Cubs Offseason Mega Thread

[Rcal10]

29 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

Stop trying to make Duran a thing.

If he was let go and signed as a change of scenery guy I wouldn’t mind him. I definitely would not be interested in trading for him. Especially not for what btb origianbly suggested several weeks ago. But as one of the 2 or 3 bats they sign and for under $8M I think he would be a good gamble. He is a thing because he was mentioned as a Cubs option in an article the other day. No one is making a big deal of it. Just a possible option if released. 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

Unfortunately no because the Cubs went over the luxury tax.

Under the luxury tax you lose your 2nd rounder for signing a QO free agent and you gain a pick at the end of the 2nd round for losing a QO player.  It's not quite a wash but it's close enough.  

Over the luxury tax you lose your 2nd and 5th picks for signing a QO free agent, and you only gain a single pick after the 4th round for losing a QO free agent.  So if e.g. the Cubs lose Seiya and sign Bauers, they gain a pick after the 4th for losing Seiya, then after signing Bauers lose their second rounder and also the pick they just got for losing Seiya.

So the bar needs to be especially high for signing a QO free agent.  My personal POV would be Rogers or bust, but everyone's mileage will vary.

I would agree the only guy the cubs should consider, who comes with a QO is Rogers. Honestly, I am kind of surprised the Red Sox went after Bauers. I would have bet he would have signed back with the Brewers. They lose a 2 and 5 pick for signing him, right? Or did they not go to the threshold the Cubs were at? 

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

2 hours ago, Bertz said:

I wonder how far they'd pay down Yoshida.  Wouldn't hate him for the Conforto role.

Yoshida/Shaw platoon would probably be really good. But yeah, he's making a ton of money.

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, Outshined_One said:

Stop trying to make Duran a thing.

Hey he was a 7 fWAR guy like 2 years ago.  Is that the world record for biggest/fastest WAR dropoff in your 20s?

[Stratos]

2 hours ago, Bertz said:

I wonder how far they'd pay down Yoshida.  Wouldn't hate him for the Conforto role.

How about Conforto in the Conforto role?  1 year deal?

[Stratos]

Is this year's Cubs the first team to ever lose their entire rotation to free agency in a single winter?

[Stratos]

Just caught that Sharma/Mooney reported that Hoyer's "multiyear"  extention is for 5 years,  so through 2030 season.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/11/cubs-notes-ramirez-kelly-hoyer-staffing.html

[Rcal10]

5 hours ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Yoshida/Shaw platoon would probably be really good. But yeah, he's making a ton of money.

Yep, Red Sox would probably have to eat half his contract for it to make sense. But then the Cubs would have to trade someone for him. Which I wouldn’t want to do. 

[Illiterate Scholar]

Given the Red Sox roster situation, Yoshida would be the type of trade you take on half (or maybe even less) of his remaining contract while giving up a prospect no one has heard of. And that's if there's an actual person on the other side of the trade, could just be cash. 

[Rcal10]

2 minutes ago, Illiterate Scholar said:

Given the Red Sox roster situation, Yoshida would be the type of trade you take on half (or maybe even less) of his remaining contract while giving up a prospect no one has heard of. And that's if there's an actual person on the other side of the trade, could just be cash. 

If the Red Sox would take in half his contract and the Cubs didn’t have to give anyone up that is of any consequence I would be fine with him as a left handed bat to play the corner and DH. An added bonus is he would give the Cubs a Japanese player, if that is important to others coming from Japan. Though I am not sure that matters. 

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Latest piece on MLBTR says if the Rays keep Rasmussen, they could trade McClanahan and/or Pepiot.

[ToolDRT]

4 hours ago, Stratos said:

Just caught that Sharma/Mooney reported that Hoyer's "multiyear"  extention is for 5 years,  so through 2030 season.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/11/cubs-notes-ramirez-kelly-hoyer-staffing.html

We need a crying 😢 emoji to react to posts. 

[Geographyhater8888]

15 hours ago, mul21 said:

This is the part of the small market/big market thing that pisses me off the most.  If you're going to give the small market teams more/better picks, the draft spending limits on big market teams needs to be addressed.  It's such a titanic advantage to have as many extra picks as these teams get that early in the draft, especially when you look at the success rate as you go further down in the draft.

Exactly. And these small market advantages should be conditional, not uniform. The Brewers haven’t lost more than 70 games in 4 years, how many more perks do they need with the LT and the Consecutive Top-10 Pick Limits already in place to penalize big market teams? These advantages should only apply to teams that are bad like the Reds or Royals if the goal is creating parity.

Edited 8 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[We Got The Whole 9]

15 hours ago, Stratos said:

Hey he was a 7 fWAR guy like 2 years ago.  Is that the world record for biggest/fastest WAR dropoff in your 20s?

Another Red Sox CF probably - Ellsbury

[chibears55]

16 hours ago, Stratos said:

Just caught that Sharma/Mooney reported that Hoyer's "multiyear"  extention is for 5 years,  so through 2030 season.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/11/cubs-notes-ramirez-kelly-hoyer-staffing.html

Yea, hes not going anywhere,  hes doing exactly what Ricketts wants him to do, and because the Division are all low payroll teams, they dont have to spend crazy to compete in it.