Brandon Glick

Oh listen, I hope you're right. I'd love them to find a way to keep the gang together with Bregman in tow. I'd personally just be shocked if they did it that way. Based on everything we're hearing, it feels like moving Hoerner for more pitching is the play if they get another bat. Maybe's that changed since they added Pressly and Brasier, but his contract and position make the most sense to move off if they add another infielder, assuming the Cubs are serious about giving Shaw serious playing time in 2025. I'm all aboard the "trade Taillon" train. That would be my course of action as well.

Agreed on everything. Landing Bregman absolutely makes this team better in the short-term, and is the exact kind of high-priced, big-talent free agent I've been wanting to see the team splurge on for five years. That said, I'd be stunned if the team didn't trade Hoerner immediately after a Bregman signing. I want him to stay as one of the last remaining vestiges of that old core (even if he wasn't on the championship team), but the money just won't work under the restrictions the Ricketts have supposedly laid down. They want Shaw to play now with the upside in his bat, and better to let him develop and find his swing while on a Pre-Arb contract than closer to free agency. Regardless, I think Hoyer's actually done a fine job this offseason. Brasier and Pressly were smart additions to the pen. Bregman would be the cherry on top.

Hey everyone! @Brock Beauchampand I have been working diligently to get the Players Project up and running here on North Side, and I wanted to get a sense of what you all (the community) wants to see in order to participate in it. Don't get me wrong, I love writing up these players, from Tony La Russa's one-game cameo to Alfonso Soriano's monster contract, but I really want to see everyone else hop in and chime in on the players that they loved or hated for whatever particular reason. Is there something we can do to make it more accessible, or to incentivize participation? I know wiki-style databases aren't for everyone, but everyone has a different relationship to each player that's worn a Cubs uniform. Let me know your thoughts. Open-minded to any suggestions y'all have.

Nice write-up and perspective on the move. I'm not a huge fan — I continue to clamor for the Cubs to spend MORE on less guys rather a medium amount on a bunch of medium-tier guys — but insofar as this is the team-building philosophy, I think you're right on the money. Excited to see Brasier handle a leverage role, especially since it's just better than years past when guys like Yency Almonte and José Cuas were given those innings.

Carlos Eduardo González, known affectionately as "CarGo" to baseball fans, spent a legendary career with the Colorado Rockies before ending his MLB career on the North Side of Chicago. González initially signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks out of Venezuela in 2002 and was part of a loaded farm system in the desert once he ascended to Top 100 prospect status in 2006. On December 14, 2007, the Diamondbacks traded González, Dana Eveland, Aaron Cunningham, Chris Carter, Brett Anderson, and Greg Smith to the Oakland Athletics for Dan Haren and Connor Robertson. He made his MLB debut for the A's in 2008, producing a .634 OPS and 1.1 bWAR in 316 plate appearances in his rookie season. Following his rookie campaign, he was dealt to the Rockies (along with Huston Street and Greg Smith) in exchange for Matt Holliday. Thus began the legend of CarGo in Colorado. He was a star during their 2009 NLDS series against the Philadelphia Phillies (hitting .588 in four games) and finished third in NL MVP voting in 2010 after finishing in the top 5 in home runs, batting average, RBIs, and runs scored in the National League. In one of the most memorable moments of his career, González hit for the cycle on July 31, 2010, against the Chicago Cubs. He completed the feat by hitting a gargantuan walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. In total, he spent 10 seasons in Colorado and produced three All-Star campaigns, three Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, and won the 2010 NL Batting Title. He received something of an "injury prone" label as he only reached 150 games played in a season twice, but in truth, he was more prone to scratches and bruises than serious ailments. Excluding the 2014 season in which he played just 70 contests, CarGo averaged more than 130 games per season with the Rockies. He is one of just two players in franchise history to appear in three postseasons with the team (catcher Chris Iannetta being the other). The outfielder was allowed to walk prior to the 2019 season, and after a brief hiatus in Cleveland, he signed with the Cubs on a minor league deal on May 30. He was recalled on June 3 and made one of the best defensive plays of his career in his first game in a Cubs uniform. His bat lagged behind — he slashed .175/.306/.300 (58 wRC+) with three extra-base hits and a zero-percent success rate on stolen bases (0-for-2) — and he ultimately ended up sticking around for just 15 games (49 plate appearances) before getting designated for assignment at the end of June. Still, it was a joy to get watch one of the most aesthetically-pleasing left-handed swings in baseball suit up for the Cubs, even if he was well past his prime by the time it happened. [You have no idea how long it took to find that clip. I'm glad I did, but holy crap the Internet is going to explode eventually.] After his tenure with the Cubs, González signed a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners prior to the 2020 season, though he never played at any level with the franchise due to the delayed season that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic. He retired shortly after, and he failed to stay on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2025 in his first go around after receiving just 0.5% of the vote. View full player

