Brandon Glick

Alfonso Soriano was a Dominican baseball star who began his professional career in Hiroshima with the Toyo Carp as part of the NPBL. He was signed as an international free agent in 1998 with the New York Yankees, though because of his age (22 at the time), he was required to sign a minor-league contract. He won MVP in the All-Star Futures Game in 1999, and made his MLB debut at the tail-end of the same season. Soriano established himself as the Yankees' primary second baseman in the 2001 season, though he did win a ring with the team in 2000. After finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting, Soriano had the best season of his career in '02, leading the American League in plate appearances (741), at-bats (696), runs (128), hits (209), and steals (41). He finished third in AL MVP voting that season, and also began a streak of seven consecutive All-Star campaigns. He fell just one home run shy of the 40-40 club, though he would later make his way into that hallowed circle, in 2006 with the Washington Nationals. The Yankees traded Soriano after the conclusion of the 2003 season to the Texas Rangers, who would trade him after two seasons to the Nationals, who converted him into an outfielder. An established star with prodigious power and blazing speed, Soriano signed a then-Cubs record eight-year, $136 million deal with Chicago after a 2006 season in which the team finished last in the National League with a 66-96 record. At the time, it was the fifth-biggest deal in baseball history, behind just Alex Rodriguez ($252 million for 10 years), Derek Jeter ($189 million for 10 years), Manny Ramirez ($160 million for eight years) and Todd Helton ($141.5 million for 11 years). In the first two years of the contract, Soriano more or less lived up to his deal. He was initially asked to play center field by manager Lou Piniella, though he moved to left field after struggling with injuries. He won National League Player of the Month in June of 2007, helping the Cubs erase an eight-game deficit to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central. He suffered a torn quadricep in early August, missing most of the month, though he would return with a vengeance. He proceeded to have the most productive September in the franchise's history, hitting fourteen home runs, twenty-seven runs batted in, and recorded a .320 batting average in 29 games. The Cubs won the division, though they were swept in the NLDS by the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2008, Soriano was an All-Star yet again, though he had to miss the festivities due to a broken finger in his left hand. He hit 29 home runs and posted an .876 OPS in just 109 games played. The team won the division again with a 97-64 record, though they were swept in the NLDS for a second straight year, this time by the Dodgers. That would, unfortunately, be the last great season for Soriano on the North Side. From 2009 to his eventual trade back to the Yankees at the 2013 trade deadline, he was worth just 2.0 WAR. His defense continued to decline to the point where he was nearly unplayable in the outfield, and he went from being an annual 30-30 threat to huge strikeout totals and a waning batting average. Still, his OPS never dipped below .700 during his entire contract with the Cubs, and from 2001-13, his OPS never finished below .726. Soriano retired after a difficult, -1.2 WAR 2014 season with the Yankees. Soriano is one of only 58 major league players to hit 400 or more career home runs, and was seventh among active players in home runs at the time of his retirement. He is one of just six players in the 40-40 club, and was the most recent member prior to Ronald Acuna Jr. (2023) and Shohei Ohtani (2024). View full player

The Cubs didn't do much in Dallas, but they find themselves in the thick of some of the biggest rumors surrounding the team in years. View full video

