Backtobanks

Our only hope is that they rearrange the schedule like last year so we only play other Central division teams.

I would still like to see a deal with the Pirates. Bote + Mills for Murgrove + Frasier. The Pirates save some money and the Cubs get a dependable 2B and SP.

Bold: Happ alone is projected to anywhere from $2.5-4.6 by MLBTR so I don't know where those numbers are coming from. For luxury tax purposes, Bote is $3 million by himself. So within the luxury tax, which the Ricketts have treated as at least a soft cap throughout, the Cubs are moving possibly as much as $15 million in those trades just between Contreras, Happ, and Bote You can play with the numbers all you want, but PTR isn't going to add $37 million to the payroll without getting rid of that much or more.

Just Contreras' salary? Did you miss Happ, Mills, and Bote? That's something like another $15 million, IIRC bringing the drop to like $70 million between finished contracts and cuts. Also tbf, you've also posted that Luis Arraez can hit leadoff for the Chicago Cubs and might be worth giving up Willson Contreras so like...we're all speculating here! Since we are speculating, *can they really* do better than going Rizzo/Baez/Lindor/Bryant in the IF and a ton of depth around that group? I definitely doubt there's a realistic move out there actually available to be made that would have the impact adding Lindor to the lineup would. There's your high contact leadoff hitter who also adds to or maintains skills the team already has (defense, power, baserunning, speed) 6 of those guys are the oldest, cheapest FAs - a bucket that includes multiple guys who've outright said money isn't their #1. How much, realistically, is Jed Lowrie going to sign for? Jason Castro? Same for all those pitchers, including two guys coming from overseas who aren't coming for the deluge of money 2020 MLB FA will throw at a couple 32-33 YO pitchers. Who in that bunch is realistically getting even as little as $5-6 million guaranteed? I expect any real signings the Cubs make to be spread out over a bunch of smaller signings rather than shooting for one "big" lower tier first division guy like Odorizzi or Bradley Jr. or even someone a notch above like Semien I don't know where you're getting your salary numbers for 2021. Happ + Bote + Mills is basically $3million (or less). I would expect Lester to get at least $5-6 million, Schwarber will probably get $5 million, the old guys and the overseas pitchers will all get in the $1-2 million range, Lindor is around $20 million, and Margot is around $3million. That's adding about $37 million while dumping about $11 million.

As I posted before (about not knowing the payroll situation), I don't think PTR is going to approve 7 FA signings plus adding Lindor's salary while only disposing of Contreras' salary. If the Cubs have that much money to spend, we can certainly do better than that.

Alcala + Arraez for Contreras? :barf: Luckily the Twins have Garver and Jeffers at C and aren't really a Contreras match Are we really that sold on Arraez's first 487 ML PAs across two seasons? I'm not. He finished the year ice cold and injured, doesn't play good defense/is only nominally a 2B, is a slow player who rocks a career .354 BABIP and extremely low power (his pro IsoSLG is .087 over almost 2500 PAs heading into his age 24 season), and also is pretty easily neutralized by breaking stuff (sub-.300 wOBA over 475 pitches between 2019-2020) As I said, those first 487 ML PA were as a 22 and 23 year old, which makes the numbers even more impressive. He doesn't strike out much and has an OBP of .390. The Cubs are looking for reducing strike outs and getting on base in a leadoff man, so we can put our best hitters back into spots where they can drive in runs. Maybe if we wait to see what he does in the next 2-3 years, we might have to give up a lot more to get him plus pay him a ton of money in arbitration. This is only speculation by Rosenthal, but it looks better than the speculation about Semien at $13million per year.

Alcala + Arraez for Contreras?

From MLBTR: Rosenthal still outlines a possibility of Minnesota moving someone like second baseman Luis Arraez in order to slide Jorge Polanco over to second base. Arraez plays 2B and has a slash line of .331/.390/.429/.819 over 2 seasons at 22 and 23 years old. Looks like he could solve the 2B and leadoff problems.

I'm still not sure what the payroll situation is because of all the mixed messages - trade Bryant, keep Bryant, trade Darvish, "in play" with Semien, looking for "diamonds in the rough" with Bourque and Holder, passing on DeSclafani and Wacha for low salaries, etc.

