Nolo

Congrats to all of them on being nominees. I bet Bregman and PCA are locks. Suzuki 50/50. Either way, Suzuki’s just got even more expensive 😆

As we have 15 free agent this off season needs a lot of moves in a short period of time before the possible lockout. Offseason Wish List 1. Sign one of: Peralta or King 2. Sign both Peterson and Holmes 3. Sign one of: Suzuki or Happ (please Suzuki) 4. Sign one of: Morejón or Bednar 5. Sign Carson Kelly are we ready to trust Ayers behind the dish at the major league level? Defensively or offensively? I think Carson would take a 1-2 year deal to stay a Cub tbh and I think with the upcoming lockout a lot of guys will value some future security than uncertainty. This could apply to many guys though (ie King, Skubal, etc) Rotation: - Peralta/King - Steele - Holmes - Peterson - Cabrera - Brown / Assad / Garrett (SP depth) Bullpen: Morejón/Bednar (closer), Brown, Palencia, Zeferjahn, Rolison, Maton(?), Miller, Webb, Assad (probably too many pitchers but there’s some depth)

I disagree with the sentiment that our bullpen is “good” as far as 2027. Look at these playoff games right now, every reliever is nasty. 100 mph sinkers, devastating sliders, painting fastballs. Real leverage guys, real closers. The Cubs did not and would not have fit in this years playoffs. I like Palencia and Zeferjahn, I feel good about them being on a big stage, but who’s our closer for 2027? Let’s say one of them becomes closer, okay so now we only have one setup guy who has 100 mph stuff? I think Webb did great for a bit but I don’t trust him as the 2027 closer. He’s too soft. Cubs need to add at least one more key piece to the bullpen with nasty stuff — if not Morejón then someone like him. But Morejón as a high leverage lefty or even the closer is just what this pen needs to complement the other promising pieces.

Great recap, now we need to get Townsend to throw a minor league inning. I am pumped for this kid but he needs to get innings next year.

Circling back to Adrian Morejón, knowing our luck we would sign him and he will blow out his shoulder. He was unavailable game 2 and 3 for Padres against Milwaukee, the Padres have rode him HARD this year. I’ll take the chance, dominant 27 y.o. left handed bulldog closer or high leverage guy. Padres don’t want to lose him but we should want him more.

The idea was to free up salary to have breathing room to acquire a high end bullpen guy like Morejon or a solid 1-2 starter but the more I talk it out the less I like the idea of it. We should have the money to acquire these guys nonetheless if Hoyer is actually a serious person.

Yeah I mean I am not crazy about cherry picking stats to fit a narrative, I just thought it was interesting. I understand guys get hot streaks and I do not discount his glove. I was curious about where those Dansby 8 game stats stacked up against other guys on the Cubs, so I had Claude cherry pick the best 8 games. Not sure if this makes Dansby's stats look worse or not, but here's the data:

I exaggerated a bit for dramatic effect and quite frankly laziness, but here's the stat as provided by Cubs Baseball Channel on YT (Mick); His season overall: 0.213 / 19 HR / 69 RBI --- sounds decent enough on paper, right? In his best 8 games of the season, he hit 0.625 BA / 12 HR / 31 RBI That 63% of his home runs and 45% of his RBIs in 8 games. In the other 118 games he played, he hit 0.179 with 7 HR and 38 RBIs. Basically he was near an automatic out in the games where he wasn't hot. I love Dansby but we are paying this man $177M

what about trading Dansby for prospects to free up some cash to sign elite arms for bullpen and rotation? Yeah he’s a good SS, but he’s worthless with the bat. Saw a crazy stat that 50% or so of his offensive production came in just 8 games this year. Move Nico over to SS and Ramirez to second. That’s a lot of cash freed up right there for OF, bullpen, and rotation, plus what is already coming off the books.

$40M/yr for Skubal, no. But $40M/yr for Peralta/Peterson/Morejon together, doable. That's just an example, but there are key pieces to fill: a true top of rotation guy, elite bullpen arm, OF. They will need to piece together with multiple guys I don't think going after Skubal is realistic. Dodgers will do what they can to keep him anyways I bet and we aren't outbidding these top teams for him. I understand we *can't* rely on Brown, Steele, Cabrera etc but we are going to have to. I expect them all to be locks for opening day but who knows after that, you're right we need depth, but we can add that with less expensive guys like Peterson. We still have Assad too.

There's about $100M coming off the books in F.A. alone this year too though. I'd like to keep one of Peterson or Boyd, and one of Suzuki or Happ. But there is some money to play with. Skubal money? Probably not. Elite bullpen arms? Yes. A very solid 1-2 guy? Yes. Kevin Gausman: $23 million Shota Imanaga: $22.02 million Ian Happ: $19 million Seiya Suzuki: $19 million Matthew Boyd: $17 million ($15M mutual option / $2M buyout) Clay Holmes: $13 million ($12M player option) David Peterson: $8.1 million Aaron Civale: $6 million We aren't going to fill up our entire starting rotation and pen in free agents and trades, a lot of the success is still going to depend on guys like Brown, Cabrera, Steele, Palencia, Zeferjahn, etc.

Idk if we would turn *the* setup man for the current best bullpen in baseball to a starter. I think in Jed's interview he made it clear he would spend on BP arms.

Here’s what needs to be done this off season: 1. Sign Skubal or King 2. Sign Morejón or Iglesias 3. Re-sign Happ or Suzuki (OR) sign Arozarena 4. Re-sign Peterson 5. Optimize health for Brown and Steele These guys walk: Holmes, Gausman, Boyd, Taylor, Suzuki or Happ, Imanaga, Kelly, Civale Any combination of the above puts Cubs in a good position. Easy enough right? 😆

I feel like even IF we grab a Skubal or King we are still relying on those arms (Brown, Steele) Skubal/King, Steele, Brown, Holmes/Peterson, Cabrera sounds good to me. I do feel like Jed’s going to spend $$$ on bullpen and SP arms. I’m not expecting any “upgrades” in the lineup though.

Morejon is an elite arm