Kristopher Lee Bryant, also known as "KB" or one-half of the famed "Bryzzo" duo, is a Chicago legend for his contributions to the Cubs franchise during their championship window in the mid-2010s. Bryant was a high school star at Bonanza High School in Las Vegas. He batted .418 over his four-year varsity career, and was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 18th round of the 2010 MLB Draft. He turned down the chance to sign with the Blue Jays, instead opting to honor his commitment to play college baseball at the University of San Diego. In college, he was named an All-American in 2012 and 2013, and won the Dick Howser Trophy (college baseball's version of the Hesiman Trophy) and Golden Spikes Award (best amateur baseball player) in 2013. The Cubs proceeded to select him with the second overall selection in the 2013 MLB Draft, benefitting from the Houston Astros' mistake of taking Mark Appel first overall. He quickly became one of the top prospects in baseball, winning the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award and Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2014. Bryant made his Cubs debut on April 17, 2015 — after notoriously being sent to Triple-A after an electric spring training performance due to service time manipulation — going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts at Wrigley Field. Luckily, that was not a sign of what was to come, as Bryant would win the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year award on the back of a strong .275/.369/.488 slash line. Along with the team's band of other elite prospects — and an inhuman second-half performance from Jake Arrieta — Bryant led the Cubs to the their first NLCS appearance since 2003. The next season would prove to be Bryant and the Cubs' finest, as the team finally ended their 108-year championship drought, in large part thanks to the third baseman's MVP performance. Bryant led the senior circuit in WAR (7.3) and runs scored (121) in 2016, hitting 39 home runs and posting a .939 OPS for good measure. He was just as valuable in the postseason, slashing .308/.400/.523 on the way to the team's World Series victory. Over the next several years, Bryant's decline mirrored that of the team. He was still an elite 5.7 WAR player in 2017 as the team made their third straight NLCS appearance, though injuries began to sap some of his effectiveness at the plate. Over a three-season stretch from 2018-20, Bryant accumulated 7.2 WAR, 48 home runs, and an. 846 OPS in 283 games (1,238 plate appearances). In 2021, the team elected to run it back one final time with the championship core, and while Bryant earned his fourth All-Star appearance, the team fell flat. On July 30, 2021, just minutes before the trade deadline, the Cubs traded Bryant to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Alexander Canario and Caleb Killian. Bryant finished the season strong on the West Coast, piloting the Giants to an NL West title, though they fell to the Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLDS. He would depart San Francisco for the Rocky Mountains, signing a monstrous seven-year, $182 million deal with the Colorado Rockies that offseason. In the years since, Bryant has struggled tremendously with injuries, never playing in more than 80 games in any season with the Rockies. Despite playing in the high altitude of Colorado, Bryant's OPS in 2023 and 2024 was below .700. His contract with the Rockies has often been cited as one of the worst in modern sports. View full player

Matthew Boyd is joining the club on a two-year, $29 million deal. Is that enough, or do the Cubs need to do more work on the rotation? View full video

The Cubs haven't been willing to splurge much under Jed Hoyer. Will that change at this year's Winter Meetings? View full video