Didn't put it in the bio to cut down on the non-Cubs stuff, but absolutely the moment I think of most when I think of Lilly. What a call.

So Taguchi played professional baseball for 20 seasons, splitting that time between the NPB (12 years) and MLB (eight years). He spent six games of that long career with the Chicago Cubs. Taguchi starred for the Orix BlueWave (now Orix Buffaloes) of the NPB for a decade before making his way stateside at age-32, becoming the first (and only) Japanese player to play for the St. Louis Cardinals (not including Lars Nootbar, who is half Japanese but was born in the United States). He got the first hit of his major league career off the Chicago Cubs in 2002, and he put up a fine career in six seasons in Missouri, slashing .279/.332/.385 while accruing 2.5 bWAR and all 19 of his career home runs. In 2006, Taguchi won the World Series with the Cardinals, notably hitting the game-winning home run off Hall of Famer Billy Wager in Game 2 of the NLCS. Two years later, he became the first Japanese player to win the World Series with two teams, winning it all again with the Philadelphia Phillies. Following the 2008 season, his option was declined by Philadelphia, and Taguchi became a free agent. The Cubs signed Taguchi as a reserve outfielder, replacing Jim Edmonds' spot on the roster in an effort to give Kosuke Fukodome a teammate he could communicate with more easily. Taguchi spent nearly the entire 2009 season in the minor leagues, only making his Cubs debut in September after Sam Fuld and Alfonso Soriano went down with injuries. In six games (12 plate appearances) with the Cubs, Taguchi slashed .273/.333/.364 (79 OPS+), accumulating no other counting stats. Taguchi was one of two players in franchise history to wear No. 99 along with Todd Hundley, the son of 1970s Cubs stalwart Randy Hundley. The number hasn't been all too effective on the North Side, producing a cumulative -0.8 bWAR (-0.1 from Taguchi, -0.7 from Hundley). He took the number originally with the Cardinals because his NPB jersey number of No. 6 is retired for Stan Musial, No. 66 was worn by Rick Ankiel at the time, and the flipped number (No. 9) is retired for Enos Slaughter. He was generally well-liked by fans, players, and broadcasters alike, even bowing to umpires before at-bats as a sign of respect. Following his (incredibly brief) tenure in Chicago, Taguchi returned to the NPB to play for Buffaloes for two more seasons. He retired on July 31, 2012, announcing his decision on his personal blog. View full player

It's well known in the space how good the Pitching Lab™ is. The Cubs may not always have success with their own in-house pitchers, but this is a well adjudicated point on why so many fringe guys value organizations like the Cubs (and Dodgers and Yankees) that have top-of-the-line development tracks.

