beckdawg
Well-known member
- Joined:
- Oct 31, 2012
- Posts:
- 11,740
- Liked Posts:
- 3,739
Season's basically over with the cubs being eliminated. I feel like this is going to be a really interesting offseason. I get people being dubious of Ricketts spending money but i'm not sure they have much of a choice here. In my eyes, you have to sign Soto at whatever cost because he's as close as you'll ever get to Barry Bonds hitting FA and he's 2 years younger than Bonds was. Plus, you have a lot of young cost controlled talent coming to absorb some of the money.
But even if they do that, which is saying something, the impending AAA prospects and Belli likely opting in makes for some challenging choices. Happ and Seiya are both 30 so you sorta need to have an eye toward replacing them hopefully with ONKC and Alcantara. Might not be 2025 but soon. And with Belli, I think at the very least if he opts in you have to try and trade him to free DH ideally for Soto but if not for him to maybe move Seiya to DH and let the prospects play in RF a la what PCA did this year.
Moises Ballesteros and Shaw i view sorta similarly. I think Paredes is given the shot to play 3B in 2025 with Shaw being good depth if he sucks again. Like wise I can imagine them picking up a vet back up for Amaya with Ballesteros being good depth if they suck.
But having said all that, I can't really see how an ideal offseason works without Soto because it's not as if they have huge holes to plug. They have decent players just no stars to carry the team offensively.
In terms of pitching, outside of packaging prospects for a top of the rotation starter I don't see a ton of work to do here. Steele, Shota and Taillon were all great this year. Assad is also a very good #4/5 and they have interesting young guys for the last slot with Wicks/Brown/Horton....etc. And in terms of the bullpen, Luke Little, Hodge, Pearson, Miller, and Thompson have all looked good this year. Alzolay should return at some point. So you maybe need another lefty and the 8th slot is probably whoever doesn't end up starting. You're maybe lacking a proven closer too but there's at least young controlled talent in the bullpen now.
But even if they do that, which is saying something, the impending AAA prospects and Belli likely opting in makes for some challenging choices. Happ and Seiya are both 30 so you sorta need to have an eye toward replacing them hopefully with ONKC and Alcantara. Might not be 2025 but soon. And with Belli, I think at the very least if he opts in you have to try and trade him to free DH ideally for Soto but if not for him to maybe move Seiya to DH and let the prospects play in RF a la what PCA did this year.
Moises Ballesteros and Shaw i view sorta similarly. I think Paredes is given the shot to play 3B in 2025 with Shaw being good depth if he sucks again. Like wise I can imagine them picking up a vet back up for Amaya with Ballesteros being good depth if they suck.
But having said all that, I can't really see how an ideal offseason works without Soto because it's not as if they have huge holes to plug. They have decent players just no stars to carry the team offensively.
In terms of pitching, outside of packaging prospects for a top of the rotation starter I don't see a ton of work to do here. Steele, Shota and Taillon were all great this year. Assad is also a very good #4/5 and they have interesting young guys for the last slot with Wicks/Brown/Horton....etc. And in terms of the bullpen, Luke Little, Hodge, Pearson, Miller, and Thompson have all looked good this year. Alzolay should return at some point. So you maybe need another lefty and the 8th slot is probably whoever doesn't end up starting. You're maybe lacking a proven closer too but there's at least young controlled talent in the bullpen now.