The veteran lefty serves as a fine back-end starter, but the Cubs need more in order to compete with the elite teams in the National League. Image courtesy of © David Richard-Imagn Images In the very early hours of Monday morning, the Cubs landed their first big free-agent fish of the offseason, agreeing with starter Matthew Boyd on a two-year, $29 million deal. On the surface, the move feels somewhat similar to the John Lackey deal the Cubs executed almost a decade ago. Both contracts were of the same length at a similar face value, for veteran pitchers coming off sub-3.00 ERA seasons. Lackey had a 2.77 ERA in 2015 with the St. Louis Cardinals; Boyd had a 2.72 ERA in 2024 with the Cleveland Guardians. There are two main differences in the circumstances surrounding both signings: Lackey was far more reliable than Boyd is now, and the Cubs’ rotation was already well-defined when Lackey climbed aboard. Tackling that first point: Lackey, who was 37 years old at the time of his deal with the Cubs, pitched a whopping 359 innings over his two years in Chicago. Before signing with the team, he pitched 218 innings in 2015, 198 innings in 2014, and 189.1 innings in 2013. He was, by all accounts, a workhorse starter. Boyd, on the other hand, is anything but. Between 2017-19, Boyd pitched 490 2/3 innings for the Detroit Tigers (posting an unsightly 4.70 ERA and matching 4.41 FIP). Since then, though, he’s thrown just 263 total innings, with a similarly disappointing 4.65 ERA and 4.38 FIP. Over the last five seasons, he hasn’t exceeded 80 innings pitched in any campaign. Of course, injuries have been the cause. He missed nearly a season and a half with a torn flexor tendon issue, which required surgery after taking a while to diagnose. He then tore his UCL in the summer of 2023 and had Tommy John surgery. Boyd returned to pitch nearly 40 innings at the end of the regular season with the AL Central champions this past season, striking out over a quarter of the hitters he faced. He was then even better in the postseason, allowing just one run across three starts and 11 2/3 innings. Even though he appeared healthy at the conclusion of this year’s campaign, it’s hard to call Boyd anything but an injury risk, especially since he’ll turn 34 before pitchers and catchers report in February. For a team that just went through a season where seemingly every pitcher not named Shota Imanaga spent meaningful time on the Injured List, Boyd’s signing raises a lot of questions. Those questions are especially relevant to the second point introduced above—the Cubs’ current rotation is littered with upside and problems. Back when Lackey inked his deal, the Cubs were coming off an NLCS appearance. Jake Arrieta had established himself as a true ace alongside Jon Lester with one of the greatest halves of baseball ever, while youngster Kyle Hendricks and veteran Jason Hammel were locked in at the back end of the rotation. The team had a clear and obvious need for a No. 3 starter, and Lackey’s track record—in both the regular season and playoffs—aligned perfectly with what the team was looking for. Of course, Hendricks broke out and finished third in Cy Young voting in 2016, giving the team a trio of aces to build around, but Lackey more than held up his end of the bargain. He provided the Cubs with a strong 3.35 ERA (3.81 FIP) in 188 ⅓ innings in his first season on the North Side. For all intents and purposes, the contract was an unmitigated success, even though Lackey struggled in the final season of his career in 2017. On the other hand, the modern iteration of the Cubs don’t have that strong top end of the rotation. Imanaga and Justin Steele—both southpaws, like Boyd—are penciled in as the team’s No. 1 and 2 starters, but they aren’t the surefire aces that Lester and Arrieta were a decade ago. Jameson Taillon recovered from a down year in 2023 to have a strong season in 2024, though relying on him to start two games in a seven-game series in the playoffs doesn’t sound very comforting. Javier Assad has broken out since joining the rotation at the tail end of the 2023 campaign, but he’s also not going to be a middle-of-the-rotation savior. Beyond that, the Cubs have a lot of young starting pitching depth with some upside, including Jordan Wicks (another lefty), Hayden Wesneski, Cade Horton, Ben Brown, and Brandon Birdsell. Boyd is a better bet than any of those pitchers to contribute in a meaningful way in 2025, but his price tag ($14.5 million per year) and injury history make him the kind of option that makes one a little less giddy and a little more stressed than those younger arms. What the Cubs need, in a painfully obvious way, is an ace—someone to take the ball in Game 1 of any postseason series, as well as on Opening Day. Imanaga and Steele are great pitchers, but they’re better-suited to do battle with Carlos Rodón and Luis Gil than with Gerrit Cole, for example. Blake Snell is already on the Dodgers, though Corbin Burnes and Max Fried are both still lingering on the free-agent market. Roki Sasaki casts a shadow over the entire offseason. Garrett Crochet might not be any more certain a No. 1 starter than Steele or Imanaga, given his own workload questions, but having three pitchers of that caliber is better than having two. Maybe the key to understanding the Boyd signing is not to think of it as analogous to Lackey's arrival, but rather, to the deal they signed the previous winter, bringing back Hammel on a two-year, $20-million deal after having traded him that summer. The Lackey deal was, in truth, a good bit richer than this one is, once you account for the inflation the market has seen since. Hammel's is a cleaner financial comparator, and since Hammel was a pitcher similar to Boyd, too, the whole thing feels a bit neater. Pivot from thinking of this move as akin to Lackey's to considering it similar to Hammel's, and the real thrust of the issue comes into view: the Cubs are building their 2015 rotation, not their 2016 one, and that highlights the way Steele and Imanaga pale in comparison to Lester and Arrieta. Great teams win around the margins with moves like this, but you can only be a great team by having the best players in the sport. If they’re serious about making a postseason push next year, it’s time for the Cubs to bring in a pitcher of that caliber. The value of the Boyd signing will depend on whether or not they now execute that second maneuver. View full article

Should the Chicago Cubs beef up their rotation by signing a former Brewers Cy Young winner? View full video

