he wouldnt be a face of the team.
What relevance does that have? The goal is to add talent. If Rizzo is the de-facto franchise guy, why should that stop adding one of the ten best starters in the majors?
you would be essentially paying him all that money for year 1 to be meaningless and the back end of his deal to be not the 1/1a.
They got 73 wins last season with essentially Castro and Rizzo carrying the offense surrounded by complimentary offerings from Valbuena and Coghlan and a bunch of scrubs. With a full season of Soler, Baez, Alcantara and Bryant... plus a deal working to land Miguel Montero, that could an intriguing offense, especially if the end up landing a short-term upgrade in left field. The bullpen was pretty damn good (and deep, to boot) and adding a TOR guy just could put them into the conversation for a wild card. Why not go for it when your expecting improvement across the board?
play the kids in 2015 and see whos hot and whos not. If certain guys are ready, fill in the roster and splash on a couple of starters.
Uh, they are going to play "the kids".... and they'll be adding Bryant by the end of Super 2 time. Not to mention the laundry list of guys still waiting in the pipeline. It's just the beginning as far as position players go. Top-tier starting pitching is the pressing need. And Lester fills that need.
The cubs have 2 position players that are pretty much sure things. The rest is a mystery.
Every season is a mystery. Year in and year you, teams that are "sure things" collapse under expectations, succumb to injuries or just flat-out underperform. So, why should that dissuade a team from going out and spending money when it's an obvious upgrade?
it makes no sense to go 7 at 25.
That's the going rate for premium starting pitching, especially a two-time World Series champion who's put up huge numbers in the AL his entire career. Oh yeah -- and he's never been injured. He's worth big money.
the culture has changed, they are doing this full rebuild and no one knows what the outcome will be.
You still need to add veteran leadership. The first two years when they're gutting the roster doesn't make sense to add payroll when they're trying to make their payroll and roster situation as transparent and flexible as possible.
going for lester now is a pure gamble.
And it won't be, hypothetically, next year when he's a year older and has another 200+ innings on his arm?
this is all not considering injuries.
Injuries aren't a concern -- he's pitched at least 190 innings every single season since 2008. He's the real deal. He's what the franchise and city needs.
