2023 trade season

[TL1961]

Jed should only trade this year if he is in contention.

Or out of contention.

 

[Probie2429]

Stroman is the best trade chip they have. He’s going to opt out at this rate so you can’t risk losing him for nothing.

 

[CSF77]

Well this is a interesting article.

Pressure is on For the Worst Cubs Free Agent Signing

Luckily, it looks like the Chicago Cubs have a pretty easy fix for their worst free agent signing from this past offseason.

www.sportsmockery.com

 

[CSF77]

Stroman is the best trade chip they have. He’s going to opt out at this rate so you can’t risk losing him for nothing.

I can see Jed extending him. He has said that this is where he wants to be and to be honest next year this team could be in the thick of it.

Brown is beating up AAA hitters

PCA is ready for AAA right now. And could be in CF next year.

I've said this before. But if Jed extends Stro and Bellenger. Move Bellenger to 1B.

That pushes the focus to 3B and closer.

Rotation Stroman/Steele/Talion/Smyly/Brown

Hayden becomes the 6th man. Add a 9th inning stud and remove Wisdom's strike outs this team starts taking shape.

 

[knoxville7]

I can see Jed extending him. He has said that this is where he wants to be and to be honest next year this team could be in the thick of it.

Brown is beating up AAA hitters

PCA is ready for AAA right now. And could be in CF next year.

I've said this before. But if Jed extends Stro and Bellenger. Move Bellenger to 1B.

That pushes the focus to 3B and closer.

Rotation Stroman/Steele/Talion/Smyly/Brown

Hayden becomes the 6th man. Add a 9th inning stud and remove Wisdom's strike outs this team starts taking shape.

Then Jed better extend Stro before the trade deadline IMO to take away the risk of stroman leaving in FA

 

[CSF77]

Best Deadline Rental Returns In Recent History, #7: Tigers Land A Closer For Castellanos
By Anthony Franco | June 8, 2023 at 4:46pm CDT

With the trade deadline now less than two months away, we at MLBTR are setting our sights backwards for a bit to highlight past trades. With an arbitrary cutoff point of 2017, we’re counting down the top 10 returns that a team got when selling a rental player. We’re on to #7 in our series, looking back four years to a last-minute 2019 swap.

The Cubs entered deadline season nearing the end of their contention window. Chicago had snapped their World Series drought three years prior. While the Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Báez, Willson Contreras and Kyle Hendricks core never returned to the Fall Classic and fell short of dynastic expectations some observers had heaped on them, Chicago remained a good club. They went to the NL Championship Series in 2017 and made the playoffs again the following season, losing to the Rockies in the Wild Card game.

Nicholas Castellanos
Chicago’s then-Theo Epstein led front office set out to bolster the roster further in hopes of securing a fifth straight playoff berth. They sat at 56-50 heading into play on July 31, a game back of the Cardinals in the NL Central. The Cubs looked to inject some life into an offense that had ranked 14th in run scoring to that point. The addition: corner outfielder Nick Castellanos in a swap sending prospects Alex Lange and Paul Richan to the Tigers.

Castellanos was amidst a relative down season at the time of the trade. While he’d hit .298/.354/.500 the prior year, the right-handed hitter was carrying a .273/.328/.462 line midway through a ’19 campaign that had seen a home run explosion around the league. The Cubs looked past that comparatively slow start.

In return, they dealt a pair of fairly recent high draft choices to a Detroit club that was midway through a full-scale rebuild and en route to one of the worst seasons in history (47-114). Lange had been the 30th overall pick in 2017 after helping LSU to the College World Series finals. Richan was a second round draftee the next season out of the University of San Diego. Lange had posted middling minor league numbers up through Double-A; Richan had a solid but not overwhelming High-A performance.

It was a bit of a buy-low situation for the Detroit front office. Both pitchers had seen their prospect stock hit a down ebb. The Tigers immediately moved Lange from the rotation to the bullpen, hoping that a simplified repertoire and shorter stints would mitigate longstanding questions about his delivery and command. Detroit surely believed he’d be a viable MLB reliever but probably didn’t anticipate this level of dominance.

Lange debuted in 2021 and posted a 4.04 ERA in 35 2/3 middle relief innings. He took his game to a new level last season, significantly upping his swing-and-miss to force his way into higher-leverage spots. Lange tossed 63 1/3 frames of 3.41 ERA ball while punching out more than 30% of opposing hitters. An absurd 19% swinging strike rate — bettered only by Edwin Díaz and Andrés Muñoz among qualified relievers — suggested the potential to push the strikeouts even further. Paired with an absurd 55.6% ground-ball rate, Lange demonstrated an ultra-rare combination of whiffs and unthreatening contact. He was one of just five relievers (min. 30 innings) to record both a strikeout rate above 30% and a grounder percentage north of 55%.


