Despite a morning report of possible tension between Cubs president of baseball ops Theo Epstein and manager Joe Maddon, Epstein said at today’s end-of-season press conference that Maddon’s “status remains unchanged” and firmly stated that he’s happy to have Maddon as his manager (video link via MLB.com). “I know there was a sort of high-profile report this morning,” said Epstein. “That was not accurate. … There were some claims that he and I had personal friction. Not true at all. We have a terrific working relationship. We don’t agree all the time about baseball issues, and that’s the way it should be. I don’t want a ’yes man’ as a manager, and I don’t want a ’yes man’ relationship working the other way, either. I think there should be discord and debate and healthy, trusting relationships where you can work together to make the organization better.”
Epstein added that the team’s loss in the Wild Card game was “not on [Maddon]” and left little to no doubt about his status, saying he looks forward to Maddon coming back in 2019. As for the rest of the coaching staff, the Cubs have not made any firm decisions (video link), but Epstein cautioned against making changes to the staff just for the sake of making changes, stressing the importance of continuity.
More from the press conference…
- Epstein was blunt in suggesting that the Cubs’ offense “broke” at some point in the season and will need to be addressed heading into 2019 (video link). The Cubs “should be” an offensive force with the talent on their roster, he said before adding, “It’s probably time to stop evaluating this in terms of talent and start evaluating it in terms of production.”
- ESPN’s Jesse Rogers has more from the press conference, including some quotes on how pleased the Cubs were with their acquisition of Cole Hamels, who was dominant following a move from Arlington to Chicago. Epstein called Hamels a “breath of fresh air” and indicated he’d love to have both him and righty Pedro Strop back in the mix. The Cubs have a $20MM club option on Hamels for next season that comes with a $6MM buyout, though the Rangers would be responsible for that buyout if that route is taken. If the Cubs exercise the option, they’d be responsible for the full $20MM sum. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets that Epstein called Hamels “absolutely someone we want to be part of the mix going forward,” though that vote of confidence is still a bit shy of definitively stating that the option will be exercised.
- Strop’s $6.25MM option seems like a more straightforward decision. On Strop, Epstein was extraordinarily complimentary of his longtime setup man (Twitter links via Wittenmyer), calling him “such a big part of the heartbeat of this team” and lauding the way in which he pitched through pain when returning from a “four to six week injury” in roughly half that time frame. As for injured closer Brandon Morrow, the Cubs are “very comfortable” with him as the team’s primary closer next season and will “commit again to a very structured role with him” in an effort to maintain his health.
- The status of Kris Bryant’s left shoulder has been a talking point among Cubs fans as the former MVP struggled through a down season (by his lofty standards), but Epstein doesn’t believe that Bryant will require surgery (Twitter link via Rogers). Shoulder woes limited Bryant to 102 games (including Game 163), and he posted a .272/.374/.460 slash with 13 homers, 28 doubles and three triples. For most players, that’d be a terrific season — it checked in about 19 percent better than league average, per OPS+, and about 25 percent better according to wRC+ — but each of those rate stats checked in well south of the .293/.397/.546 Bryant posted from 2016-17.
Heyward and Schwarber for Haniger
Cubs need to get out of at least one of those bad contracts (Heyward, Darvish, and Chatwood). No one will take Heyward without a stud joining him.
Sure, why don’t they trade Darvish for Trout while they’re at it?
Careful, there will be some cub fans who think Darvish for Trout is an overpay for the cubs….
Who’s the stud with Heyward?
Yes – opposing teams are just pining to get ahold of Heywards contract
Schwarber is a stud…that’s news, article should have been on that news alone.
Someone needs to fix Jason heyward. I can’t believe the guy just can just bury everything on the ground. There has to be a way to change his approach.
Eric Hosmer too – the Padres tried desperately this season to get him to lift the ball more, and he was just unable to do it; I think changing a hitting approach that has been ingrained so long is difficult, although obviously some players have managed to do it.
When he lands his front foot he is angled towards the ground and has too much weight out front. Angle his hips a touch upwards and work on his balance and launch angle. Boom. Problem
Solved
Schwarber’s a stud at Olive Garden.
I’m not sure if you saw Schwarber this year, but the fat jokes are a little old now – he lost something like 35 pounds last offseason, rated out above-average defensively lin left-field this year. He’s not the big stocky guy you remember anymore.
