Chicago Cubs 2023-24 OFFSEASON thread

[TL1961]

I’m a pass on chapman. Good defender, but I think his bat is going to deteriorate quickly.

Hader is tempting, but man that’s a lot of $$ to give a reliever

Chapman from mid-May to end of season was Wisdom offensively

 

[CSF77]

Chapman from mid-May to end of season was Wisdom offensively

Ya you are paying for a glove and HR power. About it

 

[CSF77]

It kinda makes sense why Wisdom was resigned. Insurance.

3B market tbh is Candy. He is the hot name there.

I would be ok if it went into S/T as a competition. Mad, Wisdom and toss Vazquez into the mix. He most likely ends up the best glove there and has potential for more o wise


Well if it was due to trading for Alonso and they scored Ohtani. At that point get the best glove because your O just got paid.

 

[Castor76]

I almost feel that if Ohtani isn't willing to convert to a closer the only reason to stay in the hunt for him is to either drive up the price for the Dodgers or see if he would accept a 45M AAV deal and you move to 6 man rotation when he comes back. It's a lot of eggs to put in one basket and you have to accept as an organization that the CBT just can't stop you from adding other players.

I'm also really talking myself into overpaying from the surplus for Devers. Unless Cleveland is willing to accept Morel, Triantos, Canario, and Gray for Ramirez, it just makes so much sense to go big after a player that fills 2 major needs in one move. He's a lefty power bat at 3B that isn't awful defensively and his contract isn't horrible. He's young and has good health and production history.

If the Ohtani pipe dream doesn't come true as I suspect it won't, then go big for Yamamoto as he's also young with good histories and figure out an acceptable deal with Bellinger. Those 3 would be 75-80M and put the Cubs over the CBT for 24, but they'd be back under with almost no holes in 25.

 

[CSF77]

I almost feel that if Ohtani isn't willing to convert to a closer the only reason to stay in the hunt for him is to either drive up the price for the Dodgers or see if he would accept a 45M AAV deal and you move to 6 man rotation when he comes back. It's a lot of eggs to put in one basket and you have to accept as an organization that the CBT just can't stop you from adding other players.

I'm also really talking myself into overpaying from the surplus for Devers. Unless Cleveland is willing to accept Morel, Triantos, Canario, and Gray for Ramirez, it just makes so much sense to go big after a player that fills 2 major needs in one move. He's a lefty power bat at 3B that isn't awful defensively and his contract isn't horrible. He's young and has good health and production history.

If the Ohtani pipe dream doesn't come true as I suspect it won't, then go big for Yamamoto as he's also young with good histories and figure out an acceptable deal with Bellinger. Those 3 would be 75-80M and put the Cubs over the CBT for 24, but they'd be back under with almost no holes in 25.

He had TJS. He wont convert to a closer. He would most likely become a OF if he had to give up starting due to his arm injuries.

Devers is never going to happen. Boston is always aiming for a ring.

That is too much to give up for Ramirez. Who is Gray? Did you mean Brown. If so 3 top 10 prospects and a established major league hitter.

If Jed trades it would be for a SP to replace Stroman or Alonso. Either one most likely involves Morel.

 

[Castor76]

He had TJS. He wont convert to a closer. He would most likely become a OF if he had to give up starting due to his arm injuries.

Devers is never going to happen. Boston is always aiming for a ring.

That is too much to give up for Ramirez. Who is Gray? Did you mean Brown. If so 3 top 10 prospects and a established major league hitter.

If Jed trades it would be for a SP to replace Stroman or Alonso. Either one most likely involves Morel.

Gray is Drew Gray, the Cubs #15 prospect. The only way that's too much for Ramirez is if Cleveland is desperate to shed pay roll. If they are, great. I'll gladly see those players traded for Ramirez and his very affordable to the Cubs contract. And Canario is the #14 prospect so it's only 1 top 10, the #9 prospect. The Cubs have a big logjam at OF for the next 3 seasons with 5 OF prospects in their top 20, all of whom are expected to be MLB ready according to MLB.com by 2024. That's 7 players for 5 spots at most, not counting Tauchman. What the Cubs don't have is a surefire 3B on the farm. Why not at least explore using that surplus to plug two holes with one player.

