Winter Doldrums Thread

[Tryptamine]

I'm letting this lack of action annoy me far more than it probably should, but jesus Jed get off your ass and go get your guy. Stop waiting for people to fall into your lap.

[We Got The Whole 9]

2 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

I'm letting this lack of action annoy me far more than it probably should, but jesus Jed get off your ass and go get your guy. Stop waiting for people to fall into your lap.

Who the horsefeathers is his guy? Maybe he doesn't have a guy. Sure doesn't seem like he has a guy. 

 

 

[Cuzi]

6 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Who the horsefeathers is his guy? Maybe he doesn't have a guy. Sure doesn't seem like he has a guy.

He lets his guy choose him.

[CubinNY]

18 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Who the horsefeathers is his guy? Maybe he doesn't have a guy. Sure doesn't seem like he has a guy. 

 

 

He has multiple guys, but my hypothesis is that they have a metaphorical price tag on every one, and they aren't going to go over what they think a guy is worth or the length of the contract. Jed likes payroll flexibility and "clean books" (whatever that means) so he can grab a high AAV guy like Tucker.  

They may also see Steele/Wiggins/Horton as the foundation of their rotation and don't like the prices for FA and trade candidate SP. They may see "the roster cliff" (TM, NSBB, 2026) as an opportunity to reset the core with Busch, OWNKC, Alcantara, PCA, Mo Baller, and Charlie Kirk's best friend. 

And we don't know how much PTR and the sibs are paying for The Zachary, the sports book, and the AirBnBs around Wrigley. So he may have told Jed that the LT is a hard line (or that lower than the LT is the hard line), so Jed is having to reverse-engineer everything from there. 

Edited January 5 by CubinNY

[chibears55]

22 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Who the horsefeathers is his guy? Maybe he doesn't have a guy. Sure doesn't seem like he has a guy. 

 

 

He dont have a guy, when writers say he checks in on so n so, im more convinced it an an agent checking in with him to see if he would be interested. 

Hoyers guys are the ones that are looking for short deals to try and raise their value for upcoming FA

[Tryptamine]

20 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Who the horsefeathers is his guy? Maybe he doesn't have a guy. Sure doesn't seem like he has a guy. 

 

 

He never has a guy and there in lays the problem. His guy is whoever falls to him.

[CubinNY]

Truth be told, I think "Clean books" means they aren't overpaying anyone by a substantial amount. And that's the way they want it. 

[Rcal10]

2 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

He never has a guy and there in lays the problem. His guy is whoever falls to him.

Yep. Jed lets the other teams dictate who his market is. Which is infuriating. Pick a guy and win the bid. 

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

They've made 5 signings in the bullpen totalling nearly $30M million, and multiple reports have them as the runner ups on Imai last week.

It's okay to not like what they're doing but this is weird?

It a crazy thought but not that weird...

If they got Imai the cost would of been around 20 mil, maybe now the guy he looking to add will cost more and he needs to make sure itll fit under his cutoff which makes knowing exactly where their at after Arbs important 🤷🤷🤷

Hey im trying to toss reasons for Hoyers procrastination in acquiring needed upgrades. 😅

[Rcal10]

13 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

It a crazy thought but not that weird...

If they got Imai the cost would of been around 20 mil, maybe now the guy he looking to add will cost more and he needs to make sure itll fit under his cutoff which makes knowing exactly where their at after Arbs important 🤷🤷🤷

Hey im trying to toss reasons for Hoyers procrastination in acquiring needed upgrades. 😅

Jed is being Jed, but they aren’t worrying about slight differences in arbitration numbers. It is a weird take. 

[Geographyhater8888]

14 hours ago, Cuzi said:

He lets his guy choose him.

Do you know how much more $ Jed offered to Swanson than the next highest bid?

Edited January 6 by Geographyhater8888

[Geographyhater8888]

14 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Yep. Jed lets the other teams dictate who his market is. Which is infuriating. Pick a guy and win the bid. 

Not many differences between how how Reinsdorf ran the 2000’s Sox and how Tom runs the Cubs, and Jed by extension.

Edited January 6 by Geographyhater8888

[thawv]

18 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

In your mind, what does he have to do to prove you wrong? Is it win a WS or bust with you? They won 92 games after losing their top starting pitcher in April and their best hitter broke his hand in June and wasn’t the same after that. I am not suggesting he is a great POBO, but I also do not agree that he sucks. 

There's really nothing a team president can do about how his players perform after he rosters them.  I just don't want to see him only value shopping and try to sign the best players available.  Just try to put the best players he can on the field.  Not only value players on the field. 

[thawv]

13 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Yep. Jed lets the other teams dictate who his market is. Which is infuriating. Pick a guy and win the bid. 

It's nice to hear this kind of talk.  Jed can be a guy that sets the market, but he chooses to be a guy who reacts to the market.  It sucks. 

[BigbadB]

2 hours ago, thawv said:

It's nice to hear this kind of talk.  Jed can be a guy that sets the market, but he chooses to be a guy who reacts to the market.  It sucks. 