This is true, and I’ll have to agree. He definitely got into better shape for this season than we’ve seen in the last.
The only reason he’s in the bigs is because of power and losing weight won’t help that.
Recall Theo’s comment about evaluating offensive production, not potential. He was talking about Schwarber. He’s not very good. He’s a lousy version of Rob Deer or Matt Stairs. His hitting in high leverage situations set a MLB record for futility (55 plate appearances, 2 singles). He’s awful in the field. He’s not a good enough hitter to be someone’s DH. I respect his weight loss, but his production has shown no progress in three years.
I saw Schwarber play this year and he still stinks right now he’s overrated
Heyward isn’t going anywhere and Bryce isn’t coming. Machado is probably target number 1 along with bullpen help
Machado would boost most teams to favorite status
Ok Mr Cubs Insider, where is Machado going to play?
Third base, obviously. They’ve already talked about moving Bryant to LF to protect his shoulder.
And if you don’t do that, you move Baez to 2B, Machado to SS, and keep Bryant at 3B. Or move Baez to 3B and have Machado play SS. There are seriously a lot of options there.
You obviously don’t read wtf going on. How about short stop we’re the Cubs need to fill in duh
Enjoy paying Machado crazy money to be the worst defensive SS in all of baseball. Good plan.
The only place he should play is 3B.
That’s the only way they do it is if he agreed to be 3B. He’s spectacular at third and terrible at SS.
Rizzo 1st, Zobrist 2nd for final year, Baez SS is a stud, Machado 3B is a stud, Heyward RF is a stud (and did improve on offense this year too), Almora in CF is a stud, KB in left is adequate and Contreras at C.
With Russell out of the picture this is the ideal way to put the defense together. They seriously need to fix their offensive approach though. Bryant being hurt most of the year hurt. Instead of having Baez ascend to being in top 3 he just swapped in for KB. Baez and Rizzo alone weren’t enough. If Bryant regains his form and Baez doesn’t digress and they get Machado then a big 4 of KB, Javy, Manny and Rizzo should be enough to keep this offense more consistent.
You obviously don’t watch games. Baez is the Cubs SS moving forward. Machado would primarily play third, Bryant to left.
So obviously Machado is not coming. He wants to play short and thats it.
He said he wants to play SS but would play 3B if the right opportunity came along.
I think he wanted to play SS to boost his stock in free agency. Once he gets the big contract I doubt he cares.
Except for the fact that machado playing SS doesn’t boost his stock because he’s awful defensively there
Mariners cant take on a bad contract, they are waiting for money to come off the books if anything. Teams in a position to take bad contracts are either teams that can work out a bad contract swap or teams that are toward the beginning of a rebuild that need the young talent attatched to the bad contract in a trade.
@jimmyz- Bingo! Teams that either take on, or eat bad contracts typically do it as a means to buy prospects.
Of course there are exceptions, but they are usually teams that can afford it, and simply want that particular player at any cost. A good example would be Pujols.
Lmao, what? Seattle wouldnt take Schwarber for Haniger straight up, much less take on Heywards deal. Cubs would have to include 2 more TOP prospects and then some for your idea to work.
Cubs could pay all of Haywards contract and it might be closer in value but still not a definite fair trade.
That’s still not even close
Heyward is more tradeable than people realize. But you’re taking back $30 million worth of bad contracts in that exchange.
With 5/$101 left on the deal, a $30 mil salary dump from a team acquiring Heyward would turn him into a 5/$71 player. That’s $14 mil per year, which isn’t that unreasonable for a guy with his glove.
14 million per year isn’t unreasonable for a guy with his glove? Are you kidding me? And on top of that you’re paying him 14 million for 5 seasons. Lorenzo Cain received 5 years and 80 million and he’s a superior player in all facets of the game by a wide margin. The only spot it’s close is defensively. Heyward doesn’t have anywhere near a 70 million dollar glove. If he hit the market today I’d be surprised if he got a dollar over 3/36 and I probably wouldn’t like that if my team was handing it out. He’s been worth exactly 4 fwar in 3 years with the cubs. There’s a number for you if watching him alone wasn’t enough to know he’s not a 70 million $ player.