As the Los Angeles Dodgers continue to gobble up the attention of the national media by bullying the rest of the league with their wealth, it’s time to examine what the future of parity in baseball could look like. Image courtesy of © Greg Lovett / USA TODAY NETWORK This isn’t a space meant for belaboring what the Dodgers have been up to in recent offseasons. They may be the new “Evil Empire”, but they’ve merely taken that distinction from the New York Yankees, rather than inventing it. In a sport where the most valuable franchise is worth north of $7.5 billion and the least valuable one is struggling to scrape past a $1 billion evaluation, money will simply never be equal. Even under the most rigorous proposals, the Dodgers will always have a larger payroll than those of the Athletics or Miami Marlins. That gap can never be fully mended. However, what is currently a chasm could become more manageable with a few bridges, perhaps to the point where it feels less abyssal. The owners, collectively, have tried implementing rules throughout the years to curb the spending of the truest free-wheeling teams, but even the “Steve Cohen Tax”—the fourth threshold above the Competitive Balance Tax line that severely punishes teams for spending a certain amount on their roster in any given year—hasn’t been enough to stop franchises like the Dodgers and New York Mets from assembling baseball’s equivalents of the Avengers and Justice League. Naturally, that begs the question: is there any hope of seeing a little more fairness in the economics of the game? The Omnipresent but Never-Going-to-Happen Salary Cap Let’s get this out of the way immediately: the Major League Baseball Players Association will never, under any circumstance, go for a salary cap. The concessions the owners would have to make to get the MLBPA to willingly agree to artificially limit the salaries of its players even more rigidly than is already happening would be both unprecedented and doomed in negotiations. It's been the union's bogeyman for decades. They refuse to even entertain it over the negotiating table. This article is one in a four-piece collaboration across three DiamondCentric sites. For more on the current system's mechanics and viability, check out Matthew Lenz's piece today at Twins Daily. Meanwhile, at Brewer Fanatic, Jake McKibbin offers the case for more comprehensive revenue sharing. Later this week, we'll share a roundtable between Lenz, Brandon Glick and McKibbin, about what they learned from this process and what they think ought to be done moving forward. Luckily, I don’t have a seat at that table, so I’m free to bring it up all I want. All three of the other “Big 4” professional North American sports leagues have a salary cap, and the NFL and NHL have “hard caps”, meaning each team cannot have a payroll over a predetermined amount in a given season. The NBA’s salary cap is a bit more complex, but, effectively, it’s a soft cap that can be bypassed with certain types of contracts, though it comes equipped with a luxury tax that offers increasingly harsh penalties at each threshold, much like baseball. CBS’s Matt Snyder did a strong breakdown of the parity in other sports that have a salary cap relative to baseball, and while the findings are now a few years out of date, the results are still relevant. Repeat champions are rarer in baseball than in any other sport, and baseball has more “newcomers” in the playoffs every season than any of the other “Big 4” sports. The NFL has had two dynasties (New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs) since the turn of the century. The NBA is fresh off the Golden State Warriors dynasty, which coincided with the singular dominance of LeBron James in the Eastern Conference for a decade. Since 2010, the NHL has seen the Chicago Blackhawks win three championships in a six-year span, as well as back-to-back Stanley Cup titles for both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning. As for baseball? The league hasn’t seen a repeat champion in 24 years, dating back to the late-90s Yankees dynasty that won three straight from 1998-2000. Something else worth keeping in mind with a salary cap is how it affects players in practice. Part of what makes baseball so great is the player movement—the “hot stove”, as it’s come to be called. Free agency obviously exists in the other sports, but none of them have trade deadlines as active nor free agencies as long-running as baseball's. In football, for every Kirk Cousins (who has switched teams twice in free agency), there's a Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and a Lamar Jackson, who stick with their franchises on long-term deals. And lest you think that’s simply due to the importance of the quarterback position, note that there have been nearly as many multi-year extensions handed out as there have been multi-year free-agent signings. In a salary cap world, keeping in-house talent is a necessity, rather than a luxury. Of course, to offset the number of players who leave in free agency in baseball (often from small-market teams to those in bigger markets), the league has its own systems in place, like the qualifying offer. However, it’s the existence of “prospects” that make the whole system work. The Tampa Bay Rays have made a living out of trading star players nearing free agency, in exchange for gaggles of young players who have yet to establish themselves at the highest level. Unlike the NFL and NBA, draft picks don’t play in the big leagues right away. They often spend years percolating in the minors, developing their skills and honing their attributes. Draft picks are the currency of buyers and sellers in those other sports. In baseball, it’s prospects who determine the “brightness” of a team’s future. In the same way that the salary cap creates boundaries and parameters for teams to abide by in order to create parity, baseball has its own systems in place that balance out the lack of one. The Mythical (and Slightly More Likely) Salary Floor, to Go With the Cap If baseball were to ever implement a salary cap (against all odds), it would certainly be on the condition that the league also adopted a high and firm salary floor. We’ve actually already seen something somewhat akin to a salary floor in baseball this offseason, as the Oakland Las Vegas Sacramento (?) Athletics have started spending more money than at any point in recent memory, despite being on the precipice of moving to a minor-league ballpark for at least three seasons. While you might hope the reason for that is that notoriously cheap businessman owner John Fisher has finally chosen to invest in his team, it’s actually because the MLBPA has threatened the team with grievances about their low-spending habits. As MLB Trade Rumors’s Nick Deeds explains: “That risk of a grievance is due to the fact that the A’s will collect 100% of their revenue-sharing dollars in 2025 for the first time under the current collective bargaining agreement. While the team received just 25% of their allotment in 2022, that figure increased to 50% in 2023 and 75% in 2024 before finally reaching 100% in 2025. The issue for the A’s stems from the fact that the CBA requires revenue sharing recipients to spend more than 150% of their revenue sharing money on MLB payroll.” That situation poignantly articulates why some prefer MLB introduce a salary floor, rather than a salary cap. The argument effectively boils down to: owners who are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars shouldn’t be punished; instead, the league should be reprimanding the ones who cheap out and refuse to spend on talent. In practice, of course, getting a floor without a cap is as unthinkable as getting a cap without a floor. While the NFL has a salary cap, it also has a salary floor, so teams cannot hold onto money perpetually. Teams must spend at least 89% of the cap over a four-year period, while the NFL as a whole must spend at least 95% of the cap. If a team fails to reach the 89% threshold, it will be forced to pay the difference to players who were on its roster during those four years. The NBA has a similar model, where teams must spend 90% of the salary cap in every season. Here’s the thing, though: just like how the MLBPA wouldn’t touch a salary cap with a 20-foot pole, owners would feel the same about a salary floor. These policies have to be in place simultaneously to work—there’s a reason why nearly every NBA team goes over the salary cap on an annual basis, and why no NFL team in recent memory has come close to falling beneath the 89% threshold. The guardrails are put in place to ensure no team can simply outbid others for a player. If everyone has to spend something close to a certain amount, then every player will be paid “fairly” by every team (in the sense of relative positional salaries; running backs continue to be screwed by the system). There isn’t a Shohei Ohtani or Juan Soto contract in football or basketball because there simply can’t be, especially thanks to the NBA’s “max contract” system. Would a salary floor be good for the players? In a vacuum, almost certainly. Pragmatically speaking, the inevitable introduction of a salary cap alongside it would keep superstars from exploiting the free market, though it would help lesser role players squeeze a few more dollars out of their careers. The Verdict Salary caps and salary floors work for the leagues they work for. I understand that isn’t game-breaking, industry-changing analysis, but it’s true. Baseball continues to chug along despite not having one, and despite the benefits other leagues have seen from them, the structure of MLB doesn’t require their presence to keep parity at reasonable levels. The Dodgers may feel like an inevitability, but a 162-game season is a long, arduous grind, and October is half-contained chaos. Likewise, if money was truly the only thing that mattered in baseball, small-market compatriots like the Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers, or Baltimore Orioles would hardly be the perennial postseason party-crashers they are today. Thanks to tools like revenue sharing, the 40-man roster and option year limits, the qualifying offer, and other forward-thinking features of the sport, teams with less money to spend are merely at a disadvantage, rather than locked in an outright Sisyphean climb to fashion themselves as serious contenders. There’s something to be said for wanting to eliminate that disadvantage altogether, though. Whether or not baseball will ever find the right means to do so is tough to guess. View full article

