Backtobanks

Especially in the woeful NL Central.

After raising the payroll to reach mediocrity and therefore contention in the NL Central, it doesn't make sense to me to trade Contreras. A few weeks ago when we didn't have money to spend and hadn't signed anyone that could help this year's team, it might have made sense to trade Contreras and Bryant and do a total rebuild. Of course, Bryant is still a possibility because of his contract/FA status.

Yeah, he durable, cheap, and has some potential for being decent. Certainly seems like a good pick for BOR starter.

As long as they're selling throw, in an extra prospect or two and get Story too.

I wonder if they have checked in on Zambrano and Colon.

Kuhl and Frazier would be nice You got an extra $7 million laying around, because PTR doesn't.

The problem is that PTR's definition of "a mid level FA" means somebody willing to sign a 1 year contract under $2 million.

Does anybody really think PTR is going to pony up the money to pay Wong, especially with other teams interested?

Or it lets them wait to see if the catching market develops in the regular season to flip romine or contreras without having to throw Amaya to the wolves. Ie our entire strategy from 2011-2014 They could trade Amaya for a couple of 18 year olds to keep within their timeline.

Certainly in the discussion for GOAT. RIP.

I think many of us agree with you, but I think all of the posts are just boiling-over frustration about the Cubs this off season.

I'm still holding out for the hope that we play the same kind of schedule as last year. We might still look pretty good against the NL Central and AL Central teams with the exception of the Twins and WS. If we have to play against "real" ML teams, it's going to be pretty ugly.

I'm seeing a lot of pissed off Cubs fans on social media. I can't be the only one here that had no desire seeing Lester pitch in 2021 on the Cubs. 2015-2018 were awesome and he's one of the best free agent signings in Cubs history and Chicago sports history but it's pretty clear he was done in 2019 and completely done in 2020. I get that people are pissed with everything the Cubs are doing at this point but I can't get there with this move and there will be time to mend fences with Jon and welcome him back when he's done. Apparently he was pretty set on returning to the Cubs, asking for $5m a year at the start of the offseason and again going back to the Cubs and asking them to come close to what the Nationals were about to give him and the best they could come up with (according to Gordo) was somewhere around $2m a year. You wonder how much of that is the Cubs not being able to afford more and how much of it is the Cubs realizing he’s cooked and making the token effort to resign. I would have been ok with Jon returning for under $5m next season but since clearly we aren’t going to contend I’m at least somewhat excited so see if we can use the magical pitch lab to unearth 1-2 quality starters. May fail miserably but again the ship has sailed on 2021 contention and if we want this to be more of a 2 year retool than a true gut rebuild then we probably shouldn’t be bringing back 37 year old pitchers Chatwood signed too. Thank God we snapped up Miller before these teams realized that Lester and Chatwood aren't any good.

He fills all of the necessary requirements - he's cheap.

I was surprised that he got that much.

From MLBTR: Mets, Cubs Had “Recent Trade Talks” About Kris Bryant They hint that either Davis or Smith might be the return.

Bigger fish cost more money.

From Cubs Insider: https://www.cubsinsider.com/2021/01/02/not-talking-seriously-about-jake-cronenworth-may-give-clues-to-cubs-plans/ This is totally insane. The Cubs never considered someone with his skills who is controlled for 5 more years while making the league minimum. "They didn't want to lock in someone at 2B for the next 5 years"? If Hoerner develops into a solid ML, he could take over at SS, if they decide to not extend Baez, move to CF, or trade from a position of strength to acquire what they need.

Speaking of Trump, I think we'll be getting a lot of lies and claims of fake news from the Cubs starting with Hoyer's claim that the Darvish trade had nothing to do with money. Stay tuned.

Even Ben Zobrist has had enough: https://www.chicagotribune.com/real-estate/elite-street/ct-re-cubs-ben-zobrist-selling-house-near-wrigley-20201229-cpodxbzqxjd2lip4exl5twd7se-story.html?fbclid=IwAR2gTs5LFZ9q4A12s78rg6Dc6OGNsDiPz-NGU0d_TN6nETgRDH11i-ypP8g

I miss all of his wacky three team trade proposals. Most of them made more sense than the embarrassing Darvish trade.

Like the boss praising you before giving you the pink slip. Do we want to start a pool as to how soon he's traded?

I wonder if there’s a veteran catcher out there with a long, storied career who could mentor Amaya for a season. Perhaps even has a ton of experience in the NL central and could pass along that expertise as well. (At this point, might as well right? Burn it all down) We don't need a veteran catcher to mentor Amaya, we need somebody to teach him how to hit ML pitching. He's not a great hitter down in the low minors.

Part of Jed's quote - "Have to be more efficient with fewer employees" actually means fewer ML players.

Davies?