End of the day, Jed clearly doesn't have a stack of pre-signed checks waiting for him to just fill in the blanks. He has to operate within the budget PTR dictates. What we are seeing is exactly that, IMO. 

What do we think the Cubs best offer for Tucker might have been while they had exclusive negotiating rights? Wonder how far off that number will be once he finally signs with someone? Sign Tucker and trade for a SP while keeping it below the LT and call it an offseason.

 

[Rcal10]

2 hours ago, thawv said:

There's really nothing a team president can do about how his players perform after he rosters them.  I just don't want to see him only value shopping and try to sign the best players available.  Just try to put the best players he can on the field.  Not only value players on the field. 

This is what I don’t understand. Why do you put everything on Jed, when it comes to this. You have said you don’t think Ricketts is cheap and if you owned the team you would put profits over winning. As a fan you want to win. So don’t you think this arbitrary payroll limit Tom puts on the team ties the hands of Hoyer a bit? And please don’t tell me how the Brewers win with far less payroll unless you want to hear how the Mets didn’t even make the playoffs, neither did the Astros, Giants or Diamondbacks. The Padres lost to the Cubs, the Yankees and Phillies lost in the same round as the Cubs,, all with higher payrolls. Plus for every Brewer team there are many teams with lower payroll to that don’t do well. On top of that just remember every year the entire NL central, except the Cubs, gets an extra pick in the amateur draft somewhere between 40th and 100th. Those are valuable. Cubs should have a higher payroll because that is their only advantage. Many teams on that above list don’t even have the resources the Cubs have. And while the Cubs do have a higher payroll than the rest of the central they don’t take advantage of their financial muscle. Basically Tom is choosing not to take advantage, fully, of the one advantage he has. That is 100% on ownership, not Jed. 
You will never hear me say Jed is great at his job. I just disagree with you when you suggest he sucks at it and everything he does is stupid. 

[Rcal10]

20 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

End of the day, Jed clearly doesn't have a stack of pre-signed checks waiting for him to just fill in the blanks. He has to operate within the budget PTR dictates. What we are seeing is exactly that, IMO. 

What do we think the Cubs best offer for Tucker might have been while they had exclusive negotiating rights? Wonder how far off that number will be once he finally signs with someone? Sign Tucker and trade for a SP while keeping it below the LT and call it an offseason.

 

The only thing I would add to this is, if not Tucker than sign Bichette. Otherwise 👍

[JunkyardWalrus]

16 hours ago, Cuzi said:

He lets his guy choose him.

Jed in his khakis and button down just 'putting out the vibe' drinking his umbrellaed drink and staring down the duffers...

[Cuzi]

48 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

End of the day, Jed clearly doesn't have a stack of pre-signed checks waiting for him to just fill in the blanks. He has to operate within the budget PTR dictates. What we are seeing is exactly that, IMO. 

What do we think the Cubs best offer for Tucker might have been while they had exclusive negotiating rights? Wonder how far off that number will be once he finally signs with someone? Sign Tucker and trade for a SP while keeping it below the LT and call it an offseason.

I would bet they never even made an offer to Tucker.

[Cuzi]

6 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Do you know how much more $ Jed offered to Swanson than the next highest bid?

I have no clue. Think the only rumored numbers out there was an offer he got from the Braves before he became a FA at 6/100.

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

I would bet they never even made an offer to Tucker.

Sadly, I agree with this. May have talked to him but no real offer. 

[Bull]

14 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Sadly, I agree with this. May have talked to him but no real offer. 

I know I'll get some hate for this, but I don't see how he fits on the team if you really believe in Cassie and Ballesteros.

You've got a full catching tandem, so Ballesteros doesn't get 150 PAs there like he will in '27. He has to be a full-time DH in '26. 

Cassie will have to steal PA's from Seiya and Happ as it is. 

If you don't believe in Cassie and Ballesteros, trade them for their equivalents on the mound. (you'll probably not get full value)

I haven't even mentioned Alcantara and Long who are both 23. 

[Rcal10]

5 minutes ago, Bull said:

I know I'll get some hate for this, but I don't see how he fits on the team if you really believe in Cassie and Ballesteros.

You've got a full catching tandem, so Ballesteros doesn't get 150 PAs there like he will in '27. He has to be a full-time DH in '26. 

Cassie will have to steal PA's from Seiya and Happ as it is. 

If you don't believe in Cassie and Ballesteros, trade them for their equivalents on the mound. (you'll probably not get full value)

I haven't even mentioned Alcantara and Long who are both 23. 

He fits, but I also agree they would need to trade at least one of Cassie or Ballesteros and add a pitcher (Cabrera). They can keep one because someone will have to replace Happ and Suzuki in ‘27. 

[Bull]

2 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

He fits, but I also agree they would need to trade at least one of Cassie or Ballesteros and add a pitcher (Cabrera). They can keep one because someone will have to replace Happ and Suzuki in ‘27. 

Cassie and Long for Cabrera. Who says no?

[We Got The Whole 9]

34 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

I would bet they never even made an offer to Tucker.

Yeah I agree with you. They knew his number and figured he was worth the rental price and didnt even worry about making any overtures because they knew they werent close.