Jerry Hairston Jr. played in parts of 16 MLB seasons, including two with the Chicago Cubs. However, he's most known for being the return in a trade involving a franchise legend. Hairston was a dynamic college player at Southern Illinois University, eventually getting named to their Hall of Fame in 2009. Two years after they selected the infielder in the 42nd round, the Baltimore Orioles took Hairston in the 11th round of the 1997 MLB Draft. He made his MLB debut the following year in 1998, and would go on to play parts of seven seasons in Baltimore, though he only got two chances at full-time work in 2001 and 2002. He totaled 7.1 bWAR and a .705 OPS in his time with the Orioles, though his tenure was defined by injuries and flash rather than availability and substance. Prior to the 2005 MLB season, Hairston was traded to the Cubs (along with Orioles prospects Mike Fontenot and David Crouthers) in exchange for 36-year-old Sammy Sosa. The legendary outfielder was already on the decline at that point, fresh off his infamous back injury that was caused by violent sneezes. Hairston, on the other hand, was in the midst of his prime, though he posted mediocre numbers in his 152 games of action with the Cubs. He slashed .251/.322/.346 (72 OPS+), hitting just four home runs and stealing 11 bases in 20 attempts. In truth, that's about all that Hairston accomplished in his time with the team. He didn't have many memorable hits, nor did he receive much fanfare in his ~15 months with the team. My memory of him with the Cubs was purely that original report that he was the centerpiece in the deal for Sosa (along with Fontenot, who spent five middling seasons in Chicago). Notably, his brother, Scott Hairston, played for the Cubs in 2013 and their father, Jerry Hairston Sr., played 14 seasons in Chicago for the White Sox. Likewise, his grandfather Sam Hairston played one season for the White Sox in 1951 after starring in the Negro Leagues, and his uncle John Hairston received four at-bats for the Cubs in 1969. Talk about a baseball family. On May 31, 2006, Hairston was traded to the Texas Rangers for first baseman and outfielder Phil Nevin. Neither player contributed much to their new teams, with Nevin giving the Cubs 0.1 WAR in 197 at-bats. Hairston would go on to become a journeyman after that season, playing for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Los Angeles Dodgers between 2008-13. He retired after the 2013 season to join the Dodgers' broadcasting crew, a role he still serves in today. Notably, he was cited in multiple PED reports, though he voraciously denied those claims and never received punishment or suspension from the league for his supposed involvement in the steroid scandals. View full player

