Bertz
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Everything posted by Bertz
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His deadline is Jan 2. So you'd suspect he'd probably want to be settled before Christmas, and definitely before New Years. I suspect the smoke coming out now is because he's done his visits and things are finally moving.
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I would gladly take Noel and try to sneak him through waivers to Iowa. Flex that 40 man muscle
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Garbage is stronger than I'd put it, but yeah Fairbanks is the last no-doubt closer. Hunter Harvey is really really good too but his medicals are a nightmare.
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I really do not care to get into all this Hoyer stuff today but slamming the guy for choosing the "4th option" and then simultaneously not giving him credit for how well that has turned out is pretty intellectually dishonest. You can be mad at the team for not spending more and you can be mad at the team when their spending blows up, but "you must both sign the most expensive guy AND it must work out great" is horsefeathing dumb.
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Two years, gonna guess this more or less confirms they're going pure volume with the bullpen
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God dammit Romero and now Ralph? Once Bob chimes in we're horsefeathered Start moving on folks
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This is a bad sign. Not the Yankees mention, but the fact that Romero has us so far along. He's Nightengale levels of always wrong
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Depending on what the team does bat-wise feels like there's an obvious Alcantara pitching trade to be made here
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Given the timing seems pretty likely the Cubs were talking to both guys about coming back
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Chicago Cubs Have "Renewed Interest" In Alex Bregman
Bertz replied to Matthew Lenz's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
Gonna call BS on this rumor. They literally already have Paredes playing 1B because their infield is too crowded, and of course already moved Cam Smith to the OF last spring. Frankly they seem like an ideal fit for Bellinger if they want to do something big. -
Yeah that's probably ends up making more sense. Adolis Garcia getting $10M does gave me some pause about what RHH bats are going to make, but that's probably just a one-off bad contract as opposed to some paradigm shift.
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If the Cubs want to add a RHH bat on a shoestring this would be among the more desirable options I could think of. Steamer projects him to basically split the difference between his '24 and '25.
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Yeah I'd rather have Houser than Rea, but not by that much.
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FWIW Mark Feinsand does not have us out on King. This is from this AM
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Worth noting that these three combined for just under 190 innings at a 3.13 ERA. You absolutely shouldn't expect that in '26 but there's quite a bit of ground to cede before you worry about them.
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Yeah 5 vets, Palencia, one spot reserved for whichever minor league veteran looks best this spring, and one spot for whichever optionable guy looks best this spring? Very easy to see that being the plan I would hope we aim higher but A) while I wouldn't be excited by the group I also wouldn't be worried and B) yeah if they do something(s) fun elsewhere it's worth it.
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Nice! Thielbar and Milner are both similar in that they're almost always hard on lefties but how they do against righties waxes and wanes. So I'd guess between the two of them we should net out with a LOOGY and a full on 7th/8th inning option. On the potentially not so nice front, Milner on his own was clearly not a pivot from a real closer. But are we about to be looking at a Milner/Thielbar/Stanek at ~$15M collectively in lieu of a more surefire closer?
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I think the simple explanation is that Bregman isn't going to get a significantly more player friendly contract. He almost certainly gets more total dollars but at a noticeably lower AAV and without any options or anything else that tilt the deal in his favor.
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Feels like the simple explanation is that the former implies that the latter isn't true.
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He can ask for whatever he wants but the simple question is who's giving him that? His market as far as we know is BoSox/Cubs/Tigers. All three GMs literally cut from the same cloth.
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Bregman's clearly realistic. Chatter makes it seem like he's their favorite bat, and I'd assume squarely in play if they fill SP via trade. We haven't heard anything on Valdez but he's clearly realistic. This FO either does an obnoxious slow drip of info about their pursuits or does the opposite and ninjas guys. So given that Valdez is in the same vein as their other pursuits I wouldn't write him off. Bichette is a combo of the Bregman rationale and the Valdez one. I'm not counting on it but it doesn't seem crazy.
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https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/2025-26-top-50-mlb-free-agents-with-predictions.html 8 of MLBTR's Top 10 FAs are still on the board. 4 of the Top 5 SPs. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/mlb-rumors-top-trade-candidates-offseason.html Only two trade candidates on this list have been moves, and we were probably always boxed out of Sonny Gray to begin with. The high end reliever market is a couple guys away from being picked over, and Dylan Cease was a kick to the nuts, but mostly it's just been slow all around.
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I'd be surprised if the team does anything big before Imai signs. It's pretty clear IMO that either he's their top guy or their top guy (let's say Gore for sake of argument) isn't going to be moved until they have that market clarity from Imai's decision. Possible exception is the closer. Sounds like they were in on Williams and Pagan until close to the end, so unless the reason they pulled out was purely timing we can be reasonably confident they're comfortable with a 9 figure reliever salary regardless of what else happens.
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You say this like it's a zinger but they're actually quite good at all those things
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So tragic what apparently happened to Brown and Wicks
