jason Ross]

If Pressley is basically a salary dump, that's pretty cool by me. He's declining but worth a one year shot as long as the stuff doesn't entirely fall off. 

[UMFan83]

23 minutes ago, NorthsideAvenger said:

Is it possible that Pressly is using his NTC as a negotiating ploy to get the Cubs to add another year to the deal? If so, would that deter anybody?

If so they clearly don't know anything about Jed "man of his principles" Hoyer

[Bertz]

Usually when there's a disconnect like this between the national guys and the local guys it's a semantics thing and the team just doesn't like the deal being framed as almost done.  Inevitably though a deal gets confirmed within an hour or two.

Bob though is very liable to just totally bungle something like this.

[Rcal10]

16 minutes ago, Post Count Padder said:

I like Pressly but not the idea of giving up assets for one year of a reliever. 

If we can expand the deal, they have this prospect I like named Cam Smith. Wonder what it would take.

Who do you worry about giving up? They aren’t going to give up any assets. A guy they would dfa to add another player to the 40 man roster is, by definition, not an asset. The fact they would dfa him suggests this. I agree they shouldn’t give much up for one year of Pressley at $14M. Pretty sure they aren’t. And if they have to sweeten the deal by adding a second year they will give up even less, or the Astros will pitch in some. I have to think Jed and the FO knew Pressley would want some kind of sweetener. Most guys who have a NTC use that as leverage. If both teams have a deal in place, unless Pressley absolutely does not want to come to Chicago, it will be worked out. 

[Post Count Padder]

1 minute ago, Rcal10 said:

Who do you worry about giving up? They aren’t going to give up any assets. A guy they would dfa to add another player to the 40 man roster is, by definition, not an asset. The fact they would dfa him suggests this. I agree they shouldn’t give much up for one year of Pressley at $14M. Pretty sure they aren’t. And if they have to sweeten the deal by adding a second year they will give up even less, or the Astros will pitch in some. I have to think Jed and the FO knew Pressley would want some kind of sweetener. Most guys who have a NTC use that as leverage. If both teams have a deal in place, unless Pressley absolutely does not want to come to Chicago, it will be worked out. 

That's the thing. He is a good player and I just never like the idea of giving up a lot for one year (Tucker included, though I can't say I hated that deal, just how little followed it). 

We do have someone on the way out for Berti too so there are some moves to be made. So Canario would be fine I suppose but now we have no options for the OF bench (it won't be Alcantara or Caissie). Keegan is a guy I like for personal reasons and he has been effective but I have assumed he wouldn't make it to OD anyway. Brujan seems unlikely to stick around with Berti. I'd rather keep Killian for the time being. Zastryszny is really only around until we get another lefty. 

If we work out a trade to keep Workman, he remains on the 40 man right?

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, Post Count Padder said:

That's the thing. He is a good player and I just never like the idea of giving up a lot for one year (Tucker included, though I can't say I hated that deal, just how little followed it). 

We do have someone on the way out for Berti too so there are some moves to be made. So Canario would be fine I suppose but now we have no options for the OF bench (it won't be Alcantara or Caissie). Keegan is a guy I like for personal reasons and he has been effective but I have assumed he wouldn't make it to OD anyway. Brujan seems unlikely to stick around with Berti. I'd rather keep Killian for the time being. Zastryszny is really only around until we get another lefty. 

If we work out a trade to keep Workman, he remains on the 40 man right?

I think if it was Canario the Cubs would then sign a better outfield bench bat. I have no issues with Canario and Thompson being gone. And there are a few more I am not worried about too. I think with Thielbar and Little, Rob Z can go too. 

[Bertz]

6 minutes ago, Post Count Padder said:

If we work out a trade to keep Workman, he remains on the 40 man right?

This is a really good question, I believe the answer is no though.  I believe on an administrative level we'd return him, he'd go back to being a non 40 man prospect for the Tigers, and then we'd acquire him as such.

[Southpaw19]

When I initially saw the report (not the original post/tweet), I was thinking alright - a trade!
Then I saw it was Nightengale, and immediately switched to DAMN IT!

Hopefully it gets some traction regardless of who initialized the report.