Jason Ross

I really need there to be a damn option to delay ESPN notifications. The ESPN notifications come in before MLB.TV, but I'm also too forgetful to consistently turn them off and on.

Counsell said 75 pitches for Shota

Miggy!

I wonder if gun is running hot.

I feel like every year we do this whole thing where people pick a player who didn't look good in glorified practice, get all worried about him, then said good player is a good player once the season starts and we all go about our merry way. Do I think the Cubs will score a boat load of runs? No - Yamamoto and Sasaki have good stuff. And while I suspect Sasaki will be more up and down at the start of his MLB career then when he settles in, as he is adjusting to some great hitters, I'm not betting against him like that, either. The dude has some gas and that splitter is so funky. Regardless, it seems silly to start acting like the Cubs offense is like, scary bad or incapable of scoring runs before they even play a game this year. On paper, they have a good offense.

I see a lot of ya'll talking about Amaya's defense/steals/etc...Reminded me of this (relatively quick) video from Foolish Baseball. Guy is quite good at baseball data and analytics and is really entertaining. This is a cool look into that discussion (do you steal on the pitcher or the catcher?).

While the lineups for the Tokyo series have yet to be announced, it's safe to presume that the Cubs' top prospect will make his MLB debut in Japan and then be included on the Opening Day roster Stateside. What should we expect from the former first-round pick in 2025? Image courtesy of © Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images Entering the offseason, it didn't look like Matt Shaw was poised to open the season with the big-league squad. With quality MLB starters in Isaac Paredes and Nico Hoerner manning the positions at which Shaw is most capable, it looked like the top prospect was going to end up in Iowa as insurance—until the Cubs shook up the roster with the Kyle Tucker trade. Out went entrenched starting third baseman Paredes, which created a Shaw-sized hole in the infield. With the rest of the offseason yielding only marginal infield alternatives, only an injury could have stopped the former first-round pick from claiming his position in the Opening Day lineup. This week, the Cubs announced Shaw would be making the trip to Japan, so (although another round of the same dilemmas, this time with more players involved and no more roster spots available, awaits when the team gets back to the States) it's officially Matt Shaw season on the North Side. Since he's clearly going to play at least these two games against the Dodgers, the question will now shift from "Can Shaw actually claim the position right away?" to "What is he going to do in 2025?" The reality is that there are a wide range of possible outcomes for Shaw this season. Many are good, but long periods of struggle are also very much on the table, and plenty of possible permutations land between the two extremes. It would be great if Shaw just showed up and crushed MLB pitching, but I think it's important to remember that such stories are few and far between in the annals of the game. We only have to look at the routes that Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch took to MLB stability to see how it may play out for the team's latest infusion of youth. Both Crow-Armstrong and Busch debuted in 2023, but struggled in tiny samples. Last year, both ended up with lots of big-league playing time, but each had ups and downs as the year went. The Cubs' speedy center fielder really struggled through his first run, posting a 64 wRC+ through the All-Star break and looking generally overmatched at the plate. Then, through a mechanical change and a better plate approach, a much better player emerged. While he slumped toward the end, that was a fun preview of what could be. Busch, conversely, saw the reverse: a strong start, followed by periods of struggle. By the end of the year, the Cubs' first baseman showed improved contact ability and was much