Gilby

at least Stroman also rips barstool on twitter

McKinstry has to be a DFA I would think. Mastrobuoni is a more athletic version who is also seemingly better at SS and CF.

I'd go Mancini RF and Mervis to DH

Cerami says we're still interested in Mancini. TBH, I might value his sourced rumors more than most in Chicago media. He doesn't do it often, but his hit rate is pretty high

I mentioned this a few weeks ago but I would be legitimately interested in Ha Seong Kim. The Pads supposedly want pitching depth, which we have, and Madrigal (or Mastrobuoni I guess) could slide in as his replacement at 2B. Plus it would give them a little more breathing room under the 3rd luxury tax tier. Kim obviously isn't a big bat but was still above average last year and always a wizard with the glove. And if you're into low GB% he has that too. If we're doing the run prevention thing, I am concerned about our current 3B situation. Wisdom was good in 21 and Morel has all the tools but man they were both really shaky there last season.

I think Hosmer is probably still useful and will be an upgrade over last year's 1B production. But cmon Jed, can't we get a little bit more creative here. Trade some of that prospect depth, man.

Padres reportedly open to trading Kim. Since the remaining FA bat options are all shity anyway, get him to play 3B and make the defense comically good.

Yeah after the excitement/relief of getting Swanson, I'm feeling pretty meh about this team. They're not terrible but it's just not enough if they round out the off-season with Barnhart, Smyly, and Mancini. I'll talk myself into Bellinger after he has a good couple games in ST because it's more fun that way. But with the way the off-season has played out and if the idea was always to stay under the LT, I kinda hate that signing right now.

It'd be nice if something like Madrigal + a prospect for Seth Brown could be worked out.

It's interesting that a lot of mediocre FA are getting 2 years with a player opt-out. Is it purely CBT related?

I think I'm fine with the current bullpen and using resources elsewhere if PTR won't allow Jed to go over the LT. Hughes/Boxberger/Alzolay/Thompson is a good circle of trust. Still curious what the Smyly contract number is. They could also do some creative accounting with a Conforto deal similar to the structure of the Turner deal with Boston. He gets some insurance in a year 2 player option at a lower salary in case his shoulder is toast and the Cubs get a lower AAV after a front loaded year 1. Unless that's circumventing the rules a little too much for MLB's liking

Smyly in front of this defense especially is fine. But yeah, hopefully this leaves room for Conforto. I'd be a little disappointed if it's Smyly + Mancini

I think the Stroman deal broke Jed. You know he was really feeling himself after that one and now he's chasing that short term deal high

lol, Kap's green light, open wallet tweet was one week ago tonight. What a week

Maybe I'm way off but I kinda think Correa's total will be in the general vicinity of Turner and Bogaerts (granted I'm shocked those two ended up being that close to each other). To me, it feels like while a lot of fans/pundits had Correa as either the top overall FA or at least top SS the past two off-seasons, teams don't necessarily share that same opinion Plus Jed and Zaidi seem to be cut from a similar "Intelligent spending" cloth