Tim

Tauchman has been almost purely a PH in the second half. He has 11 PA this month so far.

You can keep five OF given the positional flexibility on the roster. Tauchman can stay in his current role.

Now, I've been saying all this about prioritizing pitching while in my head assuming that there's a second catcher in place. Upgrading that position is probably more important than any other move this offseason, even if there's high confidence that second half Amaya is future Amaya.

I also tend to think that whatever I'd like the Cubs to do (sign Soto), Jed may want to break both Shaw and Caissie into MLB next year. The easiest way to do that would be to avoid any position player signings (except catcher). Even if Bellinger opts in, you could still add Shaw and Caissie to the big league roster and just rotate players through off days and the DH spot. As TT has pointed out many times, this still lets everyone play around 75% of the time. It also strengthens the bench a ton and allows Counsell to pick his spots with the younger guys to ease them into the bigs. It also means that we avoid giving hundreds of at bats to the Madrigal, Mastrobuoni, Wisdom type players next year.

Fair enough. There are still all the other reasons I've given for focusing on the pitching, though.

If Little doesn't come back strong, who is the next best option against lefties?

And throwing strikes. And missing bats in the case of Palencia.

Just going by 2024 ranks in fWAR: offense is ranked 11th pitching is ranked 17th If Bellinger opts in the offense loses...nobody? I guess the second catcher spot. Literally every other player is under team control. Pitching loses Hendricks, Lopez, and various chaff. I'm still on the pitching side.

The Cubs will have 5-6 position players projected to 3+ wins Happ Hoerner Swanson Seiya PCA Paredes Busch will be "fine" at 1B with 2-3 fWAR. That just leaves DH & C. The Cubs have gotten 1.9 fWAR from their DH spot this year, which is actually top 10. On the other hand, we've gotten -0.1 fWAR from catcher, which is 29th in baseball this year. If Bellinger opts out, the Cubs almost have to add another bat on top of an improved catcher. Adding one more bat for depth would also be a benefit. The top teams in baseball have been around 30 WAR on the position side. The Cubs probably already project to 23-24 wins with Bellinger and 22-23 wins without him. On the pitching side, There's Shota and Steele at the top of the rotation. Both are very high quality, playoff-rotation worthy starters. Steele has definite durability questions, though. Shota has also been protected throughout the year with extra days of rest, as well. Taillon has been a good back of the rotation starter or fine mid-rotation starter. Assad has been lucky to have the ERA he's had, but he's done it consistently across years now. But he does not eat innings at all and few of us would be comfortable starting him in a playoff game. Then there's Wicks, Brown and Wesneski. They've each looked very good at points (especially Brown), but all have health and effectiveness questions going into 2025. To me, this is a rotation that is okay at the top two (with durability questions), fine at the bottom with Taillon & Assad, plus youngsters. But it has a gaping hole either at the top to push everyone down a notch, or 1-2 guys in the middle that can reliably eat innings and project as playoff starters. For me, the big difference is the depth in Iowa. On the position side, we've got Shaw, Caissie, Alcantara, Moises, and Triantos (and Davis if he could ever stay healthy). Then there's Cam and Jonathon Long at AA. On the pitching side, we've got a bunch of injured guys between Wicks, Brown & Wesneski, plus the injured Horton. This doesn't even touch the bullpen, where the Cubs have to make an investment to avoid the first half struggles of the past few years. Given all that, I'd make my first investment into pitching this offseason.

I've seen Andy Dalton play. He's not going to help them that much.

Burnes is going to receive a big contract with a lot of term and has had declining peripherals for a few years. He may pull out of that, but there's a ton of risk there. Soto? Dollars, deep dish, and more dollars. This is the "ideal" offseason thread, after all.

Sorry, I didn't mean that to sound at all critical. I'm primarily agreeing with you. I know big leaguers want to play every day, but rotating Caissie through LF, RF, 1B & DH can get him plenty of PA without impacting any one veteran very much. I don't think it makes a material difference in Caissie's career, but it doesn't impact the vets, either. It's also a nice reward for a player who has put in a long year of work. It shows the other guys that their time will come, too. With the new restrictions, though, part of it also depends on whether they view Mastro as a guy they want to keep around. He hasn't performed, but I think he's been a "good soldier" and gone up and down all year without complaint. I know people here won't care about that too much, but it could have an impact on other guys in the clubhouse if they feel he's being wronged.

I honestly don't think it matters a ton either way. Looking at PCA's experience last year as an example, those 17 PA (or whatever it was) didn't cause him to come out on fire this year, but it obviously didn't hurt him to go 0-fer, either.

The biggest problem will be the contract he receives. We already have a better first baseman than Alonso. I know there's also a DH, but I really, really don't want to get stuck with Alonso's declining years. Hard, hard pass on Alonso from me.

I'm not going to judge anything until they've gotten through at least four games.

And a third round pick this April.

As of today's game, the Cubs have 3+ win players at LF, RF, SS, 2B. PCA is on a 4+ win pace in CF. Busch is at 2.6 in his rookie year at 1B. Paredes has sucked with the Cubs, but he's been a 3 win player multiple times recently. As you say, then there's catcher. But I could also add a Zobrist super-sub type of role, and DH. If Bellinger opts in, then that takes the DH out of the equation. Part of the difference with Busch and our guys in AAA is age. Shaw is 22, Moises is 20 and the others are 21. There's definitely not quite the same urgency for them to get their MLB careers underway. Alcantara will be the only one on his last option year in 2025. I could absolutely see the Cubs putting Shaw into a Zobrist-style role. I could see them getting Alcantara periodic MLB PA's during the year to have him take over the Tauchman role in 2026. I also think they'll want to prioritize trading a couple of those guys for MLB pitching, though. They may be okay with a Cubs-Dodgers style trade for Alcantara since he's low on options, but I don't think they'd do it for any of the others. And I'm sure they'd rather package him in a deal for a starter.

So ED should have gone 1.8? Okay.

To me, it is ridiculously easy to plan an "ideal" offseason. Sign Soto. That provides a massive boost to the offense and we really don't need much more than that. Sign Kelly or other vet catcher of choice. Trade for a pitcher. We've got too many players on the cusp without a place to play. I'd prefer pretty much any of the Seattle guys, but get a good one from someone. We've got seven top 100 guys. Trade three of them to get someone good. Sign another starting pitcher - my preference would be Flaherty if he's not ridiculously expensive. But get somebody. This also strengthens the bullpen by pushing some of the young starters into the pen. Sign Robertson or another leverage reliever that doesn't require term. That probably puts us over the cap whether Bellinger opts out or not. Maybe try to include Hoerner in the pitching trade to save a little cash. In which case, be sure to keep both Shaw and Triantos to have multiple choices for 2B. Could also skip the second starter as that's more of a luxury than absolute necessity). The offense gets a huge boost from Soto, PCA continued growth, and better catcher play. Replace Hendricks with (seattle pitcher). Add depth to the leverage side of the pen and have Hodge for a whole year. With just expected luck on health & performance I think that's a 90-95 win team.

That's definitely some minor league camera work! Great swing, though. One more spoonful of wheaties and that's a hr.

It does ask what our ideal offseason would be. The realistic, ideal offseason would be a different question.

I'll give a hint. A current Bears player scored for the winning team in that game.

Yep

I don't know if it's been mentioned here, but apparently Fields beat Cousins here in Week 1.

My wife got her master's from NIU. Told about the big victory, her reply was, "They play football?"