Bertz

The team was never going to blow its entire wad on doing both Tucker and Crochet. And the fact that the Red Sox aren't in on Tucker is a pretty good sign they're not planning to blow their whole farm on two guys either.

Breslow basically took over a team that was at the same point in the cycle as the Cubs. Breslow didn't have to get his hands dirty on a Boston rebuild because it was nearly done when he arrived. Giving him credit for not operating the 2025 Red Sox like Jed (and Breslow!) operated the 2022 Cubs is BADLY missing the forest for the trees.

One thing about this team that is not yet at the level of a concern but is a consideration is 2026 payroll. As currently structured, Bellinger has a likely opt out, Shota has an unlikely opt out, and no one else is slated to hit free agency. If the team trades for and extends Tucker, they basically need the rest of this offseason's acquisitions to be 1 year deals, otherwise next winter is going to REAL slow. Think like the 2019/2020 offseason. "We can't do anything unless we deal Taillon and Hoerner" will be the new "We can't do anything unless we deal KB". Adding Cease on top of Tucker accomplishes a few things. First off, he's straight up the best SP left on the market. Second, because he is a similar caliber of star on a one-year deal, he can serve as a hedge against Tucker leaving. Plan A would be to obviously extend Tucker, but if he is of a similar mind to Soto a year ago there's now an ability to pivot and throw ~$200M at locking down Cease instead. Either way you clear out some of the Iowa prospect depth, make this team downright scary in 2025 (and still looking good heading into '26), and have an extra draft pick heading your way after the season. Back to the premise of your article and less my tangentially related pontificaing, if you do choose to send Suzuki back to San Diego in a Cease deal it largely undoes everything I said above. The marginal increase in '26 salary from Suzuki to Cease is likely to be under $10M. So while I would MUCH prefer the version of a Cease deal built on prospects, there is some merit to the Suzuki path.

The just a rental stuff is not a Jed thing it's just standard hedge-y FO speak.

Not sure why the Yankees pursuing Tucker is written in past tense while everything else in the article is present. The Bellinger stuff seems most worth noting given Heyman's ties to Boras.

Juan Soto is getting brought up way too much into relation to Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker is tracking towards like Corey Seager money.

Olney has some sources, wonder if this is a sign he's hearing things too or if he's just reacting to the news

Well damn I mucked that post up from all angles didn't I. That said all of the guys in this situation like Betts, and Lindor have been late ST signings.

Oh sorry I read that as you being WAY over the top sarcastic. My bad!

Okay smarty pants, when's the last time a 9 figure extension got done in December?

At minimum you have to make a trade assuming it's for a year. No extension is realistically coming until March. We saw that with Lindor/Betts/etc.

Feels like this is gonna happen and Jed is in "don't wanna jinx it" mode

Still feels like Heyman is getting purple-monkey dishwasher-ed.

It's some combination of keeping that roster spot open for the rule 5 draft and the Cubs' contingent all being in Dallas rather than Chicago and not being able to do the contracts/medicals/etc.

The Tucker resolution doesn't *have* to come hand in hand with the Bregman signing, but it feels pretty likely

Cubs should add Cortes and just corner the market on all the best "lefty starters who throw 92" in the league

Really curious what level of SP is in play if this happens. Hoerner is presumably no longer available to be dangled, and Crochet is gone (plus doing Crochet and Tucker would have eviscerated the farm). Can we manage a Cease? Is a Luzardo about the right expectation?

If Tucker is cool moving around, which he has been in Houston, and Seiya is fine doing a good bit of DHing (while primarily playing RF) it feels doable.

The fact that it seems not just possible but likely for us to end up with Tucker and a fun SP and not have to lose Shaw, Brown, or Horton is extremely cool.

Rosenthal's article makes it sound like either, I think the talk of both is just bad reading comprehension on content aggregators.

Nah, lefty hitting infielder who can cover 2B/3B is a need in essentially every version of the offseason.

If Paredes is part of an Astros deal, they have no need to condition a trade on retaining Bregman. I would think that if Bregman is about to choose the Yankees it means that the Tucker deal going through is more likely to go through. The causation can work either way, the Astros have Paredes so they tell Bregman bye, or the Yankees didn't like how the bidding was trending so they pivoted to their next move.

Yeah that's where my head is at that he's playing one of CF or 1B against all lefties.

I wonder how viable Tucker is viewed in CF, especially Wrigley's tiny CF. He had a terrible defensive 2023 but has otherwise been a +10-15 RF. Knowing that there is a certain amount of ego management that needs to be done, I wonder if we could do something like this? Suzuki - 100 games in RF, 50 at DH Tucker - 60 games in RF, 40 at 1B, 30 at DH, 20 at CF Busch - 120 games at 1B, 10 at 2B/3B, 10 at DH

As always Greg thinking things through thoroughly