James Patrick Edmonds, known by Jim Edmonds among baseball fans (and certainly Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals fans), played parts of 17 seasons at the major league level. He played 1,105 games for the Cardinals and 85 games for the Cubs. Let's cut to the chase here; Edmonds spent a lot more time tormenting Cubs fans than he ever did aiding them. He played in nearly a season's worth of games against the North Siders, primarily during his time in St. Louis, accruing a .270/.392/.538 slash line with 32 home runs, 75 RBIs, and 90 runs in 452 at-bats. That might not quite be MVP-caliber production, but it's pretty darn close. Any time a player has a career .930 OPS against a single team, it's safe to say they owned them. Originally drafted in the seventh round of the 1988 MLB Draft by the Angels, Edmonds starred on the West Coast for seven seasons, winning the first two of his eight Gold Gloves in center field in 1997 and 1998. After an injury-plagued campaign in 1999, the Angels chose to trade Edmonds to the Cardinals in exchange for second baseman Adam Kennedy and pitcher Kent Bottenfield. He became an institution in St. Louis over the next eight years, winning six Gold Gloves while accruing 37.9 WAR and a .285/.393/.555 slash line. Of course, he was also among the key figures in the team's championship run in 2006, the Cardinals' first World Series title in 24 years. Because I don't like the Cardinals — and I imagine most of you feel the same — I won't belabor more of his success in St. Louis. He was a dominant player who spent his prime with the Cubs' biggest rival, and he probably deserved a lot more Hall of Fame recognition than he got when he went one-and-done on the 2016 ballot with just 2.5% of the vote. I did not enjoy watching the guy destroy the Cubs for the better part of a decade, but it's a disgrace he didn't at least make it to a second year in the voting process. He was one of the best center fielders in baseball for 15 years. I digress. Following the 2007 season, Edmonds was traded to the San Diego Padres for future World Series MVP David Freese, somehow further helping the Cardinals even after his departure. He made it just 90 at-bats into his Padres tenure before being released, at which point the Cubs, in need of a left-handed bat, signed Edmonds to a one-year contract of which they were only responsible for the league minimum. He certainly wasn't a fan favorite, but Edmonds did produce a 1.1 WAR, .937 OPS half-season in Chicago, even starting in all three of their postseason games in the NLDS where they were swept by the Dodgers. He was, for all intents and purposes, the starting center fielder on the best team that Cubs had decades, and he even endeared himself to fans when he hit two home runs in the same inning against the Chicago White Sox in June. After the 2008 season, Edmonds sat out the next campaign because he didn't receive any contract offers to his liking. He returned in 2010 to post a productive half-season with the Milwaukee Brewers before getting traded to the Cincinnati Reds, meaning Edmonds played for two-thirds of the NL Central within a four-year stretch (at that time, the Houston Astros were still in the NL Central, and Edmonds never played for them nor the Pittsburgh Pirates). Edmonds re-signed with the Cardinals in 2011, though he was forced to retire prior the start of the regular season due to a lingering Achilles issue. He now serves in a studio and color commentator role for Cardinals games. View full player