In his second full MLB campaign, Lange has indeed upped the strikeouts. Entering play Thursday, he’s punched out 35% of batters faced. Lange carries a 2.55 ERA in 24 2/3 innings and been entrusted with the ninth inning by manager A.J. Hinch. The 27-year-old has saved 10 of 11 opportunities. He was blown up for four runs in a third of an inning by the White Sox in his most recent appearance, but Lange has made 17 scoreless outings and recorded multiple strikeouts on 14 occasions.

Lange’s control still comes and goes. He’s walked at least 9.9% of opponents in all three of his big league campaigns. That includes a lofty 13% walk percentage thus far in 2023. Yet he’s been so dominant at his best that he’s able to navigate the free passes. Since the start of the 2022 campaign, opponents are hitting .190/.298/.292 in 371 trips to the plate.

The Tigers didn’t get anything out of Richan. He topped out at Double-A and was released last September. Hitting to the extent they have on Lange has more than made up for Richan stalling out from Detroit’s perspective. They landed a high-leverage reliever who has shown impact talent. If Lange dials in his control, he could be one of the three to five best late-game arms in the sport. Even if he’s “only” an All-Star caliber hurler, that’s a great pull for a player who was two months from free agency. The Tigers forfeited the chance to recoup a draft pick via the qualifying offer for Castellanos’ departure but Lange has been far better than the expected value of a choice landing at the end of the first round.

Lange is under club control through the 2027 campaign. He entered this season with one year and 112 days of service time, so he’ll head into next offseason at 2.112 service years. That could leave him just shy of the cutoff for early arbitration as a Super Two player, which has landed between 2.115 and 2.134 years over the past five winters. Even if Lange does get to arbitration next season, four years of arb control for a pitcher of his caliber is a massive asset.

The Tigers’ rebuild has stagnated, leading to a front office shakeup last summer. While Detroit is only 3 1/2 games out in the AL Central right now, they’re seven games under .500 and have been outscored by 70 runs. This isn’t a likely playoff contender even in the sport’s worst division. As a result, other clubs have called on Detroit’s relievers (Lange included) about a potential deadline deal.

With their extended control window, there’s no pressure on president of baseball operations Scott Harris and his staff to pull the trigger. They dealt shorter-term relievers like Joe Jiménez and Gregory Soto over the winter but moving Lange would be at another level of boldness. The more probable outcome is that Lange will stick around into next season, hopefully anchoring a bullpen for the next competitive Detroit club.

From the Cubs’ perspective, the trade had mixed results. Had they anticipated Lange being this good, they wouldn’t have made him available for a rental. Castellanos validated their optimism, though, rebounding from his middle-of-the-road start with a torrid stretch. He slashed .321/.356/.646 with an absurd 16 home runs in 51 games. Castellanos earned a $64MM guarantee from the Reds the ensuing offseason. His Cincinnati deal afforded a post-2021 opt-out clause which he leveraged into a $100MM contract from Philadelphia on the heels of another excellent season.

Even with Castellanos hitting at a top 20 level down the stretch, the Cubs never kicked into another gear. They’d go 27-28 from August onward. Chicago ended third in the division and five games behind the Brewers for the last postseason spot. They returned to the playoffs during the abbreviated 2020 campaign but were swept in the first round by the Marlins. Chicago hasn’t gotten back to the postseason since and is going on six years dating back to their last playoff win.

Previous installments: honorable mentions, Drew Smith/Lucas Duda (#10), Steve Pearce/Santiago Espinal (#9), Lane Thomas/Jon Lester (#8)

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

 

[CSF77]

Then Jed better extend Stro before the trade deadline IMO to take away the risk of stroman leaving in FA

Jed might be a buyer this year. If you really look hard at the team the biggest issue has been the pen. On that front they have Thompson, Brown and Huerer pending. They do need a established guy.

I'm not saying Lange. Would be funny if Jed traded for him back. But I was like wow. That was not expected.

 

[knoxville7]

Miguel Amaya hitting the ball well

 

[CSF77]

With Wednesday’s 6-2 loss to the Angels, the Cubs dropped to 26-35 through 61 games this season. At this point in the calendar a year ago, the club was mired in a 10-game losing streak and on its way to a second straight year of selling at the Deadline.

The Cubs fortified their roster with a pile of veterans -- All-Stars, award winners and World Series champions among them -- and got off to a 14-10 start in April. The 12-25 stretch that has followed has featured a myriad of misfortunes.

The biggest issues that have sunk Chicago in the standings have been the bullpen (13th in the National League with a 4.62 ERA) and situational hitting (MLB-worst -5.81 in FanGraphs’ offensive “Clutch” metric). That has contributed to an 8-16 record in games decided by two or fewer runs.

