I was wondering if you were of a mindset to extend Stroman, what would you be willing to offer? The Ohtani bidding will be insane and probably starts in the 12 years/540M range and could even go to 60M AAV if someone wants to get insane (I'm looking at the Mets for something like that.) Urias is the next big name pitcher and the Dodgers are going to have a ton of money to bring him back and whomever else they want, about 133M.
Stroman is set for 21M in pay with a 23.67M tax hit for 2024. The Cubs aren't big on offering long term deals as of now. I just wonder if a 3Y/85M or 4Y/115M would get him to sign and would be palpable to you guys.
Bellinger is a different story. His option for 24 is 25M. Without knowing his wants, I'm just guessing he'd be looking for 5Y/125M area.
If both of those were done, the Cubs would be looking at about 48M in space before the CBT. That would almost put them out of the Ohtani sweepstakes and firmly in the "find a different power bat for the line up" most likely at 3B category. At that point, I'd be wanting Matt Chapman and he's probably the best fit out there and would cost about 25-28M a season.