Spring Training Moves/Transactions Thread

[BigSlick]

Honestly didn’t know Justin Turner was still in the league, he wasn’t young when we faced off with him in 2016. Well, it’s a low risk move, hope he’s got something in the tank.

[Bertz]

35 minutes ago, Bull said:

This will never happen, but I’d love them to go trade disgruntled DHs with Boston. Devers plays 3B 60% of the time, DHs 40%, while Shaw picks up that 40% and 40% at 2B letting both Hoerner and Dansby rest or DH. Give or take 10% here or there.

Two years ago I remember Sahadev Sharma going out on a limb that he thought Devers would be Hoyer's first mega contract.  This FO apparently loves him.

There is a 0.0% chance of something happening right now.  But a year from now if Jed strikes out on Tucker and Devers/Boston look like they need a divorce?  Still doesn't feel super likely but it'd be welllll north of 0.

[CubinNY]

40 minutes ago, Bull said:

This will never happen, but I’d love them to go trade disgruntled DHs with Boston. Devers plays 3B 60% of the time, DHs 40%, while Shaw picks up that 40% and 40% at 2B letting both Hoerner and Dansby rest or DH. Give or take 10% here or there.

I don't think Devers is disgruntled. I've also heard that Boston is planning on using Bregman at 2nd. So I don't know, regardless, they aren't going to go after Devers now. Maybe if he's available for inflated prices at the ASB and Shaw isn't cutting it. But Devers is kind of a butcher in the field, anyway. 

[SOFNR]

43 minutes ago, Bull said:

This will never happen, but I’d love them to go trade disgruntled DHs with Boston. Devers plays 3B 60% of the time, DHs 40%, while Shaw picks up that 40% and 40% at 2B letting both Hoerner and Dansby rest or DH. Give or take 10% here or there.

Devers is probably a better bet offensively but I'm not sure about taking on that contract. He'd be a nice get for this year but he's owed 30 mil + for the next 7 years. The bat is great, but he's definitely a question mark defensively.  Eventually you'll probably end up with a very expensive DH. Compared to Suzuki's 2/38 left I doubt the Cubs would make the commitment right now.

Edited February 18, 2025 by SOFNR

[Stratos]

Since Christmas this team sure has become a lot older.

Prime age guys are expensive I guess.  New cost strategy LOL

[minnesotacubsfan]

Let’s get your act together Jeb

https://apple.news/AdxzoT9dVSLCCSUsVWU3RHg

[Stratos]

The Cubs and outfielder Travis Jankowski have agreed to a minor league deal.  Seems like a guy who can play CF, seems like a depth signing for CF backup since Bateman just got injured and Canario was DFA'd.

[Post Count Padder]

I think all the people clamoring for Canha are losing their minds seeing him sign a MiLB contract with the Brewers.

[Stratos]

14 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

I def did not realize Canha had a .346 SLG last year. Ngl thought he was a Met in 2024 lol 

Turner had .383 SLG too.

[Bertz]

10 hours ago, Stratos said:

Turner had .383 SLG too.

In Seattle it should be noted

I like Canha, so I'm curious if there's a red flag with him I'm overlooking or if he simply lost the game of musical chairs among the backup 1B types.

 

[Stratos]

Interesting that Kyle Finnegan is still also a free agent.

[Bertz]

They probably simply re-sign Quintana but you do wonder about Dylan Cease

 

[Bertz]

It's interesting to me that things have gone radio silent on adding another reliever after it sounded pretty inevitable ~10 days ago.  Curious what happened.  Some potential explanations?

- There's not room in Jed's budget.  It was always Turner or a reliever not Turner and a reliever

- Julian Merryweather, the most plausible guy to get the boot in the event of another signing, looks great in camp

- One or more of the young starters is looking great, which would push Rea to the bullpen

- Jed's still got cash earmarked for a David Robertson, but wants to hold off until deeper into ST to make sure he doesn't need to reallocate that money to an emergency SP

[KCCub]

21 minutes ago, Bertz said:

They probably simply re-sign Quintana but you do wonder about Dylan Cease

 

I’ll probably eat crow by the end of the season but I’ve been extremely bearish on them simply because of their pitching staff. They weren’t great on paper and now have lost Montas and Manaea to injuries that are likely to cause them to miss starts. Now they are relying on a healthy Senga and Clay Homes in his first year starting. I’ve thought all along that they would be the team who pays up for Cease 

[chibears55]

4 hours ago, Bertz said:

It's interesting to me that things have gone radio silent on adding another reliever after it sounded pretty inevitable ~10 days ago.  Curious what happened.  Some potential explanations?

- There's not room in Jed's budget.  It was always Turner or a reliever not Turner and a reliever

- Julian Merryweather, the most plausible guy to get the boot in the event of another signing, looks great in camp

- One or more of the young starters is looking great, which would push Rea to the bullpen

- Jed's still got cash earmarked for a David Robertson, but wants to hold off until deeper into ST to make sure he doesn't need to reallocate that money to an emergency SP

Probably just waiting it out, and just taking a look at the guys they have now along with waiting to see if anyone that they are interested in will take that 1 year minimal offer.

I think after the 2 games against the Dodgers in Japan we may see Jed start putting the final pieces in place.