better on defense. Both are somewhat cautionary tales about how prospects' rookie seasons will go. Looking league-wide, the most highly-touted prospects have encountered adversity, including Jackson Holliday, Jackson Chourio, and James Wood, so expecting that should be the default position. Shaw will probably see periods like this himself. Just looking at the schedule, Shaw is likely to see some flat-out amazing pitching in his first month as the Cubs will play the Dodgers (seven times), Arizona (7), San Diego (6), Texas (3) and Philadelphia (3) before the calendar turns into May. Those are some of the best pitching staffs on the planet, and it doesn't even take into account that the environment at Wrigley over that span is unlikely to be very hitter-friendly. Add in questions of how well his unique hitting mechanics are going to play at the highest level, and there's a good chance that Shaw's first month will be a series of hard lessons, rather than a stretch of sustained success. If this sounds like I'm being a bit of a Debbie Downer, the good news is that I think this is the normal progression for almost any offensive prospect in baseball today. Ultimately, I do think Shaw's game translates well to the highest level. Things like contact rate are great indicators of how a player can expect to handle MLB pitching, and Shaw has made high levels of contact at every stop. He's mashed fastballs, regardless of velocity. He's athletic and should add baserunning value. The ZiPS projection system he's going to be a stone's throw from being as good as Paredes, even as a rookie. While I think the first 45 days or so for Shaw may be rough, I also think we will see him turn the corner around May 12. That marks the end of the Cubs' incredibly tough first portion of the season, and should coincide with warmer temps at home. The Cubs may not play a single team with a winning record between May 12 and Jun. 5, as they will play Miami, Colorado, Cincinnati, and the Chicago White Sox over that span. It wouldn't be surprising to see Shaw go on a mini-heater then, consolidating his early learning and gaining confidence along the way. Already, Shaw has shown a penchant for working through new levels, even as he's made approach changes. Last season saw him struggle early in Tennessee, fighting to find his power after he worked on making better swing choices. Nonetheless, he was able to finish with a wRC+ at Double A north of 140, and at the end of the year, the Southern League gave him their MVP award. The righty then struggled initially in Iowa, only to once again finish his time with a wRC+ over 140. He's capable of taking in new information, processing it, and learning from it. You want to see that. What does this all mean? Have some patience. There will be days on which the kid is going to look bad at the plate. He's going to get fooled by some nasty stuff; he's going to expand the zone; and he's going to make mistakes. When he does, don't despair for him. It would have been easy for the Cubs to give up on Crow-Armstrong in mid-July last year and send him back to Iowa, but their patience paid off. The Cubs, as an organization, have shown an improving ability to transition young talent into becoming MLB players. Ben Brown, Porter Hodge, Justin Steele, Nico Hoerner, Crow-Armstrong, and Busch all count as success stories. By the end of the year, I feel pretty confident that the rookie is going to make some positive noise for the Cubs. Does that mean he's going to hit 20 bombs, carry a 115 wRC+ and win Rookie of the Year? Could be. But it could also be a situation in which the overall line is mediocre, sporting a wRC+ that starts with a nine and an OBP that is closer to .300 than .330. Yet, under the hood, improvement will keep going apace. By October, Shaw has a chance to be a key cog and a consistent performer. At that time of year, as they say, there are no rookies. Are you excited for Matt Shaw's 2025 debut? What are your predictions for his rookie year? Do you think he will win the Rookie of the Year? Let us know in the comment section below! View full article