Three players made the Hall of Fame this year, including Ichiro, who fell one vote shy of a unanimous induction. How does this class stack up? View full video

Cole Hamels had a brilliant career which was mostly spent with the Phillies, but his brief tenure with the Cubs is worth remembering. Cole Hamels is rightfully best remembered for his brilliance with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he played parts of ten MLB seasons and accrued 42.0 bWAR. Philadelphia selected him 17th overall in the 2002 MLB Draft, and he would eventually make his big league debut in 2006. He racked up three All-Star appearances and four top-eight finishes in Cy Young voting, and he was notably the NLCS and World Series MVP when the Phillies won it all in 2008. Hamels was also one-fourth of the Phillies' vaunted "doomsday rotation," featuring Hall of Famer Roy Halladay, Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, and three-time All-Star Roy Oswalt. "The Four Aces," as they liked to be called, didn't quite make the splash they hoped to, losing to the Cardinals in Game 5 of the NLDS in 2011. Still, the team won a franchise-best 102 games, with the rotation leading the league in wins (76), strikeouts (935), walks (221), and quality starts (108), while Hamels, Halladay, and Lee all finished top-five in Cy Young voting. Hamels stuck around the longest of that quartet, making it all the way to the 2015 season with the franchise that drafted him. In what would prove to be his final start with the Phillies, the 6'4" lefty no-hit the Cubs at Wrigley Field. It was the first no-hitter against the Cubs since Sandy Koufax ' s perfect game in 1965 and the first at Wrigley since the Cubs' Milt Pappas threw a no-no in 1972. Luckily for Chicago, the next time Hamels would pitch at Wrigley would be in their uniform. After being traded to the Texas Rangers at the 2015 trade deadline and appearing in parts of four seasons for them, the southpaw was shipped to the Cubs in July 2018 in exchange for Eddie Butler, Rollie Lacy, and Alexander Ovalles. Chicago's manager at the time, Joe Maddon, was rather familiar with Hamels, who bested his Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series. "He'd be pretty good," Maddon said after the Cubs acquired him. "I've not liked him for a long time. He's pitched some really big games against teams I've been involved with and done well. He's a great competitor. He's got good stuff, but he competes and knows what he's doing out there. I'd have to rank him as a pretty competent Major League left-handed pitcher." The Cubs' rotation at the time was a mess, as Yu Darvish had spent the whole season struggling with injuries, Tyler Chatwood literally could not find the strike zone, and Jose Quintana and Kyle Hendricks were struggling with newfound inconsistencies. Only Jon Lester (a 2018 All-Star) had performed up to expectations, and Hamels was brought in to stabilize the group during a postseason push. Luckily, Hamels found the fountain of youth upon arriving in Wrigleyville, as he spearheaded the team's charge to a wild card spot. In 76 1/3 innings (12 starts), Hamels logged 2.36 ERA (3.42 FIP), 74 strikeouts, and a deceptively thin 4-3 record. He was worth 2.3 bWAR in those final two months of the season, easily pacing the Cubs in August and September of 2018 (Javier Baéz, who finished second in MVP voting that season, was the only close second). Unfortunately, the team lost to the Colorado Rockies in the single elimination Wild Card Game, though Hamels did his best to keep things close, throwing two scoreless innings in relief. Over the subsequent offseason, there was quite a bit of drama surrounding Hamels' $20 million club option, though the Cubs chose to quell those rumors and elected to keep him at that price tag for the 2019 season. He wasn't quite the revelation he was when the Cubs first picked him up, but he was still solid for Chicago that campaign, posting a 7–7 record with a 3.81 ERA in 147.2 innings over 27 starts. The team, of course, missed the postseason that year for the first time since 2015, marking the end of Hamels' tenure on the North Side. After a failed one-year stint with the Atlanta Braves that never got off the ground due to arm and shoulder issues, he made a few comeback attempts with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres after that, but he could never make it back to the big leagues. He officially retired on August 4, 2023, and the Phillies held a ceremony for him on June 21, 2024, celebrating his career (though they did not retire his #35 jersey). Notably, Hamels is one of upwards of 18 potential first-year candidates for the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. Among them, only Ryan Braun and Hamels accrued 40+ WAR, and none of the other sixteen had a "peak" that will deserve enough consideration to stick around on the ballot for long. Of course, Braun himself may struggle to gather much support, as his connection to the PED scandal that swept through baseball in the 2010s will certainly put a damper on what was otherwise a fine career. It's very possible that the big southpaw is the only freshman from next year's class who sticks around on the ballot for more than one year, even if it will likely take him at least a few years to get enough support to make the Hall (if he does at all). View full player

