SOFNR

It won't surprise me a bit if somebody went 5/100 at some point or even still had that offer out and Bellinger chose this one. Sure it's 20 mil less guaranteed if he's bad, but he's got a chance to make out much better if he's good.

I really hope Jed still has a trade up his sleeve here. We've got some expendable depth. Another elite reliever would be great. It's getting sort of late for trades though.

It makes it a lot easier to get quality players on short term deals if you give them a chance to hit FA again immediately in the event they play well🤣 Neither Imanaga or Bellinger are Cubs right now if their markets don't crater so much that they'd prefer to try the market another year. It's definitely a strategy that's going to lead to a lot of longterm uncertainty, and some agonizing offseasons. But it was played pretty perfectly for Hoyer this year and gives them more time to spit out cheaper options.

I highly doubt it. I'd expect lots mixing and matching with this team.

That's pretty ideal for the Cubs. Happy to have Belli back for atleast this year. Probably bumps them to division favorites. Still need a lot of things to go right but Hoyer did pretty well given the constraints he's working under.

You better get that gofundme started.

He's too lazy too bother with good PR. I'm not sure he knows anything other then Jed was instructed not to cross that line.

To me the rebuild/retool started the minute ownership/front office decided to stop signing any free agents, when it was pretty clear the core needed help to continue to be competitive. You could probably argue 2019. I definitely start it in atleast 2020. I've never believed that 2020 team makes the playoffs in a full season. I think they would have been happy to sell off in 2020 but covid messed up the plan. So i count us on year 5. And yes, selling the core when they did, a year later, was the right decision. Probably would have been better in 2020. But they could've dropped another 20 mil on some one year deals, especially bullpen, in either year, and potentially changed the outcome for the end of that group. Theo definitely deserves a lot of blame for not having a development system that could replace small parts on a team that expensive. But It's not like holding back from that spending prevented us from a rebuild, or helped us to a quicker one. No money saved rolled over. We just ignored glaring holes and put all the pressure on a group getting more expensive but mostly regressing. They stopped being willing to spend to improve and we're still waiting for the "right time" to act like a top 5 market again. Each new revenue stream eventually gets ignored as Ricketts demands "more revenue" for higher payroll. I really have no doubt that Hoyer's improved development and spending strategies will eventually lead to a team that maintains success easier on a smaller budget. As long as he develops a star or two. That is more likely to lead to sustained success. But there was always enough revenue to fill out clear roster flaws if they wanted. They just didn't feel a need to when the park was full either way. That's why Theo left. Now we wait for the next great revenue stream idea before we can hit that scary lux tax as we enter Year 5.

I can honestly see it both ways. Fandom is weird. I still support pretty much every team I grew up on in someway. But if ownership is crappy I'll do it a little less or even contemplate the idea of watching a second team. It's yet to ever stick though. I grew up going to Cubs games with a grandfather and father who are now deceased. Lots of great family and friend memories. I'll never quit them. I've got full respect for anybody who does though. Make sure you enjoy your fandom or whats the point. Personally I can enjoy being a Cub fan and still criticize situations that annoy me. Its pretty easy. But I'm not getting season tickets again until they get a better product on the fieldconsistently. And I'll grab a cheap mlb tv subscription and a VPN instead of paying for Marquee. It doesn't really mean horsefeathers to them, but it's a compromise that works for me.

He's been in love with the Ricketts for many years. Mainly because they support his causes. He used to always claim they'd be big spenders again, but after they kept proving him wrong he gave up and just started telling other Cubs fans they should go elsewhere if they dared to criticize ownership. He'll occasionally talk about the baseball team too.

I feel ya man.

It's minor league depth. Maybe it signifies there's a trade in the works and he wants to replace AAA depth. Maybe he knows its time to start finalizing the rosters. It shouldn't prevent any major league signings.

Luckily it's a minor league deal.

Yah, man. I has been sitting in the pessimistic on Ricketts being willing to spend camp for a while. Basically "Ill believe it when i see it". But somehow I'd really managed to talk myself into them being ready to atleast cross that line again. That's pretty horsefeathers discouraging.

Yah, as appealing as it is for the Cubs I can't imagine him signing a 1 year deal again. He honestly deserves better. But if nobody is willing to cough up long term maybe you can get away with something structured around 4 years with opt outs. 4/110 with 35 mil the first year and the ability to hit the market again in 2025 if he has another great season? Maybe something similar but 5 years. Something that gives him some security but another chance to hit a long term deal next year.

You'd think so but all of these guys are probably looking at it least 4 years contracts. Boras might be willing to ignore the first month of the season and atleast take some of these deep into spring training, hoping an injury causes some desperation. If you play well some early missed time won't matter much in end, but it's still gotta make it sort of uncomfortable for the players. You gotta wonder if any of the 4 get tired of it eventually and just ask to collect highest offers and get moving. Waiting on desperation and potential injuries seems like a tougher strategy when you got that many top guys you need to offload. I hope this is the year Boras finally loses, even if I hate seeing the owners win. If those demands start to cave it likely ends well for the Cubs.

Interesting that the only thing between the 4th inning and the closer is Neris. But considering the waiting game he's playing I don't think that statement neccessarily rules him out of any of the big 4. It's Feb 14, and he's clearly ready to lose out on anybody if they don't meet his price. I'm not really optimistic about them adding another good bat or spending up to tax line anymore though. You can already see most of the sentiment switching from "All the reports say they're ready to spend. Quit whining. Just wait it out" to "Well we really don't need any more help anyway. It's not even worth spending money" Same old. Same old.

That's true for every single year in every single sport. It's a pretty dumb reason to give someone grief for wanting the Chicago Cubs to aim for better then low 80's wins.

It's also not just 1 woman. It's a history of similar behavior. I'm not here to kink shame anybody but I think it's pretty clear he makes teammates very uncomfortable. He's also always been a bit of a creep and a bad clubhouse guy. He's the last sort of player I'd want to bring on to a young team, even if I was convinced he was an upgrade to anybody in our rotation. Nobody in MLB wants to touch him. He deserves to live his life and doesnt belong in jail but hes not entitled to a spot in MLB. I'm not sure why certain people have such a weird obsession with him.

Yah. If he ends up signing somewhere like Anaheim my guess is the difference in money is quite a bit more then 5 million. Probably not to the extremes you posted but Jed is probably content to sit on something around 5 years and let him go otherwise. It certainly won't surprise me if it turns out Jed's out there offering 30 mil less then another team but trying to sell him on incentives and winning.

I wonder what Scott would cost. FA in 2025. Never was an elite reliever until last year. But elite he was. I'd be pretty excited about that bullpen if they can nab him.

That's a nice pickup at a good price. Glad to see they got it done.

Yah, neither is a guy I'd be upset to have in the bullpen. I actually trust that the org likely brings out the best in them. But it's definitely not the sort of shopping i expected.

I'll be pretty bummed if both their reliever aquisitions are bounce back guys who were basically replacement level last season. I really thought they'd shop in a higher tier this year.

2 more candidates off the board.