Cubs Pre-Offseason Mega Thread

[Backtobanks]

3 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

I agree they could/should trade one of Shaw or Ramirez. But disagree about your thoughts on Shaw. Again, he actually played the outfield very well. So he can play the corner defensively. So why is Duran, at 29 with 2 years of arbitration left where he will have to be making at least $8M, coming off a terrible year, someone you believe could bounce back and be a quality bat in the line up? Yet, Shaw, a guy who is 25, done ok offensively, with potential to be better not someone who should be in an everyday line up.
My guess is if Duran was on the Cubs and had that season for them you would be righting him off as a guy they have to let go. 
Which being me back to if the Red Sox came to the Cubs with Duran and Bello, I don’t see why the Cubs would have to give up more than just Ramirez. Then Duran and Shaw can play the corners. And if that wasn’t enough for Boston, move on. IMO both Shaw and Ramirez have more value than either Duran or Bello. Ramirez having the most, IMO. 

One reason I think Duran can bounce back is that he had two seasons of 9 WAR and 4.9 WAR just before his terrible 2026 season.  I would think that you would need a pretty solid backup OF if you're going to play Shaw and Duran as corner OFs.  Experimenting with Shaw and hoping that Duran bounces back could be anywhere from great to disastrous.  

[Jason Ross]

Count me way out on Duran. 2024 was excellent and 2025 was mostly good, but the drop from '24 to '25 was already there. His approach numbers have also got to hell; and they were never good.  2024 is the clear outlier. He's now over 30 and appears to be capable of causing headaches for organizations. LF is not like SS or C where you look at the available options and think "is it worth it for me to deal with a headache?" because there are plenty of players who won't be headaches and are also risky profiles. 

In other words, outside of 2024, he was basically "Ian Happ" at the plate posting wRC+ of 122 in 2023 and 113 in 2025 with good LF defense. He's very platoon dependent as well, posting a 115 wRC+ against RHP over his career and a 71 vs LHP. 

I think the Cubs can find a different reclamation that I'd feel more comfortable with both on the field and off of it. 

 

[Bertz]

I think Duran, purely as a player, is a reasonably smart buy low guy.  But like I don't see any coherent rationale for why we'd be okay with a buy-low veteran and not a young player already on hand?

[Rcal10]

23 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I think Duran, purely as a player, is a reasonably smart buy low guy.  But like I don't see any coherent rationale for why we'd be okay with a buy-low veteran and not a young player already on hand?

I agree. Which is my argument with btb. If Shaw or, preferably, Ramirez is traded to Boston for Duran Boston has to give something more back. Duran is strictly a low buy candidate who shouldn’t cost much, at all. There is a chance he isn’t even offered a contract. Which is why Bello and Duran makes some sense to me. Of course, that is before you showed how bad Bello is. Still might do Bello and Duran for Ramirez. But nothing more from the Cubs. Bottom line is the Cubs need some cheap players they need to get a little lucky with. Duran and Bello could be a decent gamble. 

[muntjack]

So it looks like they hired Steve Miller? This is a good thing, right? 

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

28 minutes ago, muntjack said:

So it looks like they hired Steve Miller? This is a good thing, right? 

https://www.cubsinsider.com/2026/10/19/cubs-hire-steve-miller-as-new-vp-of-international-scouting/

[Jason Ross]

1 hour ago, muntjack said:

So it looks like they hired Steve Miller? This is a good thing, right? 

On paper, it's probably a very good thing. I think in practice, what it actually does is going to be less than what people think it will. The new CBA is probably going to come with an IFA draft in some fashion. We can debate the good/bad of that in terms of a moral stand point, but it's something I fully expect the owners want and the players to budge on. 

What that does to IFA scouting is probably going to be a decent change. Having someone from an organization who's been pretty good at IFA scouting is a good start, but as we've seen with the MLB draft, there's a game-within-the-game aspect of it. I'd expect something like that in an IFA draft. How good Miller, or anyone, is at that part is going to be unknown.

[Bertz]

1 hour ago, muntjack said:

So it looks like they hired Steve Miller? This is a good thing, right? 

Probably?  The Cubs' IFA pipeline was definitely busted during the back half of the Theo era from 16-20.  And we've really felt going 0'fer half a decade the past few years.

That said it's not clear that there's still a problem?  Pedro Ramirez, Mo Baller, Jefferson Rojas, Cristian Hernandez, Angel Cepeda, etc. look like probable major leaguers from the '21-'23 era.  Some fun guys are either currently at Myrtle Beach or almost there from '24/'25 as well.  We're not the Brewers but things seem perfectly healthy.

But Tampa's obviously a player development power house, so even if the Cubs' IFA group have improved from 30th to like 14th already, there's probably room to get even closer to #1.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Has Tampa had any big hits out of IFA recently? I can't think of anybody but maybe they've traded them or are still in the minors.