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Probably just waiting it out, and just taking a look at the guys they have now along with waiting to see if anyone that they are interested in will take that 1 year minimal offer.

I think after the 2 games against the Dodgers in Japan we may see Jed start putting the final pieces in place.

Seems kind of silly to wait until 1 week before the regular season to start to finally decide to add a FA pitcher, if that is what he does. That pitcher would be behind and probably not much use for at least the first 3 weeks of the season. Now, if they make a trade for someone that late in spring  that is different. The player should be playing for someone now, so he should be ready to start the season. 

[Rcal10]

8 hours ago, Bertz said:

It's interesting to me that things have gone radio silent on adding another reliever after it sounded pretty inevitable ~10 days ago.  Curious what happened.  Some potential explanations?

- There's not room in Jed's budget.  It was always Turner or a reliever not Turner and a reliever

- Julian Merryweather, the most plausible guy to get the boot in the event of another signing, looks great in camp

- One or more of the young starters is looking great, which would push Rea to the bullpen

- Jed's still got cash earmarked for a David Robertson, but wants to hold off until deeper into ST to make sure he doesn't need to reallocate that money to an emergency SP

My guess is Merryweather or someone else(Keller) has looked good and Jed is reconsidering the need for Robertson. Which gives them $25M or more to spend at the TDL. I’m thinking that unless they trade for another staring pitcher this is pretty much the team. I don’t see a late signing of a pitcher who would then start the season behind. I think,,at this point, adding a bat is more likely than a FA arm. And I don’t hold much hope for that. 

[Irrelevant Dude]

13 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Which gives them $25M or more to spend at the TDL.

That's great on paper, but I think it's going to be virtually impossible to spend $25M at the trade deadline.

[Rcal10]

21 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

That's great on paper, but I think it's going to be virtually impossible to spend $25M at the trade deadline.

Oh, I know that. I wasn’t suggesting that’s a good thing. But they cannot possibly suggest they can’t trade for anyone at the deadline, I agree with you that they do not need $25M at the deadline, and can’t spend it all. 

[CubinNY]

I think any money they spend is contingent on Jed talking Tommy Boy into taking on more salary and Tommy Boy and the sibs agreeing. I don't think a pot of money is sitting there. 

[Rcal10]

2 hours ago, CubinNY said:

I think any money they spend is contingent on Jed talking Tommy Boy into taking on more salary and Tommy Boy and the sibs agreeing. I don't think a pot of money is sitting there. 

I don’t think there is this pot of money either. But I do think, if they go into the TDL $30M under the first LT threshold they can trade for whoever they want. And I don’t think Tom would have an issue with that salary added. There will not be enough guys they need to trade for to come close to that $30M, so the team payroll should not hinder them in their goal of improving the team at the deadline. Tom already said he expects the final team payroll to be close to the first LT line. While I don’t think they will be particularly close to it, I could easily see them adding $10M to $13M at the TDL, if the right guy or 3 came available.

[CubinNY]

33 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I don’t think there is this pot of money either. But I do think, if they go into the TDL $30M under the first LT threshold they can trade for whoever they want. And I don’t think Tom would have an issue with that salary added. There will not be enough guys they need to trade for to come close to that $30M, so the team payroll should not hinder them in their goal of improving the team at the deadline. Tom already said he expects the final team payroll to be close to the first LT line. While I don’t think they will be particularly close to it, I could easily see them adding $10M to $13M at the TDL, if the right guy or 3 came available.

They had to get special permission to offer Bregman a contract everyone knew he would reject. Maybe the clan (could also be spelled with a k) sits down with Jed around the ASB and says we have X amount to give you... but they already said they are at the top of their budget. 

[squally1313]

28 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

They had to get special permission to offer Bregman a contract everyone knew he would reject. Maybe the clan (could also be spelled with a k) sits down with Jed around the ASB and says we have X amount to give you... but they already said they are at the top of their budget. 

I think it's pretty common practice for ownership to sign off on 9 figure deals regardless of the budget situation, especially in a lame duck year for Hoyer. You can be $25m under budget and still need 'special permission' to offer someone over $30m/year. Have they explicitly said, recently, they are at the top end of the budget currently?

My view is Ricketts hasn't meaningfully moved from his comments about staying at/right below the first luxury tax line. Bregman would have put them over that line and was a big enough contract regardless that he needed to talk with ownership. After that fell through, he apparently doesn't see anything out there worth getting. It's not necessarily a mistake on his part to not throw that money at Jose Quintana and a bunch of relievers that don't improve the team. But it's a mistake on his part, in the aggregate offseason, to end up not using the financial resources allotted to him. 

[BigbadB]

They may still be earmarking some of that money towards a Tucker extension once he finds out how awesome it is playing for the Cubs. Then they still have plenty of money to add at the trade deadline and Jed looks like a genius. 

And then the alarm clock goes off and the dream is over.......hey now, hey now!

[Stratos]

Thoughts?

Kind of a cringe comment.  He was a negative WAR player last year and isn't projected for much higher this year.  He hasn't hit above league-average the last 2 seasons, which isn't exactly good for a 1B.  He has a point about the injuries but he's also going to be another year older this year.  He's worth a flyer by some team.