Jed Hoyer on state of the Cubs
May 23, 2023 · 2:28
Jed Hoyer on state of the Cubs
Hoyer also pointed to five home series already in which the Cubs won the first two games (against the Rangers, Mariners, Marlins, Mets and Rays) but were unable to finish a sweep.

“It's going to be hard to two-out-of-three our way to a really good place,” Hoyer said. “We're going to have to, at some point, win a bunch of games in a row, and I think we have the pitching to do that. We've had consistent starts, which is usually the thing that leads towards winning streaks. We just have to do it. That's really what I'm hoping for over the next seven weeks.”

If the Cubs go into sell mode, there are multiple veterans who could be flipped, but the biggest question centers around the future of starter Marcus Stroman.

The 32-year-old Stroman is pitching like an ace (2.39 ERA through 13 starts) and has the ability to opt out of his contract ($21 million in 2024) in favor of testing free agency. Stroman has made it clear he would love to stay with the Cubs beyond ’23, and the sides will undoubtedly discuss that possibility in the weeks leading up to the Deadline.

“I'm not going to comment on the contract,” Hoyer said. “Obviously, he's thrown great this year. Our focus is, we just need to be consistent as a team and kind of claw our way back into the race. It's not that far a climb. We just need to play consistent baseball, and my hope is that we’ll do that.”

 

[Diehardfan]

Why is it everytime I switch the channel to the Cub game.....fucking Trey Mancini is batting?

Update....better question is why am I switching to the Cub game at all.

 

[CSF77]

So Internal:

Thompson has been out of wack even at Iowa. 10 walks and 6 strike outs. His command is off.
Heuer is a bit better but not by much. 9 BB 12 SO.

I do believe the best solution is to move Hayden into middle relief when Steele returns. They need to stabilize the middle innings.

Alozay and Leiter have both kept their walks in check and are both sub 1.0 WHIP. I feel pretty good when they are in there.


After that the WHIP is in the danger zone for the pen. So that is a huge concern with this team.

 

[TL1961]

So Internal:

Thompson has been out of wack even at Iowa. 10 walks and 6 strike outs. His command is off.
Heuer is a bit better but not by much. 9 BB 12 SO.

I do believe the best solution is to move Hayden into middle relief when Steele returns. They need to stabilize the middle innings.

Alozay and Leiter have both kept their walks in check and are both sub 1.0 WHIP. I feel pretty good when they are in there.


After that the WHIP is in the danger zone for the pen. So that is a huge concern with this team.

Alzolay.

For the 1000th time, it's Alzolay.

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Alzolay.

For the 1000th time, it's Alzolay.

Well he's bounced between azolay and alozay, he'll get there eventually

 

[CSF77]

Might as well. Seems that he will end up as a late inning arm.

 

[PickSix]

Can we trade Jed at the deadline and find a guy that doesn’t shop at Aldi?

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Can we trade Jed at the deadline and find a guy that doesn’t shop at Aldi?

I love Aldi. But jed is garbage. I have no issue with the gm but jed can't hold theos jockstrap as vp

 

[Diehardfan]

I love Aldi. But jed is garbage. I have no issue with the gm but jed can't hold theos jockstrap as vp

Are you saying you have no issue GM Carter Hawkins?

Question.....if Carter Hawkins walked by you on the steet, would you know who he was?

LOL, I surely wouldn't. He is the original Invisible Man.

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Are you saying you have no issue GM Carter Hawkins?

Question.....if Carter Hawkins walked by you on the steet, would you know who he was?

LOL, I surely wouldn't. He is the original Invisible Man.

Yeah I have no clue who he is. But I think he's been a big part of developing the minor league pitching as Cleveland had similar success with pitching while he was there. Jed on the other hand has done nothing to show he's competent at his job.

 

[Diehardfan]

Yeah I have no clue who he is. But I think he's been a big part of developing the minor league pitching as Cleveland had similar success with pitching while he was there. Jed on the other hand has done nothing to show he's competent at his job.

Hawkins should be an assistant somewhere....he's purely a figurehead. This is Hoyer's team. Nobody else's....and they are boring as hell to watch. Hoyer's Aldi shopping for deadline trade bait has failed miserably setting this team back yet another year.

BTW, thanks to @PickSix for the Aldi line....I love it.

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Hawkins should be an assistant somewhere....he's purely a figurehead. This is Hoyer's team. Nobody else's....and they are boring as hell to watch. Hoyer's Aldi shopping for deadline trade bait has failed miserably setting this team back yet another year.

BTW, thanks to @PickSix for the Aldi line....I love it.

As cubs fans, we should've known theos success would be followed with agony under his make-a-wish predecessor