Again, if it's Thompson, whatever, he was going to be DFA'd. Maybe the Tigers like him enough to take him on their 40-man, but I'm not entirely certain that they do, so I'm not really all that interested in going down a line where we're pawning players off on Detroit we have no idea of their interest. It's very easy for us to just say "well just send them Thompson" but that assumes a ton. Beyond that, I'm not sure there's any reason for the Cubs to need to option Gage Workman. If he's entirely out of his depth, like a 60 wRC+ and looks entirely lost, I'm not sure the Cubs are going to want to give up a prospect to option him. Workman is 25. My understanding is that they'd have to carry him on the 40-man - the Cubs are already in positions where they're DFA'ing Michael Arias and Alexander Canario - players they didn't want to carry on the 40 in Iowa or below. Workman, if he looks entirely lost in Chicago, is probably then in that same category as Canario - in the DFA bin - or in this case, in the "return to sender" bin. If he's not looking horrible, they'll carry him in that 4th bench spot, use his glove and let him sparingly. The Cubs weren't willing to keep Arias and Canario, I'd guess they'd be uninterested in carrying a similarly aged (to Canario) prospect who couldn't add value in Chicago, either. I'd guess the Cubs view him as a "free bench option" or a player they can ship back to Detroit if they don't want to keep him.

Former Lance Lynn was underrated. I think 37 year old Lance Lynn is pretty accurately rated, however. He had career low K rates, average walk rates, and his HR/FB% seems a bit under what it should have been (he was at 19% the season before, down to 11% last year despite his barrel% going up to his career high). His xERA was 4.91 and his xFIP was 4.39. His wOBA was .319 but his xwOBA was .340. If you told me he could band aid a rotational spot for a portion of the season and wasn't a complete disaster I don't think that's a crazy concept. But I also don't think he's underrated any longer, either.

I don't really like Colin Rea, but I like Rea a bit more than Lynn currently. Lynn looks entirely toasted. The ERA was fine, but his Savant page is...real rough. He was not above the 50% mark on a single skill last year and he feels ripe for some real regression , It was a slight step up from the year prior, but I can't imagine a situation where signing him does anything for me. At best it's a lateral move, but then you're sticking with Rea in the BP which, I just think the Cubs have better options. And Lynn, at 37, probably isn't keen on "go hang out in Iowa" specially when Brown and Wicks are more likely callups. Ultimately, a one year deal isn't going to kill the Cubs, especially with the room they have under the LT, I just can't see a positive in this if it happens on an MLB deal. That isn't to say it's going to tank the Cubs, but it feels like an unforced error that probably doesn't work out positively, though it could be a quick reaction to an injury in which I'm more lenient on this. So in the end, it's either a somewhat odd "luxury" signing or an injury related signing - neither of which excite me.

I always forget someone. Ryan Braiser has been my blindspot this year. I'll type up a mock bullpen and he won't even exist on it.

I guess if it's someone we're DFA'ing, then maybe? But even then, I just don't see any reason to engage with Detroit right now on giving something back if the plan is to keep Workman regardless.

He probably will struggle at times. But the cool thing about Workman is he offers an immediate floor of being a high level defender at 3b, SS, 2b and 1b. And the Cubs don't ask a lot about the fourth bench option (Luis Vazqeuz spent 25% of the year on the bench last season and barely played). I see no reason as of now to send a prospect to Detroit to keep him in Iowa, while also forcing through Brujan who has a pretty narrow pathway to relevancy in Chicago. Roll with Gage. If the glove doesn't show what it looks like it does, if he can't hit...he's not worth the fourth bench spot - and isn't an MLB player - then you return him to Detroit. If the glove is good, he'll offer a floor regardless of the bat struggles, and he probably wouldn't be playing much anyways. Keep him in the position and see the bat progression.

I think that's fine. Brujan is kind of whatever. He'd be nice depth, but he's probably more on the redundant side of things. For example, and injury and there's a prospect ahead of him. So, for example, if an OF'er goes down, Caissie or Alcantara will be next up. On the infield, it's Triantos. If the Cubs didn't have that kind of immediate depth, he could probably more easily find his way into a real spot, but the Cubs are set up in a way he'd probably need two injuries to get on the roster.

Probably Brujan. Workman can't be sent to the MiLB, and while Brujan can handle CF, I suspect that the Cubs, in an event of a PCA injury, would be okay with allowing Suzuki/Tucker/Happ/Berti to handle CF for a day or so before Alcantara took it over (he's already on the 40). Brujan hasn't looked awful this spring by any means, but he's been awful at the MLB level so far, is decently far removed from being a highly thought of prospect, and looks much closer to that dreaded Quad-A guy more than anything. There will be a few weeks where and injury can change the math, but I'd suspect today that the answer of "who goes" is Brujan be a notable amount.

I would say anything different is unintentional. He just gave an interview to Joel Shusterman of Yahoo Sports where he said he didn't change anything offensively this offseason outside of slightly changing bat size (from 33.5 to 34 inch).

Sincerely having a blast doing this. Great conversation each time.

