Winter Meetings Thread

[chibears55]

Cubs leave the meetings the same as they entered.....

 

[Cuzi]

2 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Cubs leave the meetings the same as they entered.....

Still some large and medium market teams out there with some overlap with the Cubs. When those teams make their moves and the market settles, the Cubs will be there ready to pounce on what is left.

[morrisjon]

3 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Cubs leave the meetings the same as they entered.....

 

They take with them bags of 'due diligence'. 🙂

[Tryptamine]

5 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

 

Blah blah blah, we do this every year and every year it's disappointing.

[Tryptamine]

2 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Cubs leave the meetings the same as they entered.....

 

The only positive you can take from the meetings is that at least they aren't the Mets

[Outshined_One]

14 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Damn, not a single Cub was taken in either portion of the rule 5. I wonder when the last time that happened was?

The list of available players was uninspiring.

Birdsell was probably the biggest name on the list, but his recent elbow surgery rightfully spooked teams away.

[chibears55]

6 minutes ago, morrisjon said:

They take with them bags of 'due diligence'. 🙂

Hoyers greatest offseason accomplishment... 😅

[Jason Ross]

4 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Blah blah blah, we do this every year and every year it's disappointing.

It probably isn't what people want to hear or see, but in the world where the Cubs are prioritizing Tatsuya Imai, this is likely what our Winter Meetings would have looked like. Doesn't mean they are....but he wasn't going to sign these three days. 

Last year as well, we came away from the Winter Meetings with just Matthew Boyd (who, reminder, wasn't exciting) and then 2 days later traded for Kyle Tucker. So hopefully groundwork was done. 

We'll see. I still feel there is enough smoke on the Cubs really caring about the SP market that we'll make a good sized move there.

[squally1313]

25 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Cubs leave the meetings the same as they entered.....

 

Woah, hey now, they left being able to say that they didn't overpay for anybody. It just turns out that every good player that signed was overpaid. 

[chibears55]

22 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Woah, hey now, they left being able to say that they didn't overpay for anybody. It just turns out that every good player that signed was overpaid. 

I never expect much out of winter meetings, I just think baseball offseason is boring when it comes to transactions because most if the big transactions don't really happen til 2-3 months after the season over.

As far as the Cubs and this offseason goes, im not expecting much from them outside of maybe adding a decent SP.

[Hortonhearsawho]

So Jed slept through the entire winter meetings huh? That's not too surprising really. 

[CubinNY]

Jed has the self-control of a trappist monk. 

[Hot Sauce]

No sleep will be lost here over the Cubs walking away from the Winter Meetings without Schwarber or Alonso. 

[Post Count Padder]

On one hand it's disappointing and boring. On the other....not a lot really happened this week? Not just the Cubs. Some big moves yes but not a lot of action. 

[KCCub]

 

[Bertz]

My takeaways from the meetings:

- Imai seems to be holding up their acquisition of a SP.  Whether that's because Imai is their top choice (my guess) or because their actual targets don't want to move yet is TBD

- The team is talking SP trade pretty heavily.  This always made sense logically but IMO it's notable because the last few weeks we almost exclusively heard about FA targets.  I suspect the pref list is Imai > Trade Option(s) > King > Gallen

- The Bregman stuff feels real.  And generally I think they're shopping for a higher caliber of bat than I expected.  I suspect even if their SP add prices them out of Bregman they're still adding an 8 figure salary on offense, and it's the bullpen that will pay the price

- None of the bats that have been rumored besides Bregman feel real.  Based on the team's needs and type I suspect Okamoto is the fallback but there's a striking lack of clarity here

- I'm going to be disappointed in how much gets added to the bullpen, the only question is of degree

- The team made a very concerted effort to talk up Shaw after a string of 3B rumors.  It genuinely seems to be more defending their guy (like when Jed reemed Nightengale over Morel a few winters ago) rather than a trade negotiation through the media.  I suspect Craig gave away the game when he talked up Shaw's versatility 

[ToolDRT]

Winter meetings just not as exciting as they used to be. Can’t really blame the cubs for that one. Personally, I hope one day more draft picks become tradeable. I think that would spice things up. 

