Stratos

That's odd. I wonder if they purposefully underpaid him for 2023 knowing they'd like to trade him after 2023 and try to pawn off the $25m on someone else. That's some cheapskate accounting LOL.

If we do sign Ohtani that's probably like 50m towards the CBT. I could see them then trading for TORP SP on a 1-year (Bieber, Glasnow, Burnes), signing some pen arms and calling it an offseason. Maybe they also grab a cheap or modest bat in CF or 1B, but they probably wouldn't need to. They could go with Madrigal plus Wisdom/Morel at 3B, and go with Morel/Mervis at 1B, and Tauchman/Canario in CF with PCA also available later in the season. Not the ideal of course and i'd like them to spend more, but that would still bring the Cubs a bit over the CBT line depending on the SP they acquire. The addition of Ohtani would more than make up for the loss of Bellinger's bat.

Well you've mentioned him a lot as a Cubs target this offseason, that's all i mean. I would also very much like the Cubs to have a 280m payroll this season. I don't know how much their payroll will be, but as I've said before I do think strategically it makes sense for them to go over the CBT line the next season or 2 until more prospects graduate to the Cubs fulltime if they want to really compete. Glasnow being on a 1 year deal would benefit the Cubs if they acquire Ohtani because Ohtani can't pitch next year and it would fill that gap. If they signed Ohtani plus another SP (ie. Imanaga) to a longterm deal to replace Stroman then in 2025 and beyond they would have Ohtani, Imanaga, and Taillon on longterm deals while only having 2 spots left for Steele, Horton, Wicks, Brown etc. If they sign Ohtani I could see the Cubs trying to trade for a good SP with 1 year left on their contracts, like Glasnow, Bieber, Burnes etc. So maybe any prospect the Cubs wouldn't really miss would be find to send to the Rays. Apparently the Cubs have inquired about Glasnow and Bieber which makes sense: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/11/cubs-trade-rumors-shane-bieber-guardians-reds.html Only crappy thing is the SP market has been moving fast so far, hopefully the Cubs don't miss out on most of the good arms before an Ohtani deal is decided.

I know you like Glasnow a lot. We have to assume the Cubs will have a payroll limit Ricketts won't go over for 2024 like every year. So in order to build the best team possible for 2024 Hoyer should still be trying to make the best moves that will maximize our number of wins. The only time a team shouldn't care about payroll is if they have an open checkbook from the owner.

His username was Trane, I remember, because he liked the music of John Coltrane.

I'd take him sure, he's really good when not injured, but I wouldn't overpay for him. Why give up a young SP for him when there's numerous quality SP on the FA market that will not cost one of our young pitchers that we'll need this season? If he could throw about 140 IP next season I think he'd be worth the 25m salary because of the quality of his innings, but that would be a career high for him. If the Rays want us to take on his whole salary I'm not giving them anything more than a meh prospect outside our Top 30 we won't miss.

Anyone remember the message board on Cubs.com? That was probably back in the Julio Zuletta/Mark Bellhorn obsession days. I can also remember posting on some other baseball message board back around 2001, and when the 9/11 attacks happened one of the regular posters there worked in the WTC and died in the attacks. I'm not big into Reddit so glad private forums like this still exist even if they've taken a hit in traffic from Reddit and Twitter.

If I were the Cubs i'd definitely want Morel playing mostly 3B this winter with the occasional 1B and middle INF.

Agree. I think how much payroll the Cubs decide to spend to this offseason is more important than which quality players they decide to sign. There's several very good players on the market they can target. They'll all sign for their market value more or less so it doesn't matter a ton which of them we sign as long as they address a need of ours.

I don't think Glasnow is worth his 25m salary he'll make next year so I'd offer some terrible prospect nobody has ever heard of plus probably want them to throw in some money.