The Astros reliever has been mentioned as a fit for the Cubs all offseason, but contrasting reports suggest a trade may or may not be on the table. Meanwhile, Ethan continues to take shots at the Mets. View full video

As January comes to an end, it's time to take a look at what's new on the Chicago Cubs Players Project here on North Side Baseball! Image courtesy of © Eric Hartline-Imagn Images What is the Players Project? It's a community-driven, wiki-style project focusing on Cubs players of all stripes. It's open to all North Side Baseball users, and we've had contributions from current players, past players, and players who never even made the major leagues but played in the Cubs’ farm system. Create your favorite player today! Welcome back, everyone! We've seen some really fun players added to our in-house Cubs database this month, so I wanted to highlight some of the most fascinating entries. As a reminder, any user here on the site can hop in right away and add their favorite player to the system. Perhaps your next entry will be featured in a future round-up! Frank "The Tank" Schwindel was often the only source of Cubs joy following the trade deadline fire sale in 2021. In August of that season, Frank Schwindel slashed .344/.394/.635 (171 wRC+) with six home runs, winning NL Rookie of the Month honors (as a 29-year-old). Then, in September, he slashed .344/.388/.600 (162 wRC+) with seven home runs and won Rookie of the Month honors again! While he certainly wasn't the long-term Anthony Rizzo replacement — that title now belongs to Michael Busch — his contagious smile, camaraderie with fans, and bewildering success made Schwindel one of the most memorable Cubs of the post-2016 era, even if his 15 minutes of fame went as fast as they came. Rich "Goose" Gossage is one of the best relief pitchers of all time and one of the closers who pioneered the modern understanding of that position in the bullpen, but his one nondescript season with the Cubs was noteworthy only because of the fact that it was one of his few non-noteworthy seasons. 36 years old at the time of his arrival in Chicago, Gossage's best days were well behind him, and he tallied just 13 saves against nine blown saves while in a Cubs uniform. Fun fact: Gossage posted a positive WAR with seven of the teams he played for, and a negative WAR for just one. You don't need to think very hard to figure out which unlucky team was the latter. Whether you're a longtime Cubs fan or you only just started following the team this winter, we can all collectively bond over the fact that none of us should remember that Taylor Teagarden played for the franchise. His time with the team was relatively unremarkable, as he slashed a hilarious .200/.200/.200 in 15 at-bats with the Cubs in 2015, which was good a -0.2 WAR and 11 OPS+ (2 wRC+). However, at a game yours truly was in attendance for, Teagarden — who was pinch-hitting for the pitcher's spot after a double-switch swapped out Chris Denorfia earlier in the game — hit a game-winning single off of prime Aroldis Chapman on July 22, 2015. Chapman was on a run of 13 consecutive scoreless outings at that point, and beyond that, no Cubs team had scored a run off Chapman in more than two years, since May 3, 2013 (and they lost that game anyway despite scoring three runs off Chapman). That had been a run of 15 consecutive scoreless outings for Chapman against the Cubs, until Teagarden's hit. Of course, other entries, like those for Ted Lilly and Ian Stewart, continue filling up our database. The Chicago Cubs Players Project is open to all North Side Baseball users. If you're a Cubs history buff or just want to dive into the background of your favorite player, come on board! Please stop by the Players Project by hitting the button below! View full article

