Bertz
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Everything posted by Bertz
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The Cubs continue to cast a wide net on late inning relievers. Hardly a surprise after how many issues the team's bullpen had in 2024. Two separate names were mentioned Monday afternoon from the winter meetings In between injuries, AJ Minter has been one of the best lefty handed relievers in the league the last 5 years, sporting a 2.85 ERA over 243 innings. A hip injury which required surgery ended Minter's season in August. Kyle Finnegan was the Nationals' closer for much of the year, though he was non tendered last month as his arbitration salary exceeded what the Nationals were comfortable paying him. Both names are in line with Kirby Yates and Andrew Chafin, who the team was tied to last week by Bruce Levine. Not exactly playing against type, Jed Hoyer seems to be zeroing in on relievers who have late inning stuff and experience but aren't quite in line for multi-year deals. -
Mariners Listening On Offers For Right-Hander Luis Castillo
Bertz replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
Specifically qualifying "young" starters you say? -
It seems like the team is aiming higher, and that's great, but depending on where we net out with the other SP I have a feeling this is going to be the deal I look back on and wonder why we couldn't have nabbed him.
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I don't actually think it's happening either (does Taillon just disappear?) but a rotation with front four of Crochet, Steele, Castillo, and Shota is probably the best in baseball. At worst a stones throw behind the Phillies/Dodgers/Braves. It's also in addition to talent pretty high in watchability.
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This is easily the most cost efficient upgrade they can make on the roster by virtue of the replacement level roster filler he's displacing.
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Kelly has also had his fair share of injuries which have dragged his performance down. Now that's not a good thing obviously, but it does give you optimism that in a situation where he's being asked to carry ~50% of the load instead of ~75% you're more likely to get fresher legs and that higher level offense.
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Catcher is currently the Cubs' worst position by a significant margin. Looking at Fangraphs depth charts the Cubs are #24 right now. This will, depending on exactly how you apportion playing time, bring them up to roughly average. Cardinals at 13 and Rangers at 18 are all bunched up within half a win, and Kelly should bring the Cubs up into that tier.
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I don't think this guy has ever been right about anything, but I'm happy to ignore that because the idea of adding Castillo and Crochet at the same time is enough to make me faint
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Hearing Assad referred to as a depth guy, and getting listed after Brown and Wesneski, warms my heart.
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The team is ABSOLUTELY lacking depth options on the position player side. They have zero veteran depth options aside from Matt Thaiss. It is the starting lineup and the prospects at Iowa with nothing of quality in between
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Yeah, trading Bellinger and cutting Tauchman makes someone who can cover CF an underrated roster need. Unless maybe they simply bring Tauchman back? Wouldn't be unprecedented, they cut Leiter early last winter and brought him back a few months later.
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If you're spreading the money around, there's no reason to filter out guys like Goldschmidt or Joc. who are not direct upgrades. That's the whole point, Bellinger's $25M becomes e.g. 2 guys at $10M a piece and another at $5M.
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Again, are they? The Cubs have a generic need for another bat and would like another starter and reliever. Aside from a defensive minded infielder like Ha Seong Kim, they have a roster fit for essentially anyone. And financially if Bellinger’s gone I'm not sure if anyone left outside of Burnes is outside of their financial orbit.
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Are they? 14 of MLBTR's top 20 FAs are still on the board. 36 of the top 50.
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I know there has been a small amount of smoke around Santander, and he doesn't sound imminent so the timing would likely work out. My guess though is there's less of a direct replacement planned and more of a "spread the money" planned. Like a lot of the rumoring says they're not just looking to dump his salary. Now maybe that's face-saving (in fact it's almost surely face-saving), but either way the reality is probably less of a clean break and more of something else coming back. Let's call it Bellinger for Ryan Pressly because I think that's the cleanest deal. You've now got closer checked off the list and added $10M to the piggybank, leaving ~$40M total. I wouldn't call that plenty to do the rest of the offseason shopping, but it's doable. And if you knock out SP with a trade for someone cost controlled, it's suddenly plenty.
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I like Carson Kelly. I wanted Jansen more, but the difference between the two feels like one of floor vs. ceiling, and given the debacle behind the plate last year I'm not going to cry about raising the floor. I'll say too that signing Kelly feels like the most urgent item on the to-do list by an order of magnitude. There's just not any other area of Free Agency shallow enough for it to be one guy or bust, but catcher is there. I like Kelly, I wouldn't be happy but I could stomach Diaz or Bethancourt, and everyone else is sub-Thaiss level. And signing a catcher is one of the few things that is completely independent of Cody Bellinger's place on the roster, so it needs to get done here at the meetings IMO.
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Alex Bregman is totally getting $200M now
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Here on the first day of the winter meetings, he Athletic provided an article touching on a number of Cubs subjects. Among them Sahadev Sharma provided an update on the Cubs plans at catcher: Carson Kelly was written up last week as a Cubs target by Bruce Levine. Given his place as the last remaining starting caliber catcher on the market, it seems likely his free agency comes to a head here at the winter meetings. If free agency doesn't prove a viable path for upgrading the position, it will be interesting to see what the team attempts via trade. Logan O'Hoppe was reportedly the team's target at the trade deadline, but the Angels seem intent on attempting to compete in 2025. View full rumor
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Here on the first day of the winter meetings, he Athletic provided an article touching on a number of Cubs subjects. Among them Sahadev Sharma provided an update on the Cubs plans at catcher: Carson Kelly was written up last week as a Cubs target by Bruce Levine. Given his place as the last remaining starting caliber catcher on the market, it seems likely his free agency comes to a head here at the winter meetings. If free agency doesn't prove a viable path for upgrading the position, it will be interesting to see what the team attempts via trade. Logan O'Hoppe was reportedly the team's target at the trade deadline, but the Angels seem intent on attempting to compete in 2025. -
The Rizzler being aligned with the Mets while Big Justice is a Yankee fan probably should have made this outcome obvious from the start.
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The general sense was that all hell would break loose after Soto signed. So that happening in conjunction with the meetings starting should hopefully make this a fun couple of days.
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It would be fun if this guy turned out to be something. IIRC one of the Yankee/Red Sox "traitors" like Damon or Ellsbury netted a star via comp pick
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The crazy thing is that the Yankees' best backup plan now is trading for Bellinger and throwing a ton of money at Bregman. Guess who wins in that scenario? Boras again!
