Cubs Pre-Offseason Mega Thread

[mk49]

Is Kelly overrated, and/or Amaya underrated?  One of the podcasters said out of all the Cubs free agents, re-signing Kelly should be the top priority, which I don't get.  An article graded Kelly B+ and Amaya C-, and said "Kelly shines, Amaya struggles".  

Their wRC+ (both with and without RISP) and fWAR were basically the same in 2026.  Defensively, Amaya was rated higher.  Kelly was better against LHP's.  But, that's about it.  Oh, Amaya had higher K%.  

I'd like to re-sign Kelly at the right price (for the Cubs) for 1 or 2 years (Ayers ready or not), but somebody will outbid the Cubs for sure.  I'll miss his baserunning and pitching for sure, though.😄  More than likely, I think we'll get another veteran catcher for less money than Kelly.

[Bill Fogg]

I'm with you on the Happ situation but you are dead wrong on Hoerner. Hoerner plays the type of 'small ball' that wins playoff games and low scoring games against tough pitching. He can advance runners by hitting to the opposite side or execute a sacrifice bunt and usually posts 20+ stolen bases each year as well as he runs the bases well. He is not a home run hitter, but he accumulated 72 RBI's which is more than Happ did with his 24 HR's. He plays Gold Glove caliber defense at a premium position and manned the shortstop position for the month that Swanson was on the DL [ will probably cost him the Gold Glove ] . I'm more than satisfied with what Hoerner brings to the team, management has much greater areas of weakness to address in the off -season [ pitching # 1 ] .   

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

1 minute ago, Bill Fogg said:

I'm with you on the Happ situation but you are dead wrong on Hoerner. Hoerner plays the type of 'small ball' that wins playoff games and low scoring games against tough pitching. He can advance runners by hitting to the opposite side or execute a sacrifice bunt and usually posts 20+ stolen bases each year as well as he runs the bases well. He is not a home run hitter, but he accumulated 72 RBI's which is more than Happ did with his 24 HR's. He plays Gold Glove caliber defense at a premium position and manned the shortstop position for the month that Swanson was on the DL [ will probably cost him the Gold Glove ] . I'm more than satisfied with what Hoerner brings to the team, management has much greater areas of weakness to address in the off -season [ pitching # 1 ] .   

I agree with most of this but I have never seen Nico bunt. Not even once

[mk49]

7 minutes ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

I agree with most of this but I have never seen Nico bunt. Not even once

We actually don't see many of them bunt.😁  In the last 2 seasons, I saw Pete, Happ, Amaya and Shaw (who sucked at it) bunting.  But, that's about it.

Edited 1 hour ago by mk49

[mk49]

Just found that Mize gave up 13 HR's in 44.2 innings (2.65 HR/9), after the trade.  He'll fit right in.😁

[mk49]

Speaking of HR/9 at Wrigley this year.  I remember Counsell said the wind was blowing out, pretty much every time Shota pitched.  That was in June or July.  

Here's HR/9 (min. 20 innings pitched)

Thielbar  2.39
Jamo  2.33
Thornton  1.99
Gausman  1.95
Cabrera  1.89
Shota  1.71 (1.62, if you don't count the inside the park HR, which was Pete's screw-up)
Boyd  1.63
Rea  1.60

That's a lot.  If it's going to be similar next year, it'd make a lot of sense to re-sign Peterson (0.96 HR/9) and Holmes (0.38 HR/9).  And, surprised to find that Shota wasn't half bad.  He just pitched a lot more innings than others.

Edited 45 minutes ago by mk49

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/10/sonny-gray-plans-to-pitch-in-2027.html