In 2024, catcher was one of the weakest spots on the Cubs roster. They attempted to upgrade at the position at the deadline, but came up short. How does the position look as the Cubs head towards Opening Day 2025? Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images To put it bluntly: 2024 was not a good year for Cubs catchers. Yan Gomes, coming off a strong 2023 campaign, finally had father time catch up to him and his play fell off significantly. Miguel Amaya took a step backwards (at least in the first half) and was unable to take the reins of the position. On the season, according to fangraphs, the Cubs finished with a negative WAR at the position (good for 26th in baseball), a 69 wRC+ (25th in baseball), and had a bottom-10 defensive WAR at the position. There were some positives, however, in that Miguel Amaya tweaked his swing later on and there were positive impacts. Through the first half of the season, Amaya struggled immensely, posting a dreadful 60 wRC+ and looking generally lost and out matched. The Cubs identified his mechanics as a point of emphasis and had Amaya debut a new swing post All-Star break to resounding success. The catcher put up a 113 wRC+ in his final 144 plate appearances. More excitingly, it wasn't BABIP fueled, meaning there remains some belief that this is partially repeatable. He did slump over the last month, which is a good reminder that he's not entirely out of the woods, but it gives him a shot at being in the Cubs' plans in the future. Entering the offseason, the Cubs had two paths forward at the position; they could look to upgrade entirely over Amaya, pushing him down a notch, or look for a competent partner to pair with Amaya in a 1a/1b type of relationship. With options at the position thin, the Cubs opted for the latter. After being connected to players such as Danny Jansen, who would eventually sign with Tampa Bay, the Cubs would sign Carson Kelly to a two-year contract. Coming off a strong offensive season, Kelly will help raise the floor for the Cubs in the event that Amaya's changes don't stick. It will also help improve the Cubs' defense at the position, as MLB's Statcast had him in the 77th percentile for catching defense in 2024. The Cubs will likely only carry these two catchers on their MLB roster at the start of the season, but catchers have a tendency to get hurt with the physical nature of the job, so depth matters. To help supplement in Iowa, the Cubs signed veteran catcher Carlos Perez. Perez spent 2024 with the Oakland Athletics' Triple-A team, and provides the Cubs with veteran depth. Perez won't wow anybody, as he's has had an up-and-down professional career thus far, but he's got some MLB experience. You can do worse from a third-catcher-perspective. The good news for the Cubs is that the former Athletics backstop isn't the the only option the Cubs have at the position, and their other option provides a a much higher ceiling. Where things get a little murkier is that one of the Cubs best prospects, Moises Ballesteros, also plays catcher, with the caveat of "we don't really know how well he plays the position yet". I wrote about Ballesteros in our look at the top 20 prospects in the system, but the short and quick of it is that Big Mo's bat has all the hallmarks of being for real, but the glove is much more of a question mark. If the Cubs have an injury to either Amaya or Kelly, it will be interesting to see if the team goes with the safer, lower-ceiling veteran option in Carlos Perez or if the team believes in Ballesteros' glove enough to promote him. The Cubs clearly went into the offseason looking to improve the position, and it's probable that they have done just that. How much they improved is probably more of the question — if Carson Kelly reverts to the 2023 version offensively (.565 OPS) and if Amaya doesn't continue his second-half improvements, the position will likely will need to be re-addressed at mid-season. On the flip side, the Cubs have two catchers who both could be legitimate MLB starters while also having a wild card in Moises Ballesteros looming in the wake. What do you think of the Cubs catching situation as they enter the 2025 season? Do you believe in the improvements from Miguel Amaya? Do you think they will need to go with Ballesteros at any time? Let us know in the comments section below! View full article

It's already likely that Gage Workman is going to make the MLB roster. Shaw hasn't had a ton of PAs in ST, but Cowles basically missed all of Triple-A due to injury last year. While Workman and Cowles offer some upside, neither are thought of (industry wide) in the same realm as Shaw. Going with two prospects who have basically not seen Triple-A from the get-go does not seem like a great idea.