The 2018 AL and 2023 NL Cy Young award winner is a hot commodity this winter. Is he the right pitcher to front the Chicago rotation? Image courtesy of © Stan Szeto-Imagn Images We’ve taken a look at most of the top pitchers in free agency already this offseason. Each of them present some combination of an elite track record, a very high price tag, and the daunting proposition of paying a pitcher deep into his 30s. Blake Snell is no different. He’s a 31-year-old southpaw with two Cy Young awards to his name. In all three of his career stops, he’s been a well-above-average pitcher. Yet, he feels like the furthest reach of any of the market’s aces for the Cubs. Snell’s career has been up-and-down to this point, with absurd highs (one of only seven pitchers to have won a Cy Young in both leagues), and middling lows (4.06 ERA in 285 ⅔ innings from 2019-21). However, he’s found the next gear over the past three seasons, with a 2.82 ERA (2.98 FIP) in 412 innings between the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants. His 32.5% strikeout rate is among the top marks in the league in that window, as is his .191 batting average against. He’s also done a significantly better job in recent years in limiting the long ball, and his home run percentage (e.g., percentage of all plate appearances in which he allowed a homer) was down to a career-low 1.4% in 2024. Though he obviously benefited from playing in spacious Oracle Park, his home run rates were also down across the board in his final few seasons in San Diego. Snell threw his four-seam fastball 46% of the time last year, utilizing a changeup, curveball, and slider for the other half of his arsenal. Considering he’s also made 19 or more starts in every non-pandemic season of his career (and has eclipsed 100 innings in seven consecutive full seasons), he looks the part as the perfect addition for any team in need of a No. 1 starter. Plus, even if his profile isn’t without blemishes, unlike other free-agent aces—namely, Corbin Burnes and Max Fried—Snell doesn’t come attached to the qualifying offer this offseason, by virtue of having declined it following the 2023 season. So, why is a pitcher of this caliber not a seamless fit in Chicago? Well, for one, they already have lefties Justin Steele (3.07 ERA in 134 2/3 innings in 2024) and Shota Imanaga (2.91 ERA in 173 1/3 innings) under team control for the next three seasons. Righties Javier Assad (3.73 in 147 innings) and Jameson Taillon (3.27 ERA in 165 ⅓ innings) are steady middle-of-the-rotation options with multiple years left in arbitration (Assad) or on their contracts (Taillon), as well. With those four entrenched, young arms like Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown, and Cade Horton will get the first crack at winning the fifth starter job out of spring training. Brandon Birdsell and Hayden Wesneski will also be in the discussion, and the Cubs figure to add a minor-league free agent to the mix. (Brad Keller continues to be an obvious fit.) There’s a promising combination of depth and upside littering the pitching staff, though of course, a team can never have too many starting pitchers. That certainly doesn't preclude strengthening the depth chart from the top down, but the expense associated with doing so might be more substantial than the famously conservative Hoyer prefers to accept. Snell’s market is, unsurprisingly, moving quickly. He reportedly met with the Red Sox and Dodgers this week, and remains in talks with the Giants and new President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey. After being denied the long-term deal he felt he deserved last offseason, Snell is surely looking to sign a lucrative contract early this winter, and by all accounts, the Red Sox appear to be the most aggressive bidder for his services. Other teams with top-of-the-rotation needs—the Orioles (if they lose Burnes), the Mets, and the Padres (sans Joe Musgrove), to name a few—will also have a say in the matter. Snell could feasibly land a contract in the same range as Carlos Rodón did a few years back (six years, $162 million), which will push smaller-market pursuers to the periphery of the discussion. The Cubs are returning a lion's share of their roster from last year, meaning they don’t have an astronomical amount of payroll space available. They have room to add at least one non-Juan Soto free agent, but Snell probably isn’t the guy they’re going to spend that money on, even if he is as good as anyone else on the market. Still, the team would only benefit from adding a frontline arm. A 1-2-3 punch of Snell, Steele, and Imanaga would be able to stand up to any pitching staff in baseball. It remains to be seen how the Cubs choose to allocate their finite resources in a crucial offseason, but there would be worse ways than on the two-time Cy Young award winner. View full article