Ohtani will never go to the OF as just DHing is an option for him and teams won't care.

Boston might always be aiming for a ring, but they also have a number of bad contracts with not a lot of tradeable assets right now. MLBtraderumors would have Devers for Morel as a straight up swap and they list Devers' availability as Medium. If anything, I'm vastly overpaying for Devers.

As for trading for pitching. I'd be perfectly fine with trading Wicks, Alcantara, Wisdom, and Weneski for the 2 remaining years of Dylan Cease, which is listed as an even trade for both teams.

 

[JP Hochbaum]

Cubs reportedly talking to Toronto about trade for Bo Bichette to play 3b.

 

[CSF77]

Nearly Half The League Has Reached Out To Yoshinobu Yamamoto​

By Steve Adams | November 22, 2023 at 12:15pm CDT

As the best pitcher in Japan who’s been made available to MLB teams at just 25 years of age, Orix Buffaloes right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto has always been expected to command an aggressive bidding war. Yamamoto’s 45-day negotiation window with MLB clubs opened yesterday morning, and he’s unsurprisingly drawn widespread early interest.
Agent Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, who’s representing Yamamoto, told the Kyodo News last night that he’s already heard from 11 to 14 teams. Yamamoto’s negotiation window officially opened yesterday morning.
“This is by far the player with the most interested teams that I have ever seen at the beginning of free agency,” said Wolfe, an executive vice president of one of the sport’s largest agencies. As one would expect, Wolfe indicated that Yamamoto isn’t approaching free agency with any restrictions based on geography. (Even if Yamamoto does have some specific geographic preferences, those would likely be kept close to the vest — if only as a means of retaining leverage in talks.)
The list of teams already linked to Yamamoto in free agency nearly outnumbers the list of teams who’ve not yet had public ties to him. The Cardinals, Phillies (even after re-signing Aaron Nola), Diamondbacks, Tigers, Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, Cubs, Giants, Red Sox and Dodgers have all been reported to have interest in Yamamoto. That’s 11 teams right there, and it’s surely not a comprehensive list. Yamamoto figures to draw interest from contending clubs and non-contenders alike, given the rarity with which a free agent of this caliber reaches the market at such a young age. Even a team eyeing 2025-26 as a more realistic range for competing could outbid the field for Yamamoto and know that he’d be squarely in his prime years when that window for contention is more earnestly open.
Yamamoto has been evaluated extensively by MLB scouts, with the consensus being that he’s a legitimate No. 1 or No. 2 caliber arm in a big league rotation. Between that ceiling, his age and his brilliant track record in Japan, he’s expected to command the largest contract ever for an NPB pitcher making the jump to MLB — perhaps a deal in excess of $200MM (plus the requisite posting fee). Yamamoto has won three straight Sawamura Awards in Japan — NPB’s equivalent of MLB’s Cy Young Award — and just posted a career-best 1.21 ERA in 2023. He’s logged a sub-2.00 ERA in four of his past five seasons while punching out better than 27% of his opponents against a tidy 5.7% walk rate.
Any team that signs Yamamoto will owe a posting/release fee to the Buffaloes. That fee is equivalent to 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, plus 17.5% of the next $25MM (a combined total of $9.375MM), plus 15% of any money thereafter. Using MLBTR’s predicted nine-year, $225MM deal as a hypothetical example, that contract would come with a $35.625MM fee — a total outlay of $260.25MM for the signing team. Given Yamamoto’s youth and the substantial demand for him, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if any deal wound up containing an opt-out a few years into the pact, thus allowing him to return to free agency in his late 20s after having the potential to establish himself as a genuine top-of-the-rotation arm in the Majors.

 

[CSF77]

Cubs reportedly talking to Toronto about trade for Bo Bichette to play 3b.

