davell

Holy crap, if we had gotten him, we'd be losing our minds right now.

Sweet googily moogily

Right now, we're sitting around 131.658, for the LT. Plus, you've got to add for the pre arbs and the 16 mill for insurances. Might as well say 152ish. Leaving us 45 mill, to grab a starter, a pen guy, and in season moves. Plus, a backup C, another pen arm, maybe a backup OFer, if we get the first two done relatively cheaply..... Here's the thing though. You're at 113.358 for NEXT years LT, with just Heyward, Lester, Zobrist, Quintana, Rizzo, Strop, Morrow, and Smyly accounted for. The arb raises for KB, Addy, and Hendricks will be substantial. Those 3 are projected for 16.1 as 1st year guys. That could come close to doubling, as 2nd year guys, as a total. Then, you've got Schwarber, Javy, Carl, and Monty all hitting 1st year arb......Combined, I can see those arbs putting us at 148-150. You've still got to add pre arbs and insurances.....Conceivably, you're sitting around 170ish after that. Add a Cobb and Reed to the mix and you're sitting at 195. With an LT of 205 and Bryce sitting firmly in the plans.... Again, no doubt in my mind we're going over the LT next year. But, I don't see us going 40 over it. And it'd be hard not to, with a Harper addition, plus Cobb and Reed, or any combo that puts an extra 25 mill onto our books for next year too. I'm definitely starting to think that one of those moves wouldn't happen. And how trading for an Archer has significant added value to us, just based on these numbers.....

If we do still trade for a front line starter, or sign Cobb, Smyly may be a Monty replacement.

Yeah, I'm wondering if this means its a short term contract guy now for the 5th spot. Hope not. Nice to add depth, but I think that 5 mill probably could be used for 2018 instead. But, we're certainly not done, see what else they've got coming obviously.

I hope he stays a Cub. He's a great 6th starter and I think we'll all love him forever. Hopefully, he's OK enough with his current role.

Hope we get Reed.

That's a haul actually.

Olney says 3/27 on Reed, Heyman insinuated its not a done deal. Assuming it is though, I'm OK with any of Nicasio, Cishek, McGee, or Kintzler. I'm figuring its Kintzler, but I'm fine with that.

Guess they must be close on some things?

Sorry I might have missed the discussions, my bad. Just seems inconceivable but I guess with pre-arb players making up a lot of their offensive WAR they can move some money around and afford him. The Yankees and Dodgers are trying to get under the tax, but just for this year. The Tax gets harsher each consecutive year ar you cross it, so most of the big market teams are trying to get under this year and 'reset' their penalties, knowing that starting in 2019 it will be quite a while before they can get back under again. The Dodgers aren't trying to get under the tax this year. They're just staying under 237 this year, according to a Friedman quote this last week or so.

He had some sort of elbow surgery that takes 3-4 months to come back from.

I wouldn't even give up Caratini for him.

It won't happen because the Mets probably expect some sort of actual return. Personally, I'd like to add him. Because there's no way we'd go into the year counting on him. He'd just be depth.

[tweet] [/tweet] I'd prefer Neshek, but I can get on board with Kintzler on a 2 year deal.

[tweet] [/tweet] Don't know what this entails, but I'm guessing it IS a done deal, just needs to pass his physical, and the money is slightly higher.

Starlin doesn't have negative value. And if the Marlins want to stop a complete boycott of their team, they're not going to attach Yelich, who has a ton of value, with a shitty contract. They can move the Ziegler, Tozawa, and Volquez contracts by attaching a comp pick or top 10 in their system prospects.

Rosenthal tweeted at some point today that he expected the Cubs to sign another late inning option.

If they go with Cobb as the other starter, I think they're going to load up on the pen. They can't expect but so many innings out of Chatwood and Cobb. Plus, Lester could start to fade. Whether its more closing options, I don't know. But, I definitely think the pen gets another really nice piece and probably a decent one, on top of it.

McGee and Cobb seems very likely to me. And I should be happy with it.

At this point, now that we've got Morrow.....I think I want Wade back. Go huge on a 2 year deal and see if he'll bite. 2/36 or even 2/40. Then trade for Archer and replenish whatever you lost in that. Off season over. But, only if you can do it without Javy or Addy.

Well horsefeathers him. I'm fine with that. I didn't want Gregerson on a 2-year deal. St. Louis once again relegated to the 2nd or 3rd tier of player. Oh, I don't care about Gregerson at all. I just had him as a 1/5 guy on most of my mocks.

Was he responding to this? [tweet] [/tweet] Yeah

No NFL thread this week. But this had to go somewhere.