So you wouldn’t pay him 14mm per year but would 12mm? Haha
Plus the year difference
That was a 3 year deal. Jay Bruce received 3/39 this offseason. I wouldn’t want heyward for that deal but I imagine some teams would take a flier at that price because if you can work his swing out there might actually be something there. That’s just bad math on his part I didn’t correct. 5/71 is 16 per. Looks like you missed it too. But even it wasn’t the deal I proposed was exactly half the guarantee of what he had there. Length is a huge part. Particularly when you’re deriving most of the players value from defense. Tends to decline with age.
It’s 14.2
You’re not totally wrong…your numbers might be wrong but you have a point about Heyward being tradeable…but they would have to eat way more money…But his defense is worth a lot…and he has his streaks on offense…beginning of the year the Cubs fans thought Heyward was going to work out
You’re severely overrating RF defense if you think a glove-only right fielder is worth $14M/yr.
Totally agree. I think defense is valuable at a lot of positions, but I wouldn’t be inclined to pay that much for an OF glove. If it came with some seriousy good offensive production, maybe. But that’s a different story.
Teams will be dying to get a hitter who is a sub .100 hitter in the postseason. Lol
Well considering most of the 39 teams teams don’t get to post season that’s a mute point
39 teams? Mute point? What?
maybe it’s mute so the 39 teams won’t hear about it?
Epstein is brilliant with regards to surrounding himself with FO talent and the way the system used to work? Grabbing amateur talent by the gobs, but for signing FA? he is a massive bust for picking them out and then getting useful years from his choices, they just do not perform, whether it be Julio Lugo, Edgar renteria, or his crown jewel? Carl crawford, he has no talent for signing productive FA as the heyward sign shows yet again.
The man Epstein replaced in Boston was far better when he gave Manny Ramirez 200m than any of epstein’s deals and had Duquette not been handcuffed in O’s land, could have done better than he did and not been forced to bottom feed with those various 40-50m pitching busts.
Yep Epstein has had a really bad string of signings—consistently bad. I don’t see how the Cubs build in any substantial way with this bloated payroll.
Duquette was certainly treated poorly his last couple seasons in Boston. I also agree with you on the O’s assessment.
Epstein’s best signing may have been Curt Schilling, only because Schilling was the big-game pitcher Boston needed to get over the hump.
Can I add JD Drew to your list?
Schilling was a trade
Yes Lester and Zobrist were horrible
Manny 8 yrs, 160 mil
Yes, but the Sox had two 20MM team options. The Dodgers agreed to drop the options to get Manny to consent to the trade. Those options were a big part of Manny acting up and being traded.
It’s gotta be a pretty damn good stud for someone to take one of those 3 contracts, and Schwarber isn’t enough of a stud.
Why would the Mariners do that?
Mariners wouldn’t take on Heyward’s contract because they are already dealing with “bad” contracts. And they already acquired Vogelbach from the Cubs a few years back so, there’s no need to get Schwarber. They are pretty much the same type of player. Although admittedly Schwarber hits better
Why are comments turned off on the Addison Russell article?
Probably for obvious reasons. They disable comments for all articles like that lately.
It’s a very sensitive subject and the anonymity of the Internet allow people to be douchebags about it.
Because it quickly degenerated into a toxic stew of racism, sexism and “whatabout” ism. It was more awful than twitter. Because of anonymity, greyfaces are quickly infiltrating the comments section of this site, and that’s a bummer because this was once a forum for relatively thoughtful baseball discussion. But, ah, the internet. As much as I like commenting here, I wouldn’t be upset if MLBTR went the way of ESPN and RAB and other sites and just got rid of the comments section entirely.
Hahahaha wrong.
He’s not wrong at all. Comments sections on just about ANY platform have turned into orgy of hatred, racism, sexism, narcissism, political discord, and everything in between.
If people don’t get their hate out on the internet they will just do it in real life.
Or they will just find a bunch of like-minded people who hate the same thing and rile each other up and then commit some real-life hate crimes. You’ve been watching the new the last, like, ten years, right?
I agree. This place is increasingly attracting a certain personality type. We are definitely in a lowpoint regarding the intellect of the commentariat on this site (at least out of the 13 or whatever years I’ve been coming here). When topics turn to social issues it quickly illuminates the type of people that I’ve been talking baseball with on here and it’s depressing
You guys are going to make me cry
“As much as I like commenting here, I wouldn’t be upset if MLBTR went the way of ESPN and RAB and other sites and just got rid of the comments section entirely.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/letters/archive/2018/02/letters-comments-on-the-end-of-comments/552392/
It’s not just sports, comment sections are a dying art. Tho The Atlantic isn’t sports, they published their readers’ responses to them shutting down theirs — they echo my exact thoughts, to ESPN, RAB, etc. shutting down theirs. At least RAB had courtesy to keep the old comments– Scum are ones who remove all the comments, in addition to shutting section down.