Including Gray, their best players are getting old, almost all of them out of their prime years, plus Contreras will be 32 in May. It's unlikely none of these old guys on the team don't age regress next year, and they need them not to in order to have a good chance. They need Arenado, Goldschmidt, and Gray etc to have years they've put up in the past but I can't see them all doing that, not to mention the other old guys.

Old. LOL.

This seems overly optimistic. I think it's extremely likely they go over the CBT if they sign Ohtani, but no guarantee they go over the CBT if they don't.

The Cubs have committed significant money on several players already, I don't think timing is going to be an issue. I think as a team the Cubs start peaking somewhere between 2025-2027 most of the better prospects are up and still making pre-arb salaries. Ohtani should still be in his prime years for the next 4 seasons or so...unless his arm doesn't recover 100% from the surgery. The good thing is he's been through TJS before and recovered fully (though a 2nd surgery isn't exactly a good sign), but there's no guarantee any pitcher recovers 100% from TJS, e.g. Noah Syndergaard. It will be a matter of if they're willing to go over the CBT threshold and by how much. If they sign Ohtani I can't see them affording another TORP with going over. For the next couple of seasons I think they should go over the CBT line until more cheap surplus starts coming to the MLB team from the prospects.

Hahaha sorry!

i was just testing the profanity censorship system here on these boards LOL

I don't think it's meaningless, because he may not use the opt-outs, like if he doesn't come back pitching as well as before. It's a pretty massive risk for a team to pay Ohtani like he's the ace pitcher he's been on a decade+ long deal when he just had major elbow surgery. I can definitely see something to protect a team from that risk plus player opt-outs in case he does come back 100%, which would be the whole point of an opt-out.

I think the situation last year was fairly straighforward. Morel struggled offensively in the MLB when pitchers adjusted after his hot start last year so they sent him down to AAA. I never believed they moved Madrigal to 3B to showcase him for trades, they moved him there because they acquired Swanson and Nico was now the fulltime 2B and there was a hole at 3B so that was the only place on the field where he was going to get playing time. Last year the Cubs wanted to win games and get into the playoffs. They had guys on the roster like Madrigal, Morel, and Wisdom who could play 3B or DH, and Ross thought the best team on the field was Madrigal at 3B because of his excellent defensive performance which was clearly better than Morel or Wisdom's glove. That puts Morel at DH by default since most of the time since Wisdom had struggled at times offensively. Morel could have played CF but Tauchman had played a decent CF, better than what Morel showed last season at the position. Through 2023 the Cubs probably saw Morel as below-average defensively at 3B and OF, and better at 2B/SS. It's not like they were going to play Morel at 3B and DH Madrigal, it wouldn't make sense. Same reason Wisdom usually didn't play 3B over Madrigal. Madrigal also showed a solid bat after coming back from Iowa which gave him some rope to stay in the lineup, along with his excellent glovework. I agree with you that fans need to stop assuming things. Madrigal and Candelario were seen as better at 3B than Morel during a playoff race, that seems like the long and short of it. It doesn't mean he's doomed to never play the position adequately.

horsefeathers

I can't see a bunch of Plan D scrubs if Bellinger and Stroman are off the payroll and need to be replaced. Maybe Plan B guys.

Don't get your hopes up. Remember last year Ricketts gave Hoyer the green light to spend "whatever it takes" to turn the Cubs into a winner. I think we're a contender so we'll see. Dodgers or someone else might blow our offer out of the water.

Suarez is a pretty decent pickup for the price. He likely gives you some surplus, which is more than you can say about the vast majority of FA's.

I'm not sure the Cubs would bump their payroll up much regardless of how much revenue they take in from Ohtani or any other source.

Mariners essentially gave him up for nothing. Looks like a salary dump.

Belt had a career-high .370 BABIP last year, that worries me regression-wise. He does have a pretty high career BABIP though at .323. He's someone they can consider. He doesn't match well with Mervis in a platoon though if they don't trade Mervis, which they may not if they go with a short-term option like Belt.