The Brewers' shortstop is a power-hitting threat with a glove that will play anywhere on the infield. The fit may not be seamless, but the Cubs could use someone with his profile. View full video

In a world where armchair GMs can actually run the team, what moves should the Cubs make this offseason to establish themselves as a true contender? This series of articles is a primer for the release of our new "You're The Cubs GM!" tool, where you play the role of Jed Hoyer and build your own Cubs offseason. Please visit the tool here and join in on the fun! Well, everyone, it’s my first day on the job running baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. First things first: man it’s nice not to have Jed Hoyer around, right? I mean, I’m no Theo Esptein, but neither is that guy. Remember when he traded World Series hero Anthony Rizzo for Kevin Alcántara and a guy who stopped playing baseball immediately after? Good times. Anyway, the team has finished 83-79 in back-to-back years and fell short of making the postseason both times. In fact, the Cubs haven’t made the playoffs since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and haven’t won a playoff game in seven years. Guess I have my work cut out for me. Up top, let’s establish who the surefire keepers are on this roster, and the salaries they’ll run us in 2025. Justin Steele ($6.4 million) and Shota Imanaga ($13.5 million) are a great 1-2 punch atop the rotation, and that pair of lefty starters isn’t going anywhere. Javier Assad ($800,000) has erupted since moving to the rotation at the end of the 2023 season, and given that he isn’t even arbitration-eligible until 2026, he’s sticking around. I’d also like to keep Jordan Wicks ($800,000) and Ben Brown ($800,000) around as starting pitching depth, and a couple of cheap options in the bullpen, like Tyson Miller ($800,000), Porter Hodge ($800,000), and Julian Merryweather ($1.225 million). And since I have an affinity for big lefties who throw 100 MPH and don’t give up home runs, I guess I’ll keep Luke Little ($800,000) in tow, too. Oh, and in case you’re wondering how I’m keeping track of all this: North Side Baseball has an exceptionally intuitive payroll tracker for the Cubs that you can alter to your heart’s content. Anyone can use it to see what moves the team can make while remaining under budget. Honestly, I’m really glad it’s there to keep armchair GMs distracted. Otherwise, my job security would not be looking too hot. Back to the topic at hand, I also have a few guys on the position-player side of things whom I want to keep. Miguel Amaya ($800,000) and Michael Busch ($800,000) at their respective salaries are steals, though we will need to add a partner at catcher for the former. (Er, a better one than Matt Thaiss.) I personally love Nico Hoerner ($11.5 million) and his elite glove and speed, and Dansby Swanson’s contract ($28 million) makes him untradable, so the middle infield isn’t getting a shakeup. Isaac Paredes ($6.9 million) was just added by my predecessor at last season’s trade deadline, and his track record of success is intriguing enough to avoid wanting to sell low on him. In the outfield, Ian Happ ($21 million), Pete Crow-Armstrong ($800,000) and the recently opted-in Cody Bellinger ($27.5 million) are all locks for starting jobs in 2025 and should form an incredible defensive outfield triumvirate—assuming, of course, that Bellinger isn't dealt. That leaves Seiya Suzuki ($19 million) as the odd man out, though thankfully, in response to an article I wrote last week discussing his status on the Cubs, I received numerous very polite and totally constructive comments informing me that I shouldn’t trade a hitter whose OPS has improved in every single season since he came Stateside. If only I had said something exactly to that effect multiple times in the article. Thank