I mean, really, is the archiving of old comments that important? I don’t think I ever re-read mine on any site after a day or s, especially sites with tons of daily updates and thousands of comments.
.
This piece best explained both sides to ESPN shutting down their comments, better than anyone else.
https://deadspin.com/espn-nukes-its-comments-sections-unfairly-silencing-th-1827402794
Heck, if that’s the case, they should’ve just left it open to weed out the d*ckhead commenters and ban them all.
I’m not sure if they ban people anymore. I’ve seen some pretty terrible stuff on here that goes unchecked. I know they used to ban people several years ago but that practice seems to have stopped when they went to a new commenting system
There was a time when Tim had volunteer moderators pretty much watching the site 24 hours a day removing all the posts being mentioned above by you members talking of this topic. He stopped it for some reason and never told us why, just that writers would take over that function (hope no trouble for that) and to me? That seemed like when all the abuse really started.. Slowly at 1st and now to the point it’s at now.
I’ve got my own reasoning as to why the strict moderating was stopped, but won’t go into it. My opinion? It should have been reinstated again long ago.
johnrealtime……They do ban some at times…and they ban the not just the email, they ban the IP address.
If I remember correctly when they switched from this Disqus to this format it was to have better control on the settings or such. They also mentioned that the writers would not be acting as full time moderators anymore (they don’t employ actual mods) because it’s so time consuming. It took a while but yes, it has become a cesspool at times.
johnsilver…you are correct, they did have mods (so much for my memory). I did a fast search and found this https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/commenting-policy
“Good. Those internet sports commenters are all morons.”
— Internet Sports Commenter
(Shamelessly plagiarized from another sports commenting forum.)
Use your brain redrooster. I have faith you can figure it out
That is a boatload of faith JKB.
Hey Cat. Remember your assertion that Yoenis Cespedes and Rich Hill signed with the Mets and Dodgers because they liked playing there and not because the teams basically bid against themselves to sign them? How’d that go? Community has no need for your constant jackassery and faux intellectualism.
Have a nice day.
Oh please, please westcoastryan do a search and show where I said any such thing. Provide a link please.
Have I said in the past that some players do sign where they want and it isn’t always 100% about money to some? Yes I have because I am a realist and not a cynical pos like you, but I don’t remember a Cespedes/Hill exchange.
Still not westcoastryan.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/07/manny-machado-trade-rumors-phillies-handshake-agreement.html
YOU may not have specifically mentioned Cespedes or Hill, but you did say “A few have stated it may help [to sign Machado] and have provided examples of players who resigned because they liked the experience…” The examples you were referring to DID mention them.
I never said that no players sign where they want even if there is more money out there. If I had, I would be wrong. What I said was that the type of package a Machado trade would command is not the type of thing you give up in order to MAYBE make it easier to sign him.
By the way, exactly what I said would happen did happen. Machado was traded to a team that needs him now and doesn’t care if he stays beyond 2018 (Seager will be back next year and once he comes back, he’s their shortstop).
You think you’re some baseball expert and try to hide behind fancy words like “gascon” but the second anyone disagrees with you you start acting like a five-year-old who just had his toy taken away.
Have a nice day.
You are WCR. You were not ony “outed” on two ther sites, but you even admitted it on one.
Bottom line: who cares?
Not true and even if it were that’s beside the point.
And “admitted” to it? Where did I supposedly “admit” to it and why would I “admit” to something that isn’t even true? Drop a link or go back to your corner.
“YOU may not have specifically mentioned Cespedes or Hill,”
So another baseless accusation.
Here’s an idea…grow up. Also why is it you are so intimidated when I, or others, use certain words. Is it offensive to you? Ar your so insecure that you need to attack others that may no something you do not? What is it with you?
“Not true and even if it were that’s beside the point.”
BS…..I can’t believe there are two arrogant blowholes like you. Aside from that the first exchange between us with you as redrooster was typical of you as westcostryan. As RR we never exchanged comments…I made a comment to someone else and you attacked as if we had a history. Even this time I wasn’t talking to you.
Why did you change names? Banned? Got a new IP address to hide from a former girlfriend/boyfriend? Never mind the last one…no one could be that desperate and actually I don’t care why you changed.