Cole Hamels had a brilliant career which was mostly spent with the Phillies, but his brief tenure with the Cubs is worth remembering. Cole Hamels is rightfully best remembered for his brilliance with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he played parts of ten MLB seasons and accrued 42.0 bWAR. Philadelphia selected him 17th overall in the 2002 MLB Draft, and he would eventually make his big league debut in 2006. He racked up three All-Star appearances and four top-eight finishes in Cy Young voting, and he was notably the NLCS and World Series MVP when the Phillies won it all in 2008. Hamels was also one-fourth of the Phillies' vaunted "doomsday rotation," featuring Hall of Famer Roy Halladay, Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, and three-time All-Star Roy Oswalt. "The Four Aces," as they liked to be called, didn't quite make the splash they hoped to, losing to the Cardinals in Game 5 of the NLDS in 2011. Still, the team won a franchise-best 102 games, with the rotation leading the league in wins (76), strikeouts (935), walks (221), and quality starts (108), while Hamels, Halladay, and Lee all finished top-five in Cy Young voting. Hamels stuck around the longest of that quartet, making it all the way to the 2015 season with the franchise that drafted him. In what would prove to be his final start with the Phillies, the 6'4" lefty no-hit the Cubs at Wrigley Field. It was the first no-hitter against the Cubs since Sandy Koufax's perfect game in 1965 and the first at Wrigley since the Cubs' Milt Pappas threw a no-no in 1972. Luckily for Chicago, the next time Hamels would pitch at Wrigley would be in their uniform. After being traded to the Texas Rangers at the 2015 trade deadline and appearing in parts of four seasons for them, the southpaw was shipped to the Cubs in July 2018 in exchange for Eddie Butler, Rollie Lacy, and Alexander Ovalles. Chicago's manager at the time, Joe Maddon, was rather familiar with Hamels, who bested his Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series. "He'd be pretty good," Maddon said after the Cubs acquired him. "I've not liked him for a long time. He's pitched some really big games against teams I've been involved with and done well. He's a great competitor. He's got good stuff, but he competes and knows what he's doing out there. I'd have to rank him as a pretty competent Major League left-handed pitcher." The Cubs' rotation at the time was a mess, as Yu Darvish had spent the whole season struggling with injuries, Tyler Chatwood literally could not find the strike zone, and Jose Quintana and Kyle Hendricks were struggling with newfound inconsistencies. Only Jon Lester (a 2018 All-Star) had performed up to expectations, and Hamels was brought in to stabilize the group during a postseason push. Luckily, Hamels found the fountain of youth upon arriving in Wrigleyville, as he spearheaded the team's charge to a wild card spot. In 76 1/3 innings (12 starts), Hamels logged 2.36 ERA (3.42 FIP), 74 strikeouts, and a deceptively thin 4-3 record. He was worth 2.3 bWAR in those final two months of the season, easily pacing the Cubs in August and September of 2018 (Javier Baéz, who finished second in MVP voting that season, was the only close second). Unfortunately, the team lost to the Colorado Rockies in the single elimination Wild Card Game, though Hamels did his best to keep things close, throwing two scoreless innings in relief. Over the subsequent offseason, there was quite a bit of drama surrounding Hamels' $20 million club option, though the Cubs chose to quell those rumors and elected to keep him at that price tag for the 2019 season. He wasn't quite the revelation he was when the Cubs first picked him up, but he was still solid for Chicago that campaign, posting a 7–7 record with a 3.81 ERA in 147.2 innings over 27 starts. The team, of course, missed the postseason that year for the first time since 2015, marking the end of Hamels' tenure on the North Side. After a failed one-year stint with the Atlanta Braves that never got off the ground due to arm and shoulder issues, he made a few comeback attempts with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres after that, but he could never make it back to the big leagues. He officially retired on August 4, 2023, and the Phillies held a ceremony for him on June 21, 2024, celebrating his career (though they did not retire his #35 jersey). Notably, Hamels is one of upwards of 18 potential first-year candidates for the 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. Among them, only Ryan Braun and Hamels accrued 40+ WAR, and none of the other sixteen had a "peak" that will deserve enough consideration to stick around on the ballot for long. Of course, Braun himself may struggle to gather much support, as his connection to the PED scandal that swept through baseball in the 2010s will certainly put a damper on what was otherwise a fine career. It's very possible that the big southpaw is the only freshman from next year's class who sticks around on the ballot for more than one year, even if it will likely take him at least a few years to get enough support to make the Hall (if he does at all). View full article