Offseason thread

beckdawg

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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.
 

knoxville7

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Agreed, they need to go ALL IN on Soto

That said, I don’t see Soto choosing the Cubs over the Yankees in the end so better have a damn good plan B
 

TL1961

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I think your point about not having huge holes to fill so they really have to go for that one star is absolutely accurate.

But the two things to worry about are a) will they be willing to spend that much on one player and b) are they going to be held hostage by Bellinger‘s decision-making process? That is will they spend on Soto if they’re also paying Bellinger and on top of that if they’re not willing to pay both will they be delayed in waiting for Bellinger to make his decision.

I don’t see them also going for a top of the rotation starter if they’re spending that much on Soto, but they certainly have prospects to trade to get somebody who is not a free agent.

I don’t think you can comfortably assume Imanaga and Taillon will be as good in 2025. It’s certainly possible but regression is as well. Assad does OK but never goes deep enough into the game. He should be bullpen/spot starter.

TOR, shut down closer, Soto.

For a team that missed the playoffs you could say those are really the three things they need to worry about. But that is one big huge shopping list and asking a lot of a team.

A GM who is forward thinking and can use his prospects could land those pitchers , but I don’t have faith that Hoyer can pull that off or that he would not feel the Soto deal was enough if he were able to sign him.

I hope to be wrong.

I fear that Jed will try to do some patchwork move, but this is an off-season in which there’s gonna need to be a lot of moving parts.
 

Szlachcic

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I fear that Jed will try to do some patchwork move, but this is an off-season in which there’s gonna need to be a lot of moving parts.
My feeling exactly, just don't have much faith in Hoyer and Rickets..
 

Probie2429

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Don’t need Soto. Need to fix bullpen. If Cubs had a strong bullpen, they are challenging the Brewers for the division. Cubs also have a lot of young hitters matriculating soon.
 

knoxville7

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Don’t need Soto. Need to fix bullpen. If Cubs had a strong bullpen, they are challenging the Brewers for the division. Cubs also have a lot of young hitters matriculating soon.
none of those hitters have the impact Soto does, though

you need that big bat in the middle of the lineup to plug the rest of the guys around

i wont argue that they need to improve the bullpen

why cant they do both??? it doesnt have to be 1 or the other
 

SilenceS

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Soto isnt going to happen. Cubs arent going to win a bidding war. I think Alonso is still an option. Cubs big problem is they hit poorly at Wrigley with less power. A power bat makes a world of different to the lineup the way they are constructed. Peter also rakes at Wrigley for some reason. I think thats more where their eyes will go.
 

TL1961

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I thought I read recently that if the Cubs bullpen had actually been the number one saved percentage in baseball, it would’ve added eight games, which would not be enough to catch the Brewers, but obviously obviously is better than where they are.

Adding Alonso would be an old time Cubs move. A 30 year old one-dimensional player whose defense will kill you.

What would they then do with Michael Busch?

Putting Michael Busch at second with Pete Alonso at first would be like opening the floodgates for opposing hitters.

I would actually be opposed to adding Alonso if he played for $5 million a year and he’d be commanding so much it would hamper other moves they could make. Please no no no.
 

Diehardfan

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none of those hitters have the impact Soto does, though

you need that big bat in the middle of the lineup to plug the rest of the guys around

i wont argue that they need to improve the bullpen

why cant they do both??? it doesnt have to be 1 or the other


I've been saying that for over two years while Hoyer keeps shuttling everyone else's trash in and out of here.
 

SilenceS

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I thought I read recently that if the Cubs bullpen had actually been the number one saved percentage in baseball, it would’ve added eight games, which would not be enough to catch the Brewers, but obviously obviously is better than where they are.

Adding Alonso would be an old time Cubs move. A 30 year old one-dimensional player whose defense will kill you.

What would they then do with Michael Busch?

Putting Michael Busch at second with Pete Alonso at first would be like opening the floodgates for opposing hitters.

I would actually be opposed to adding Alonso if he played for $5 million a year and he’d be commanding so much it would hamper other moves they could make. Please no no no.
We have a DH position
 

SilenceS

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The Cubs need a power boost. Soto isn't realistic. Im given you realistic.
 

TL1961

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Alonso would give you more power than we have currently at the DH position, but would it be significantly more and would it be worth the additional investment?

He played 27 games more than Suzuki and had 10 more home runs so yeah he’s a better Homerun hitter. There’s no doubt about that part but the gap wasn’t that great in 2024 and I don’t see Alonso getting better with age.

I agree they need a power influx from somewhere. I just don’t think a softball player with little defensive value is a great answer.

Soto also is primarily a DH, but at least in his case he’s giving you dynamic offense in more than one category. Yes, it may be wishful thinking, and the Cubs may not have a real shot at Soto, but at least pursuing him would make sense.

If you add Alonso at DH, what do you do with Suzuki? You’d be paying off a lot of money for two DHS who don’t add much defensive value
 

beckdawg

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Early indications seem to be they are looking at top of the rotation starters. I don't hate that depending on who they are actually looking at.

As for Alonso i'm not even slightly interested. For one, unless they move Bellinger/he opts out they don't have a spot for him to play. I'm assuming if Belli is back it's probably him in RF, Seiya at DH and Happ/PCA in LF/CF. And with Busch at 1B there's no room. And if by some scenario you do find the room I'd much rather give one of the young hitters a shot to develop than pay a 29 year old 1B/DH only.

As for Soto not being realistic... like I said i understand why people view it that way but as I said if you're ever gonna spend money he's the guy to do it on. For the sake of argument let's assume the cubs either are able to move Belli in a trade or he opts out costing them nothing. Without his payroll on the books the cubs are looking at roughly $179.8M assuming they decline on Smyly and Bote. If you're assuming he gets something like $46 mil aav to be close to in line with Ohtani that only puts them at $225.8 mil. The 2025 luxury tax is $241 mil. Obviously there's going to be other costs too that will bump them closer to that $241 mil but my point is they have more room than you'd think.
 

TL1961

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Yeah I am also not even slightly interested in Alonso. I would not be even if the Cubs had a position for him.

When I look at the dynamic players around the league, he doesn’t even enter my mind.
 

TL1961

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Does anyone know the timeframe on when Bellinger has to make his decision?
 

CSF77

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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.

Nothing is going to work out until that suck up Jed is removed from his position and they get someone in that puts winning ahead of fan and player appeasement.

It is a pointless thing to even consider this team being more than a wannabe right now.

We have seen Jed do all right in getting talent. But when it comes to major money decisions he almost always drops the ball.

I have to judge off of the over all job done. Jed has spent 4 years playing us for fools while spending payroll on players that he over valued.
 

CSF77

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If I have to read another 'thank you Kyle' article again I think that I will vomit
 

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