The Cubs have a pretty clear-cut starter at the shortstop position in Dansby Swanson, as Swanson has established himself as one of the best at his position defensively over the last handful of years. What does the rest of the depth chart look like for the Cubs at short? And who might be the next man up in the event of an injury? Entering year three of Dansby Swanson's seven-year contract, the Cubs are in good hands at the position. Over his first two seasons with the Cubs, Swanson has been worth 8.2 fWAR, which is sixth in Major League Baseball, and has been the best defensive shortstop in terms of dWAR. This is especially noteworthy as other 2022 free agents such as Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, and Carlos Correa, who got larger and longer contracts, have been the 8th, 11th, and 18th most valuable at the position. The Cubs shortstop is not without some faults, as he posted a somewhat disappointing 99 wRC+ in 2024, but with the way Wrigley suppressed offense all season, some of this will likely be fixed all on its own. As we enter 2025, it wouldn't be shocking to see him take a little bit of a step back as he enters his age-31 season, but he's a steady option and, with proper health, will be a stalwart in the Cubs lineup and will flirt with another four-win season. Behind Swanson, though, the Cubs have a far less defined depth chart. Several players, including Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw, Nicky Lopez, and Gage Workman, could see time at short. All can handle the position, but for many reasons, none are guaranteed to be the "next man up." Nico Hoerner, in a perfect world, would probably be the "backup" at the position., While the Cubs will have him penciled in as their starting second baseman when they come back stateside from Japan (Hoerner will not make the trip for the two-game Tokyo Series), his availability at the position is complicated by his return from injury. Fresh off a right flexor surgery, it's probably fair to wonder how his arm would hold up. I have little doubt he will be fine at second (which requires far less arm strength on a play-to-play basis), but how the Cubs feel about his recovery could make his ability to handle the left side of the infield a little less obvious. As the year progresses, his ability to be the backup there will likely grow as he gets healthier and stronger, but es. However, it is early, and I don't think Hoerner will be a definitive answer. Matt Shaw appears to be on track to make his MLB debut in Tokyo and could be an emergency option at short if needed. Shaw played the position extensively in Maryland and has logged 74 games since his draft day with the Cubs in their minor league system. While Shaw has played the position in the past, most agree he will not likely be good enough at the highest level. The former Terp has put in lots of work at third and might be able to moonlight a little bit at short, but I'm not sure he's a long-term fix in the event of a significant injury to Swanson. Never say never, though. Two players on the fringe of making the MLB roster but could provide cover are Rule-5 pick Gage Workman and former White Sox infielder Nicky Lopez. Workman has had a wonderful spring so far and is likely putting the Cubs in a difficult position with him as they will either have to carry him on the 26-man roster all season or return him to the Tigers. "Tater" can play high-level defense across the infield, and despite never playing above Double-A, he would give the Cubs cover across the board if they keep him. Lopez, who was signed to a minor league contract last month to provide depth and coverage, could also make the initial roster, with Hoerner still rehabbing from his offseason surgery. While Lopez is not an exciting player at first look, he did manage a whopping five-win season with the Royals in 2021 and has a pretty darn good glove. It's possible that Lopez could claim a permanent bench spot and use his contact ability and defense to carve out a role as the backup shortstop. At the top of the shortstop depth chart sits Swanson, who is among the Cubs' most entrenched starters at any position. The Cubs are relatively well stocked at the position from a numbers game, even if the exact pecking order behind Swanson is a little challenging to determine. They will likely carry three or four players who could conceivably play shortstop through the season, giving the Cubs flexibility if they face a worst-case scenario. What do you think of the Cubs depth chart at shortstop? Who would get the first chance even if Swanson got hurt? Let us know in the comments below! View full article

He hasn't with the Cubs. But he was named to the Spring Breakout Roster. Expect him to get some run in one of those two games.

Mark Bellhorn. Has to be with those flaps.