I’ll adopt the same stance as I did when you were WCR…ignore you
Have a nice day….buh bye
“So another baseless accusation.”
Not baseless when the “examples” you were referring to did mention them. You were attempting to validate those examples.
“Also why is it you are so intimidated when I, or others, use certain words.”
Puhleeze, no one is intimidated by you. This is a baseball rumors website. If you are trying to be intimidating you might wanna go somewhere else.
Before telling others to grow up, you might wanna dial back with the pretentiousness and the hurling of insults. If that is the character you wish to play on here then go ahead. But you can’t do that and simultaneously pretend to be a moral crusader.
“BS…..I can’t believe there are two arrogant blowholes like you.”
Fine, stay in your delusion. Doesn’t matter to me.
“I made a comment to someone else and you attacked as if we had a history.”
Cuz I’m not afraid to call you out on the constant pretentiousness and jackassery.
“Even this time I wasn’t talking to you.”
Your original comment may have been directly in response to JKB, but it was quite clearly a dig at me. If you are going to take digs at people (whether directly or indirectly) you can’t be surprised when they have something to say about it.
I didn’t change names. I’ve been on here for years. Google “redrooster mlbtraderumors” and set the search settings to only show results from before 2016 if you don’t believe me.
“… and actually I don’t care why you changed.”
If that were true you wouldn’t have commented.
And as always, let’s sign off with your usual snide “Have a nice day.”
Regardless of the dollars, Cards and Cubs should swap Fowler, Hayward.
Cardinals would agree to that
Can’t say regardless of dollars…if they agreed that dollars equalled out, and honestly maybe the Cardinals pay a little more, I personally would take that deal…at least Heyward can play defense
I don’t see why Cards would need to pay anything. Cubs would be saving over $50M
If I’m the cubs I would jump on that swap. That is 106 mil vs 49.5. They’d be saving 56.5 million and I don’t think that dexter is just done at this point
Cards could then bench Heyward and he’d opt out. Cubs get Fowler back since he was only good for them. Win-Win
I really really doubt that Heyward would opt out. He would get a fraction of the money he’s owed. Ridiculous IMO to think that he forgoes all of that just because he’s benched
If I were the Cub I’d turn down Hamels option and then tell him I’d give 1 extra million then the highest offer he gets on the open market on a one or two year deal.
They’d be happy in not having to pay the 20 million and he’d be getting his 6 million on top of another deal which would definitely be over 14 million.
What if the deal is 2/40 or something. There’s some possible downside if they decline the option. A team like the Yankees might really be high on Hamels after seeing what he did in Chicago and be willing to throw some extra dollars his way. I’d feel more comfortable with Hamels on a 1/20 than a net of 2/34. You just never know with an aging pitcher. Rich hill got a chunk of money at a similar age.
I like that in theory but I feel like that would really sour relations with the Rangers and may turn rival GMs against Theo. Just speculation on my part though, I don’t have a firm grasp on the inner-workings and trust between GMs
I was hoping we would have traded Bryant for Syndergaard in the early summer
Then he was injured and now he’s terrible
Can we get a pitcher for him ?
Bryant will rebound next year and be great again, this has happened many times in the past with players like him
Maybe
But he’s very wimpy and winey
Also not only can’t he hit but he can’t field now also
We sure could use him but he’s become my least favorite player on the team
Huh? He was playing through a pretty serious shoulder injury all season. His hitting was fine but of course his defense was going to suffer.
I see the idiot farm missed a row in harvest .
His hitting was not fine. It does not matter that he was better than average. He is a young recent league MVP and key cog. He stunk
If any .834 OPS “stinks”, then I’ll take stink out of most of my players any day of the week. It wasn’t up to his usual standards, but it was still good considering how much time he missed.
You’re one of the fans that make other fans hate us. That’s the dumbest thing ever. He’s been hurt all year and also got hit in the face. He needs to get his confidence back. He’s your least favorite? So you like Happ or Contreras weak hitting ass more?
We were in a pennant race
Get your confidence back in spring training
Bryant will be back and better than before. He got beat up this year. Chili Davis needs to go.
I don’t get the hate on Davis. He’s a hitting coach he just helps them. These are major league players who know how to hit. It’s not like he tells them how. But whatever if they think it’ll help can him
Its his philosophy. He doesnt believe in launch angles.
