Stratos

Hoyer's specific quote: “Mostly focused right now on bench and bullpen, just trying to supplement the roster as much as we can. I feel good about our team but there’s obviously ways to improve,” Hoyer said. He later added that the “bullpen’s been probably the area we’ve been focused on most in free agency. I feel like we’re trying to make sure we upgrade our bench. Adding a veteran presence to our bench would be good.” https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/cubs-pursuing-bullpen-bench-acquisitions.html I guess Rea was likely the last of the SP. They have a modest stable who can compete for the 4/5 spots and fill in for injuries. We have 3 extra SP by my count, plus the guys in AAA plus some scraps like Poteet. Sounds to me like they aren't getting close to the LT line. How frustrating.

I was sort starting to get used to the Wrigleyville uniforms for some reason, which were indeed ugly, this looks better.

Note that the mention of a 3 year deal sounded like total speculation. Possible the Cubs try to snipe a deal like this on some player as they wait out the offseason and find good value somewhere. Cubs are going to check in on everybody id imagine so I don't really see this as news. And yeah could be Boras-bait. A Bellinger-style deal seems less likely to me for Bregman because he's older and lacks the uncertainty Bellinger had.

Agree with this. It's a simple math problem. Every team produces a certain amount of total WAR. Ours is mediocre. For the payroll we spend we get meh results. We either need to spend more total payroll or spend more efficiently. Bryant, Baez, Contreras etc putting up good WAR and not making much money was very efficient.

They need a Japanese draft. To hell with this west coast garbage

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Some mlb insider guy on Twitter said his sources say the Cubs are out on Sasaki. I'm too lazy to post it Edit: it's that Mike guy

I like Robertson for us. His velo has been trending up in recent seasons, he's been durable both before and after TJS, and he's been money pretty much his entire career. We could really use a reliable closer, as long as he doesn't fall off the table from oldness.

We don't really know what's going on in Jed's head. Assuming worst case doesn't seem productive. Assuming anything because of Colin Rea or this or that bargain bin reliever isn't wise. The Cubs and the overall market may be held up with the Sasaki signing. If Jed has to trade for or sign another quality SP if they miss on Sasaki then it changes the budget for 3B/bench, the pen etc. They can't even guarantee a starting spot to any FA SP either if they don't know if Sasaki is signing. Rea is below-average so he probably just wants a job. As a SP i'd sign here for the strong defense that will bump my numbers (we spank the Dodgers/Padres here) and the good pitching infrastructure. So we have a solid shot at Sasaki at least.

A couple guys in the rotation could be on the IL at any given time, and a few guys from your list as well. Let's say as an example Horton/Brown/Wicks are hurt again, and a couple guys in rotation need replacing, we'll need more than Kilian/Noland/Poteet. Smyly and Wesneski are gone so Rea is a replacement. We can say Boyd replaces Hendricks. I don't think this signing means much other than depth. They have money and would be wise to get another quality SP. I don't think Sasaki would affect any lower tier signing, they can always prepare for the worst and dump/trade one of the guys on your list if Sasaki signs.

I just thought of the possibility of them maybe piggybacking the #5 starter. Boyd isn't the type to go deep yet while still building back from TJS, so they need innings. Assad wasn't going very deep either. A swing guy and multi-innings reliever can be valuable these days. Signings like Boyd and Rea sound like they want enough options to get through all innings they'll need.

On the bright side he didn't cost 16.5m like Hendricks last yr.

Its possible they trade one of Assad/Wicks in a package for someone. Either that or they're hedging for injuries? Not all of their best 13 pitchers are going to be healthy on OD, and Iowa pitching isn't the strongest

I agree. Rea could be a swing man like Assad (or Smyly and Wesneski), and more depth. If he's the last rotation piece then holy moly I don't know what they're saving all their cash for unless its going back into RIcketts' bank account. To paint a rosy picture on this, for 5m and 1 year that's not bad at all. That's hard to pass up so maybe they just pulled the trigger on it because of the price. He kinda replaces Wesneski and/or Smyly but seems like a better deal than Smyly was. There's a possibility they don't like the SP on the FA market this year terms of talent vs dollars they want? A lot of guys are either older and a bit expensive or younger but have had injuries or red flags.