From MLBTR: The Rays added a veteran source of innings to their rotation Friday morning, announcing a one-year deal with right-hander Michael Wacha. The CAA client will reportedly land a $3MM guarantee on the heels of a rough 2020 season with the Mets. Looks like a smart move at that price.

Long overdue. Josh Gibson deserves the title of the greatest player of all-time. Certainly one of the greatest of all-time, but it's hard to compare different eras without knowing the level of competition, the size of the ballparks, the accuracy of the statistics, etc.

I was never interested in Margot until I realized that he's one of the few CF that is young, inexpensive, and available. Apparently. the Cubs don't want Happ in CF anymore and their options seem to be really limited. I would love to find any option for CF that would fit our budget and was actually good.

All of the speculation about Contreras to the Rays, how about Caratini to the Rays for Margot? Saves them a few bucks while improving their catching and gets the Cubs a young CF. Sign Grossman for depth in the OF and Happ can play LF, 3B, or 2B as needed depending on future transactions (i.e. Bryant). I like Margot for Caratini a lot if Willson doesn't get moved. Though I don't see it making sense to not move Willson, unless maybe you move Darvish or Hendricks. Which I guess brings us to: I see the merits of moving Darvish. Always better to move pitching sooner rather than later, and Darvish is incredibly valuable right now. That said, like Brett alludes to at the end there, if you're moving Darvish you ought to just mostly blow it all up. It might make sense to trade Darvish (for a huge haul) if you could be sure the offense would rebound, but that's far from a sure thing. You would need to get a good young SP to put in the rotation right away, a good young position player that steps into the lineup, and some very good prospects.

I like Grossman a lot, I think he brings to the table a lot of what our offense lacks. He's also probably average in CF? My only worry with him is if his offensive efficiency would suffer some in an everyday role. I think if it's an either/or, you're basically debating between an elite defense/average offense and a good defense/good offense. Net production is likely about the same, so it's about cost and what shape you'd rather have it come in. All of the speculation about Contreras to the Rays, how about Caratini to the Rays for Margot? Saves them a few bucks while improving their catching and gets the Cubs a young CF. Sign Grossman for depth in the OF and Happ can play LF, 3B, or 2B as needed depending on future transactions (i.e. Bryant).

Especially at 1/3 of the cost.

Wow. Had no idea he was still controlled and that I forgot he was the closer for a lot of the season. He was a FA. The other potential answer is Tepera, who was under control and was non-tendered, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt on b2b's accuracy considering Tepera pitched in the 9th inning exactly 1 time as a Cub. I guess it's a matter of semantics. While the Cubs had control of Jeffress, they didn't re-sign him, extend him, or trade him, so they let him go for nothing.

As I've suggested before, they should sell the team for an obscene profit. They could keep the rooftops, neighborhood, and luxury hotel and probably make more money when the new owners actually spend enough to have a winning team.

I don't know how you can be bored with all of the Cubs' activity. We traded Theo for Hoyer, Venable for Harris, Kasper for an announcer to be named later, we dumped our starting LF and closer for nothing, etc. while those other silly teams are working on their rosters.

COVID has raised the price of quite a few things regardless of demand already. Businesses and corporations use any excuse to raise prices. If it was regardless of demand then demand would be unable to support arbitrarily higher prices If the higher prices are on necessities, then people don't have a choice as to whether they pay the higher prices or not.

The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. After they possibly collect on the insurance claim, they will increase ticket prices to cover the increase in their insurance premiums. It's a never ending cycle. They will increase ticket prices if/when demand allows for it, not to cover the cost of something else. COVID has raised the price of quite a few things regardless of demand already. Businesses and corporations use any excuse to raise prices.

As Long as the Pirates are willing to dump salary, how about Mills & Strumph for Musgrove and Frasier.

Great move by the WS. They are in a win-now mode and picked by a really solid #3 starter for $9 million, plus they have enough good prospects to go beyond 2021.

It's hard to judge Bryant's worth in this offseason, so it's hard to call trade proposals "terrible" until we get a sense of what teams are actually offering and how desperate the Cubs are to trim payroll.

The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. After they possibly collect on the insurance claim, they will increase ticket prices to cover the increase in their insurance premiums. It's a never ending cycle.

How about Caratini and Mills to the Rockies for Gray and Ryan Vilade?