[Rcal10]

57 minutes ago, Bertz said:

My takeaways from the meetings:

- Imai seems to be holding up their acquisition of a SP.  Whether that's because Imai is their top choice (my guess) or because their actual targets don't want to move yet is TBD

- The team is talking SP trade pretty heavily.  This always made sense logically but IMO it's notable because the last few weeks we almost exclusively heard about FA targets.  I suspect the pref list is Imai > Trade Option(s) > King > Gallen

- The Bregman stuff feels real.  And generally I think they're shopping for a higher caliber of bat than I expected.  I suspect even if their SP add prices them out of Bregman they're still adding an 8 figure salary on offense, and it's the bullpen that will pay the price

- None of the bats that have been rumored besides Bregman feel real.  Based on the team's needs and type I suspect Okamoto is the fallback but there's a striking lack of clarity here

- I'm going to be disappointed in how much gets added to the bullpen, the only question is of degree

- The team made a very concerted effort to talk up Shaw after a string of 3B rumors.  It genuinely seems to be more defending their guy (like when Jed reemed Nightengale over Morel a few winters ago) rather than a trade negotiation through the media.  I suspect Craig gave away the game when he talked up Shaw's versatility 

I don’t doubt Bregman interest is real, but I doubt they get him. I think the best bat they will get would be Okamato. If they do that and get King or Imai the pen is going to suffer. Maybe they can add Fairbanks. 
Honestly, the fact that they are counting dollars to try being under the LT is very annoying. There is no reason they shouldn’t get Imai, Suarez (RP) and Bregman this off season. Go over. So what. They can get under in ‘27 and they are a major market team for christ sake! 

[Dfan25]

According to Levine , the Cubs made a 3 year offer to Devin Williams and his preference was to sign with the Cubs . They just didn’t approach 51 million  😂

Edited December 10, 2025 by Dfan25

[Backtobanks]

3 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I don’t doubt Bregman interest is real, but I doubt they get him. I think the best bat they will get would be Okamato. If they do that and get King or Imai the pen is going to suffer. Maybe they can add Fairbanks. 
Honestly, the fact that they are counting dollars to try being under the LT is very annoying. There is no reason they shouldn’t get Imai, Suarez (RP) and Bregman this off season. Go over. So what. They can get under in ‘27 and they are a major market team for christ sake! 

You contradicted yourself when you said that " they are counting dollars to try being under the LT" and "There is no reason they shouldn’t get Imai, Suarez (RP) and Bregman this off season".  

[WhyCantWeWin]

2 minutes ago, Dfan25 said:

According to Levine , the Cubs made a 3 year offer to Devin Williams and his preference was to sign with the Cubs . They just didn’t get up to 51 million 😂

Thats wild, he would have been a great pickup 

[Backtobanks]

1 minute ago, Dfan25 said:

According to Levine , the Cubs made a 3 year offer to Devin Williams and his preference was to sign with the Cubs . They just didn’t get up to 51 million 😂

That sounds like every FA story I've heard about the Cubs.  

[WhyCantWeWin]

1 hour ago, KCCub said:

 

Will never understand Hoyers infatuation with Alonso

[UMFan83]

18 minutes ago, Dfan25 said:

According to Levine , the Cubs made a 3 year offer to Devin Williams and his preference was to sign with the Cubs . They just didn’t approach 51 million  😂

Hey once all those rooftops are completed the Ricketts might finally have enough to not break even 

[thawv]

6 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

That kind of a contract is almost assuredly not even in the ballpark of what Imai is going to get. Imai is a tier of a FA above that of what Imanaga was. He's 3-years younger, and has a higher ceiling. He's also far more "traditional" - Shota is a fastball heavy pitcher who throws 91mph - it's a weird profile. Imai sits 94-95mph and has a good slider. It's a much more traditional build. 

I think the low end on Imai is going to be in the $18m AAV for 5 years with absolutely no sliding scale like the Imanaga contract.  But I expect it'll be closer to something along the lines of 6-7 years and $22-$24m AAV. 

I think you're right.  I read that the experts feel like it's going to be in the 6/150 range.