goodness the people who kindly decide to personally message me about what a dolt I am also have the time to read the entire article, instead of just the headline. So, Suzuki will be staying, and hopefully joining Imanaga in an attempt to lure Roki Sasaki over to the good half of the Windy City (though I won't project that here). My predecessor got the expulsion of Nick Madrigal and Patrick Wisdom right. I would have kept Mike Tauchman, the Platonic ideal of the fourth outfielder, but that call broke the other way. To recap where we’re at: we have every position accounted for, except a second catcher, a starting third baseman (yes, in the last two sentences I’ve decided to overrule Counsell and plant Paredes on the bench until he starts hitting again), and two more bench bats. On the pitching side, we’ve got three starters penciled in, plus a competition for the fifth spot in the rotation between Wicks, Brown, and probably Cade Horton. In the bullpen, we’ve got four relievers that are definitely staying, and I’ll throw the rejuvenated Keegan Thompson ($1 million) a bone and hold onto him as a long-man. That means Wisdom, Madrigal, Jameson Taillon, Caleb Killian, Nate Pearson, and Ethan Roberts are all gone. Almost all of those guys can be traded for something, though let’s just pretend that I’m a prospect mogul and don’t bring anyone back to the big league roster for the sake of ease. That leaves our projected 2025 payroll at $150.8 million, roughly 30% below my top range of $220 million. Thankfully, the payroll tracker has suggested guidelines for each notable free agent’s salary, which means they have to accept that number if I want them to and I don’t have to do any negotiating (I fold in negotiations like Batman when he gets his back broken by Bane in The Dark Knight Rises). The first thing I’m doing is giving the Brewers a huge F-U for the second consecutive offseason and signing Willy Adames ($26.60 million) to be my starting third baseman. His power and previously elite defensive metrics make him a heck of a consolation prize for my soon-to-fail pursuit of Juan Soto (I already know he will NOT be laughing at my jokes about Aaron Judge using the juice). I’ll also snag Kyle Higashioka ($7.50 million) coming off a career year to serve as yet another veteran mentor for Amaya behind the dish. That leaves just one utility/bench spot left, and you better believe I’m giving it to top prospect Matt Shaw ($800,000). I don’t care if he bats .051 in spring training. He’s making the team out of camp. On the pitching side, I’ll assume that the loser of the Wicks-Brown battle goes to the bullpen, with Horton remaining in Triple-A, lurking as a potential mid-season call up. I’ll also give Hayden Wesneski ($800,000) another crack at a swingman job because I think his sweeper is fun to watch. I know what you’re thinking, and I agree: it’s amazing I never landed a GM job before this. So, with about $30 million in payroll left to spend and one spot in the rotation and the bullpen open, I’ll sign Max Fried ($26.0 million) to serve as the third lefty ace in the rotation. To preserve a bit of payroll space for any in-season additions, I’ll add one more league minimum salary in Daniel Palencia ($800,000) to round out the ‘pen. Hence, I have crafted a championship-caliber roster while remaining under budget AND adding some prospect depth to the farm system. This, folks, is why they pay me the small bucks. You can see my entire offseason roadmap here. And, as a reminder, you can engage in this same endeavor using the NSBB payroll tracker here. Be sure to post your offseason blueprint to the forums so our community members can discuss! What do you think of this offseason plan? Do you think you can do better? Then build your own Cubs roster and hit the button below! Start Your Payroll Blueprint Now View full article