You didn't "pick a player who had a similar career line" as Tucker because Justin Turner didn't have a season above replacement level until age 29 and he's not an OF. Turner had a 0.3 career fWAR at Tucker's current age. You picked the outlier aging case that most conveniently backed your argument, you can say otherwise but its not the 1st time you've done this debating with me. If we're going to project what a player will do from age 29-38 then every competent projection system in the world is going to assume the typical average case, which is what I tried to eyeball, not what Justin Turner did, who has an extremely weird career line and age regression. I'd much prefer the Cubs spend payroll like a large market team but they don't. They spend like an upper mid-market team, ranked 10th and 9th in tax payroll in 2024 and 2023. I'd love if Ricketts spent more and extended Tucker. Hoyer is in a tight spot. If the FO is forced to have tax-line level payrolls I see no issue if the Cubs FO behaved somewhat like the Brewers but had the money to extend any key players and add better FA's, so similar to the Braves. They can trade guys like Happ, Suzuki, Nico before they hit FA, reload on prospects and keep the prospects they want and trade others for guys like Tucker/Paredes etc. Rinse and repeat, seems better than watching your best & most expensive assets depreciate in value every season. Nobody should complain the Braves don't sign "star" FA's and let their FA's walk if they won't extend. They won a WS and had 2 straight 100-win seasons before some injuries hit.

If you're going to cherry-pick literally the best-case scenario you could think of on the modern age regression distribution curve in Justin Turner, who's an aging freak of nature, and use that as your expectation for age regression you're going to wrong like 95% of the time. If any FO does it their team is going to suck. 35-37 wins makes Tucker about a 61-63 career WAR player and a likely 1st-ballot HOF. Joey Votto has 58 career WAR, was quite a bit better than Tucker at the same age, and aged pretty well at an easier position and didn't rely on stolen bases to pad his WAR (unlike Tucker). I tried to argue in good faith and give a more typical regression pattern for Tucker, and that doesn't even assume injuries. Sure maybe peaks at 6 WAR or similar. I know you're never going to concede a point so whatever.

How often do they go to arb with a player? Especially a key player? This seems uncommon.

Sportac projected 16.7m, and MLB Trade Rumors/Fangraphs guessed 15.8m.

The Cubs are 3rd in revenue but were 9th in luxury tax payroll last year, and 10th in 2023. The calculation changes if we have a higher payroll. The FO can't think like the Dodgers or Yanks. Its going to be a long time until having a 3.5 WAR player making 40m AAV looks ok. Are we fine with signing Tucker to something like 10/400 if his WAR per age looks something like this?: 29 y/o - 5.0 WAR 30- 5.0 31- 4.5 32- 4.0 33- 3.5 34- 3.0 35- 2.5 36- 2.0 37- 1.5 38- 1.0

So the question is whether these mega-deals for 29 y/o types are typically worth it? Guys like Pujols, Rendon, Trout were money in the bank and still hit the skids. A 10/400 deal at age 29, that's a lot of eggs to put in one basket with a lot of risk where the data isn't exactly in your favour.

He's probably going to want 10 years after his 2025 walk year. Why would he sign for 9 years more when he can get more on the FA market?

We all know a 5 win player like Tucker is rare and very valuable. The question is how long does he stay a 5 WAR player? Most humans are better athletes in their 20s than their 30s. He was 27 this year. If we sign him to a 10/400 extension (40m AAV) that starts when he's 29 and he regresses to a 4 WAR player when he's 31 and 3.5 WAR at 33 are we still good with that contract? It happened to Machado and Pujols among many others and they were better than Tucker. The payroll considerations come in the form of being able to eat some salary for an overpaid player in their mid/late 30s (and still win) in order to have peak Tucker early in the extension.

78 games isn't a big sample. He's projected for about 5 WAR again.

How old were they when they put up those seasons? What kind of seasons have Bryant and Javy had since age 30? How has Rizzo done in his 30's compared to his 20's?

I doubt it, but they did try to parade end-of-career Arrieta in front of us to help make us forget they stopped spending money post-COVID. I agree Sosa is a money calculation though. But not sure how many fans are going to line up to buy his jerseys. My old one is still in the closet and probably won't be worn again. Other fans miss him. They'll use the convention to try to gauge fan interest i guess. Better than marching him out in front of 40k at Wrigley and risking tons of boos.