Bertz

I'm about as comfortable as anyone in turning the page from the 2016 guys, but this feels like a bridge too far. I'd expect Kyle to be much more useful next year. There were a number of outings this year, particularly May/June, where he was pushed farther than he should have been because the rest of the rotation wasn't giving any innings. I'd also anticipate the defense being significantly better next year. It's already been much better lately than it was early in the year, and adding one of the FA shortstops should only further help that effort. Prime Kyle's certainly not walking back through that door, but I think he'll still be useful as a 5 and dive guy with a viable MLB defense behind him. E.g. Drew Smyly. I do wonder about the plans for the rotation this winter. I look at things and see a clear need for a starter, but only one starter. Does the team see a need for a second? Jed and Theo have historically erred on the side of overloading the MLB rotation, but have also never had even close to the current crop of upper level SP prospects (at least with the Cubs). Maybe it depends how Assad and Wesneski do down the stretch here.

DJ Herz terrible again. If we weren't so close to the end of the season I'd say let's shift him to the bullpen and see if he can get AA batters out with a little extra juice, but as is the most important thing left this year is probably getting those last 10-15 innings

Still true through 5

Wesneski is absolutely shoving

The two way dream is still alive!

Really excited to see what he does next year. He's excelling as is in his initial foray into AA, but you know the org has some changes they want to make with him so what's he going to look like next April?

It's been quiet since it's largely been built on walks, but Brennen's been really good since he got back

This seems notable

Yeah, I'm pleased that he's been a bit above average offensively for going on 4 weeks now. I don't need him to be an expected above average hitter given his defense and the lack of alternatives, but the 35 wRC+ he was running to start his Cubs tenure wasn't gonna cut it. Yeah the aforementioned Joey Wendle, who has a pretty similar profile (trade a little power for contact), is playing at a about a 2 WAR per 600 PA pace despite an 87 wRC+. The offensive bar is quite low.

It would be REALLY nice if Mckinstry could stay hot the rest of the year. The team needs a LHH infielder for the bench something fierce, and and I don't see much on the market for this winter in that vein aside from Joey Wendle? Also Stro has sneakily gotten his numbers damn near where you would have expected coming into the year

Correa/Senga as the big FA splashes feels very Jed. Taking it back to the Passan article, grabbing two Tier 2 guys instead of one Tier 1 feels like a Jed move. Plus, neither guy has the qualifying offer attached, which we know is a biggy. Jed also explicitly name checked adding velo to the rotation (check) and power to the lineup (check).

McGeary, he was the D2 guy with video game numbers(1.640 OPS!) that also hit really well with wood in the Appalachian League. Probably not gonna add any defensive value so hopefully he keeps raking. Yeah, on the video I saw (I can’t find it on Twitter) the ball was demolished.

The particular details of this brutal takedown don't so much matter for us, but it does make me think about two more Cubs-centric questions. 1) Are there any impact pitchers available from teams further behind on the pitcher development learning curve? I hesitate to call any non-Rockies org dumb, but there are definitely those that get the modern approach to pitching and those that don't. The Cubs, while maybe not inner circle like the Rays/Guardians/Dodgers, are clearly in the cool kids pitching club. How can that be leveraged, especially if you're willing to expend some real resources rather than just making waiver claims and signing relievers to like 1/$3M? 2) Are there any young player swaps/challenge trades to be had? Again looking at the Royals, they have MJ Melendez behind Sal Perez, and they have Nick Pratto behind Vinnie Pasquantino. The A's have Shea Langeliers coming up behind Sean Murphy. The Rangers have a 3B prospect logjam, etc. What if Jed turned some of the Cubs' CF stockpile not into a veteran, but into a comparable youth at a position of greater need?

I don't sub to BA anymore, so did Badler not list Fernando Cruz at all (essentially confirming he's a 2024 guy), or did he link him to another team?

Why wouldn't Devers sign an extension as a condition of the trade? Is he a Boras client? I tried to look it up, but I couldn't find his agent. He's a perfect fit for what this team needs. I'm sure he would, what I'm saying is that trading e.g. Morel and then giving Devers $300M+ doesn't feel like something Jed's going to do right at the start of this window. Especially with Correa, Turner, Arenado (probably), and Swanson all available in FA for just the money. Jed's going to be less pedal to the metal than Theo was. This isn't going to be an offseason of just one year pillow contracts but at the same time I think anyone expecting multiple 9 figure contracts or some other similarly balls out approach is setting themselves up for major disappointment.

I'd be very surprised by a trade for someone like Devers. Feels like this is a year too early to go make a huge trade for a star, especially a walk year guy. I could see Ohtani, just because he's so special you've gotta make that sort of deal when it comes around, but a more "ordinary" star like Devers would shock me. Something like Pablo Lopez feels like the top end of the non-Ohtani options I'd anticipate?

Depending on how the playoffs go wondering if we see similar for PCA and the other standouts at SB

On the rotation side, Wicks and Brown are probably second half options too. SSS but both appear to be figuring out AA. That said I'd still probably be reticent to dip too far into the SP stock for trade. Setting aside Mills and Sampson, the former of which is definitely roster fodder and the latter probably is, I probably only feel comfortable trading one. I love all the SP depth, but on a guy-by-guy basis it's not hard to go through and pick the list apart. Plus we just saw in May how quickly horsefeathers can hit the fan and you can end up giving multiple starts to your #8/#9 guys. I'm probably more cavalier than most about "just throw a bunch of talented guys with options at the roster and things will work out," but even for me the volume plan only works if you maintain volume. The OF though, Jed can spend a good chunk of that capital if he wants. Davis, Canario, and Nwogu are all essentially the same profile. There's also Velazquez, who is already up and yet another power/whiff RHH bat who's a bit of a CF tweener. Offensively Morel is cut from the same cloth, and Alcantara is yet another guy in that mold a year or two further out. I'd try and avoid touching PCA (lefty, a couple grades higher on defense) or Morel (versatile, already here), but honestly the org could move several outfielders this winter and I wouldn't bat an eyelash. I'd even go as far as to say it'd be irresponsible for all three of Davis/Canario/Velazquez to be in the org on March 1st.

Yeah this has been really big. On August 1st you'd have said that Suzuki would probably be fine next year, but you wouldn't feel super confident. At this point there's no need to worry about him, the question is whether he's a solid starter or the borderline star he was projected to be coming over.

Chourio is a big problem

The more broken the play, the more I love the dots

Baumann is about as far from a cheerleader for MLB as you can get so I think this is a lot more meaningful than it'd be from like an MLB.com writer. On the shift: On the pitch clock: I basically quoted the entire article, but it merits it.

The radar looks pretty clean after another ~hour or so, I'd bet they get it in.