The ace lefty is coming off another great season in which he proved he was healthy once again. Does he make sense as the third southpaw ace in the Cubs’ rotation? Image courtesy of © Brett Davis-Imagn Images Much like our breakdown of Corbin Burnes’ fit with the Cubs, I’m going into this piece operating under four assumptions: the Cubs want to add a high-level starter from outside the organization; they’re willing to accept any qualifying offer penalties associated with said starting pitcher; they won’t win the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes; and Jed Hoyer is willing to spend a lot of money on a pitcher in his 30s. None of those assumptions are safe to make (least of all the last one), but it isn’t hard to imagine the Cubs bending a couple of their usual free agent rules for a player like Max Fried. Fried has been the ace of the Atlanta Braves for the last half-decade. He's posted a 3.07 ERA in 884 1/3 innings since debuting in 2017, so someone is going to pony up for his services this offseason. Exactly how large the contract he gets is in question. Some pundits have projected deals as long as seven years, with annual salary numbers in the $25-$30 million range being floated. Fried probably won't crack the $200-million barrier—not with Blake Snell, Burnes, and Sasaki clogging up the free-agent marketplace, not to mention cheaper alternatives like Garrett Crochet on the trade front—but something along the lines of what Jon Lester got in 2014 (six years, $155 million) is probably in the ballpark. The southpaw does come with a few flaws, including injuries that cost him large chunks of the 2018 and 2023 seasons. His forearm issues from last year are still a concern, especially since he'll be 31 on Opening Day 2025, but his 174-inning showing in 2024 proves that Fried is still capable of being a workhorse. Over his career, Fried has earned that label, pitching 165 or more innings in every season since 2019 (besides 2023, due to injury, and 2020 due to the pandemic-shortened schedule). He's also thrown six complete games and four shutouts in that time. Pair his capacity for working deep in games with a career 140 ERA+, 23.9% strikeout rate, 6.8% walk rate, and huge 53.7% groundball rate (including a career-high 58.2% figure this past season), and you have the profile of a pitcher who should both age gracefully and remain dominant when handed the ball. As I said back in that Burnes primer: “The Cubs very clearly fit that category of teams that need another starter, as rookie import Shota Imanaga—the team’s MVP for the 2024 season—was the only pitcher who remained reliable and healthy for the entirety of the 2024 campaign. Justin Steele still clearly has ace potential and should be a fixture on the North Side for years to come, but he failed to crack 135 innings pitched this year while dealing with elbow and hamstring injuries that bookended his season. Javier Assad proved himself worthy of a long-term spot in the rotation, but he blew past his career high in innings with 147 this year, and he declined in September as that workload piled up. Jameson Taillon still has two years on his contract and certainly had a strong second season with the team, but some of his success has to be chalked up to the pitcher-friendly way that Wrigley Field played all season.” Even with quality depth that includes names like Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, Cade Horton, and Brandon Birdsell, the Cubs could use a surefire guy to pair with Imanaga and Steele. Adding Fried would mean putting three lefties at the top of the rotation, but the presence of Taillon, Assad, and perhaps Horton would lessen any worries about the North Siders becoming too southpaw-heavy. The aforementioned Lester contract also serves as a convenient touchstone for where the Cubs are these days. Back in 2014, the Cubs went 73-89, finishing last in the NL Central. However, Anthony Rizzo had established himself as a regular, Javier Báez had made his much-anticipated debut, and a wave of über-talented prospects like Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber were on their way. The team surprisingly won the Lester sweepstakes in free agency, announcing to the rest of the baseball world that they were ready to emerge from their rebuild. Now, a decade later, the Cubs finished the season 83-79 and in second place in the division. Michael Busch has established himself at the cold corner. Pete Crow-Armstrong has made his much-anticipated debut and is locked in as the starting center fielder. A wave of talented prospects, including Matt Shaw and Owen Caissie, are on their way. Feasibly, the team can win the Max Fried sweepstakes in free agency, officially putting this latest rebuild behind them. It’s poetic when things mirror each other, isn’t it? Of course, signing Fried doesn’t mean the Cubs will win the 2026 World Series, but it does get them closer to that goal. If his high price tag and status as a qualifying offer recipient don’t scare off the Cubs, there are a lot of reasons to like the idea of Fried pitching in the Friendly Confines. And, hey, perhaps Dansby Swanson can convince his 2021 World Series champion teammate to make the same move from Atlanta to Chicago. View full article

The Cubs don't have infinite money, everyone. The payroll tracker gives you $220 million to work with (as a projection). You can't keep Taillon AND sign Fried AND Soto AND whoever else. You need to make sacrifices. That's the point.

If you've watched Assad take the mound at all since late-2023, you'd feel more than comfortable with him as the No. 4. He's running a 125 ERA+ as a starter in his career. That's... unreal for a "4". And Wicks is a stand in. Put Cade Horton there. Put Ben Brown. I don't care. There's going to be a competition for that 5th spot in the rotation no matter what the Cubs do.

Paredes is coming off a horrendous second half. The Cubs would be selling low on him. There's no reason to trade him this offseason. Better to hold onto him as a utility player and let him rebuild value if that's the route you wanna go.

If you'd seriously rather have Taillon than Fried, bless your heart. And Paredes is a fine player, but in a world where the Cubs get Adames and keep all four outfielders, I don't know where he's gonna play.