What could the Toronto Blue Jays get in return for Bo Bichette?​

It may sound absurd to Toronto Blue Jays fans that Bo Bichette could be on the market. However, if the trade rumors are to be believed, he may find himself with the Chicago Cubs. It would not come cheaply for Chicago if the Blue Jays were to move him this offseason.

Given his age and remaining years under team control, the Chicago Cubs would likely need to pay up. However, for the Cubs, the organization has a number of highly-touted prospects who could tempt the Blue Jays into making a move.

Morosi believes that Canadian outfielder Owen Caissie could be part of a potential Bichette trade package.

 

[CSF77]

100% fine with this.

 

[DrGonzo]

Dear god please no.

Cubs free agent target: Jason Heyward

www-bleedcubbieblue-com.cdn.ampproject.org

 

[CSF77]

Dear god please no.

Cubs free agent target: Jason Heyward

www-bleedcubbieblue-com.cdn.ampproject.org

He must be smoking crack

 

[Castor76]

Not sure these packages would be quite enough to get either of these players but at least mlb trade rumors says they are fair trades,

What would you think of trading Morel, Caissie, Killian, Rojas, and Ferris to Toronto for Bichette along with trading Wicks, Alcantara, Adrian Santana, and Cam Sanders to the White Sox for Cease? As it stands now, the 2 would cost about 20M against the CBT while the pieces going back would be in I think the 5M range, I'm not certain how much minor league players count against the CBT.

That would address the larger rotation question along with solidifying 3B for the next 2 years while letting either someone on the farm have time to grow into the position versus hoping someone steps up during 2024. At that point they'd either know where they stand with Ohtani or focusing on bringing back Bellinger and possibly using some of the Ohtani money on pen help. It does deplete the farm some, but as it stands, they have 8 people vying for 4 spots. If 2 of the OF prospects can be turned into proven MLB talent for the next 2 seasons, it's worth the price.

Presuming no Ohtani and it's Bellinger instead.

Hoerner - 2B
Happ - LF
Bellinger - 1B
Bichette - 3B
Suzuki - RF
Swanson - SS
Tauchman - DH
Gomes - C
PCA - CF

Or if PCA is in Iowa, roll with Mervis as DH and Tauchman in CF. Not the most powerful line up but proven hitters through most of it.

Rotation of Cease, Steele, Taillion, Hendricks, and Assad.

If they spent 10M on a relief pitcher for pen help, that's 10-15M over for 24 with 42M coming off after 24. The Bichette and Cease contracts would be in the 35M range coming off after 2025. After 2026, they have 66M coming off with Taillion, Happ, Suzuki, and Hoerner. That would be just over 140M coming off over the next 3 seasons minus arbitration adds but would have quite a few areas that would need addressing via FA as well as farm call ups. Starting pitching would hopefully be farm addressed via Horton and Brown. OF could have Canario taking one corner spot. 3B could either be Shaw or Triantos with of course a decision made of if to let Hoerner walk or re-sign him.

 

[TL1961]

Not sure these packages would be quite enough to get either of these players but at least mlb trade rumors says they are fair trades,

What would you think of trading Morel, Caissie, Killian, Rojas, and Ferris to Toronto for Bichette along with trading Wicks, Alcantara, Adrian Santana, and Cam Sanders to the White Sox for Cease? As it stands now, the 2 would cost about 20M against the CBT while the pieces going back would be in I think the 5M range, I'm not certain how much minor league players count against the CBT.

That would address the larger rotation question along with solidifying 3B for the next 2 years while letting either someone on the farm have time to grow into the position versus hoping someone steps up during 2024. At that point they'd either know where they stand with Ohtani or focusing on bringing back Bellinger and possibly using some of the Ohtani money on pen help. It does deplete the farm some, but as it stands, they have 8 people vying for 4 spots. If 2 of the OF prospects can be turned into proven MLB talent for the next 2 seasons, it's worth the price.

Presuming no Ohtani and it's Bellinger instead.

