After Ryan Pressly Trade, Chicago Cubs Have $15 Million to Spend and Two More Moves to Make

[Matthew Trueblood]

This is starting to look like a real baseball team, and they still have both the capacity and the inclination to make further improvements.

Image courtesy of © Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Thanks to the Astros eating a significant chunk of the money owed to Ryan Pressly for 2025, the Cubs' payroll after acquiring their new closer Sunday is just over $188 million. That's their projected 40-man roster payroll, in real dollars paid this year. Their competitive-balance tax number, which bakes in certain other benefits and contributions and takes the annual average value of all players' contracts, stands at $206.5 million. Sources have indicated that the team will not exceed the $241-million CBT threshold for 2025, and based on various ways that their CBT number could rise based on extensions, it's safe to say that the team will spend $15 million or less from here on external additions to their roster.

That should be enough, though, to check the remaining boxes on Jed Hoyer's offseason shopping list. He's added depth to the team's starting rotation, and much of the same to the bullpen. He's remade the middle of the team's lineup by (effectively) trading Cody Bellinger and Isaac Paredes for Kyle Tucker and Matt Shaw. He's swapped out key role players at catcher and on the infield, by non-tendering or otherwise cutting several recent bench players and replacing them with Carson Kelly and Jon Berti. While the rest of the winter could play out in any of several ways, including with some bigger moves for someone like Dylan Cease or Alex Bregman, the overwhelming likelihood is that Hoyer and his staff intend to add two more role players: another reliever to bolster the pen, and an outfielder who could provide better stability off the bench.

As reported by 670 The Score's Bruce Levine, the team has recently been in contact with both David Robertson and Ryne Stanek, two of the better remaining right-handed relievers on the market.

Sources said the team has also monitored the market for Kyle Finnegan, but the feeling there is that Finnegan will command an asking price the Cubs don't feel is prudent; that's part of why they pivoted to Pressly, a similar caliber of pitcher who was available more cheaply and without a multi-year commitment. Roster crowding is becoming a mild problem, as the Cubs have six starters, and with Pressly joining Tyson Miller, Caleb Thielbar and Julian Merryweather, four of their likely bullpen jobs are assigned to pitchers with no remaining options. On the other hand, they have a surfeit of optionable hurlers, including not only recent trade acquisitions Eli Morgan, Nate Pearson, Cody Poteet and Jack Neely, but key pitchers who might spend some of the season in Iowa, like Porter Hodge, Javier Assad, Daniel Palencia, Jordan Wicks and Ben Brown. They have the flexibility to add Robertson, Stanek or someone similar without worrying much about the roster crunch.

I wrote last week about the possibility of the Cubs taking an interest in Harrison Bader, a good backup center-field option with offensive upside in a short-side platoon role. A source also said the Cubs have had discussions with free agent Dylan Carlson, whom the Rays non-tendered in November. Carlson, 26, has not looked like a viable big-league hitter for most of his career, but he has both youth and a sterling defensive track record to recommend him. The Cubs could look to snag him on a split deal or a small one-year pact, and he has minor-league options remaining—a key issue when it comes to the positional side of the roster, because current fringe position players Miguel Amaya, Kelly, Berti, Alexander Canario and Vidal Bruján are all out of options, and Rule 5 Draft selection Gage Workman can't be optioned this season without being offered back to the Tigers. 

Another trade could still be coming. Though their construction doesn't actually cost them a lot of flexibility, the Cubs' 40-man roster is overloaded. They'll have to cut two players just to make the Berti signing and the Pressly deal official, and while that's not yet any kind of problem—they can and will eventually cut Bruján, Matt Festa, Rob Zastryzny, Caleb Kilian, and Keegan Thompson, perhaps among others—there's a better way to align their resources. Adding one or two more players via free agency, then Shaw when he makes the team in March, then possibly one of their minor-league signings, will necessitate even more spaces being opened up, and a trade with a team that has 40-man spots to burn (hello, San Diego!) could be the best way to do so.

In any event, the Cubs' roster is coming into focus, and it's a solid team. They aren't yet at the level of the best teams in the NL East or West, but they're becoming fairly clear (if far from prohibitive) favorites to win the 2025 NL Central.

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[Bertz]

A backup 1B feels pretty essential.  Even if it's not someone exciting, Ty France for instance, it's the most definitive remaining need for the team.  The backup 1B right now on a short term basis is probably Miguel Amaya?  For a long term basis it'd be Ballesteros.  That's bad, really bad.

Carlson is a fun look for a backup CF.  Prior to 2024 he even at his worst mauled lefties.  He's young enough that you can easily believe last season was an aberration.  And if he still sucks oh well by Memorial Day decent chance we're ready to call up Alcantara.

[Matthew Trueblood]

11 minutes ago, Bertz said:

A backup 1B feels pretty essential.  Even if it's not someone exciting, Ty France for instance, it's the most definitive remaining need for the team.  The backup 1B right now on a short term basis is probably Miguel Amaya?  For a long term basis it'd be Ballesteros.  That's bad, really bad.

Carlson is a fun look for a backup CF.  Prior to 2024 he even at his worst mauled lefties.  He's young enough that you can easily believe last season was an aberration.  And if he still sucks oh well by Memorial Day decent chance we're ready to call up Alcantara.

You can definitely make a case for prioritizing a backup 1B, and I know they've talked to a couple of people who might fill that role, too. But they don't dislike Berti, Ballesteros or Caissie as fallback 1B options as much as you do. I can see both sides of that argument.

[mul21]

34 minutes ago, Bertz said:

A backup 1B feels pretty essential.  Even if it's not someone exciting, Ty France for instance, it's the most definitive remaining need for the team.  The backup 1B right now on a short term basis is probably Miguel Amaya?  For a long term basis it'd be Ballesteros.  That's bad, really bad.

Carlson is a fun look for a backup CF.  Prior to 2024 he even at his worst mauled lefties.  He's young enough that you can easily believe last season was an aberration.  And if he still sucks oh well by Memorial Day decent chance we're ready to call up Alcantara.

Man, those numbers Carlson has against LHP are a lot better than I was expecting.  Career .792 OPS and he's 6'2".  I bet you could get him cheap and use him as a handcuff/injury insurance for CF and 1B.  I'd be into that.