Hoerner - 2B
Happ - LF
Bellinger - 1B
Bichette - 3B
Suzuki - RF
Swanson - SS
Tauchman - DH
Gomes - C
PCA - CF

Or if PCA is in Iowa, roll with Mervis as DH and Tauchman in CF. Not the most powerful line up but proven hitters through most of it.

Rotation of Cease, Steele, Taillion, Hendricks, and Assad.

If they spent 10M on a relief pitcher for pen help, that's 10-15M over for 24 with 42M coming off after 24. The Bichette and Cease contracts would be in the 35M range coming off after 2025. After 2026, they have 66M coming off with Taillion, Happ, Suzuki, and Hoerner. That would be just over 140M coming off over the next 3 seasons minus arbitration adds but would have quite a few areas that would need addressing via FA as well as farm call ups. Starting pitching would hopefully be farm addressed via Horton and Brown. OF could have Canario taking one corner spot. 3B could either be Shaw or Triantos with of course a decision made of if to let Hoerner walk or re-sign him.

Trade half the farm and open the season with Tauchman and Mervis as starters?

Ouch!

 

[JP Hochbaum]

It makes the most sense to go for Ohtani, and then trade some of the farm to fill in other spots.

Ohtani will cost about 50 million a season but bring the team in 100 million plus per season. His signing is a free pass to continually go into luxury tax.

So with the tax you typically go over it one year, and go back under it the next year, to avoid losing out on IFA money and other harsher penalties. So it makes sense to go way over it every other year, which would be this year as year one of Ohtani contract,

So you get Ohtani, and trade for a few one year deals. One year deal guys costs much less in prospects and they play the final year of their deal trying to have their career years with us to get their next pay day.

 

[CSF77]

I'm still in wait and see mode.

The market is held up until Ohtani and Yamamoto decide. Yam has said that he wants to play with other Japanese players so Chicago has a edge as is. Now Jed pulling both of them. That would be crazy IMO

 

[CSF77]

Cubs To Sign Edwin Escobar

The Cubs have agreed to a contract with left-hander Edwin Escobar, according to reporter Luis Enrique Morales (X link). The …

www.mlbtraderumors.com

Interesting. I wonder if he picked up some Japanese over his tour.

 

[Castor76]

Trade half the farm and open the season with Tauchman and Mervis as starters?

Ouch!

You're right, why trade away 2 barely proven major league players along with admittedly some top prospects including the #s 3, 4, 8, 11, and 23 prospects in the system along with 2 players who aren't in the top 30 for 2 years worth of a TOR pitcher and a guy who addresses one of the biggest needs on the team, both on very affordable terms, while still keeping most of the farm depth on the farm and allow it to mature naturally and keeping the team financially flexible through the next 3 years? What the hell was I thinking?

I would much rather the Cubs spend 80-100M in AAV contracts on Bellinger, Yamamoto, Hader, Candelario on a short deal, and maybe one more pitcher for the pen. Or they even get lucky and get Ohtani along with Belli and Yamamoto or Hader.

What it doesn't change is the Cubs currently have 5 OF in their top 20 prospects, both MLB corner OF with 3 years left and full NTC protection along with Tauchman and at most 4 places to put them. They can either use that depth to address needs or watch it rot in the basket because there isn't enough room on the table for it.

 

[Diehardfan]

ATTENTION.....no one gives a fuck. Cubs are gonna do whatever the hell they want to do....HSL is just so laughable. What a waste of time.

 

[CSF77]

So Yamamoto seems to be doing some interviews prior to the winter meeting. But will decide after.

Ohtani should decide prior to the meeting.

Now I can see Jed in on both. Word is SFG has also made a large offer that matches the Dodgers and the Cubs. But they are not in a solid position to dominate as the other two.

After Ohtani decides then you have to expect the meetings to be very active in trades and we will see the landscape cleared more for Yamamoto and Bellenger.

So I'm pretty sure that Ohtani is plan A. If he decides on the Dodgers then Jed will go aggressive at Yamamoto.

They miss on both then Jed needs to start trading and targeting lower level F/A