Launch angles? ROFLMAO!
Do you mean he doesn’t believe in uppercut sswings for all players? That sounds like a good coach.
I watched the entire Theo press conference yesterday. I would really be surprised if there is not a serious Chili conversation today. Theo, multiple times, mentioned that the Cubs were first in ground balls, on base percentage went way down, slugging percentage went way down, that they only needed to win one game of the Saturday, Monday, Tuesday games this week and only scored one run in each of those games. He was pretty direct that the offense was the problem and needs to be fixed.
angels should bring back maddon as their manager. eppler seems to want only a yes man but the team needs a bright mind as the manager of the team.
I would do Schwarber and Happ for Degrom
Thanks for the best laugh on this thread yet!
Mets wouldn’t. And shouldn’t.
I agree about Bryant. He definitely doesn’t give off that confident alpha male vibe, like Rizzo does. I always thought Bryant was a very good player, but just a bit overrated. Now with the injuries, I think he’s extremely overrated. I hope it works out, but he’s also never been able to hit in high pressure situations, when it really counts.
On Hamels, I could see the Cubs rejecting the option,then see him signing a 2/28 type deal
I think you are assuming that Tex pays the 6MM even if the Cubs re-sign Hamels. I do not know that to be the case.
jmi1950…..I agree. One would assume that the Rangers where smart enough to include language to that effect….e.g. If they decline and then resign Hamels the $6M is not paid. To not do so would be stupid.
I think at the time that deal was made it was widely assumed that the option would be turned down. People forget how bad Hamels was up to that point. And I’m pretty sure Hamels would have to agree to modify his contract in that way and I highly doubt he would have done so
Hamels has no say as long as he gets the 6MM. It makes sense that part of the trade requires Cubs to pay the 6MM if they resign him. But maybe Jon Daniels wasn’t thinking ahead when he made the deal.
Hey Theo & AA time to bring Heyward back home just eat some of that contract and Gohora is all yours
No idea who Gohora is but I agree please trade Heyward to anyone.
Every time there’s a report about tension, they almost always come out and flatly deny it and giggle about how silly it is anyone would think that there was tension… and then it almost always seems to turn out to be absolutely true.
The media is always stirring the pot, and turning molehills into mountains. Especially Chicago media, which consists of mainly out-of-town hacks from different parts of the country.
Feels like only evidence of “tension” is lame duck status, due to a lack of extension
Sure, he wasn’t offered an extension, but no pity for Maddon. Maddon’s one last of his kind— 2019 salary: $6M. Dont think any other makes close. Ok Bochy does, but 2019 is expiring. Buck made $4M. — Scioscia $6M.
Alex Cora makes $800k lol. Dave Roberts? $1M.
Farrell’s dead salary this year would be top-5, 2019.
All you Cubs fans talking about trading Heyward and Schwarber for actual good players reminds me so much of Yankee fans last year asking for top prospects for Jacoby Ellsbury.
Schwarber still has great value to an AL team. He can solely concentrate on hitting, and I can easily see him doing very good.
Schwarber’s defense was much improved in 2018; he lost a bunch of weight and every metric shows him as an above-average left fielder now.
Schwarber has trade value to be an al dh. the avg rebounded from last year. I’d pick tampa to do a deal. heyward, not so much, unless the padres can swing a deal.
it isnt like either player has been perpetually inured.
and to deny hammels the 20mil and offer something lower is insulting.
the payroll is artificial. the owner is a billionaire. if wants a player he can get it. i can’t spell his name arneldo the third baseman for the rockies also a free agent. i rather have him than machado. the cubs have to do something with this offense. i believe harper is going to stay with the nationals or goes to the cubs. However the cubs can’t be obsessed with harper., they are other really good players out there.
Nolan Arenado is not a free agent until after 2019.
My question is can we trade Heyward with an asset attached to facilitate the trade, even if it’s to another contender, like happ, Almora, Schwarber or (my preference) Russel with prospects? To use Heyward’s 21.5 mil avg salary to offset the 30+ Machado and Harper will get. And I hope Epstein would go bold and get both Harper and Machado and trade the schwaber Almora and Happ to get a Fulmer ordegrom/thor and maybe move quintana/Hendricks or both to restock the farm. You figure Lester, resigned hamels, darvish and fulmer plus whatevers left for 5th/6th starters still one of the best rotations in baseball with hopefully top pitching prospects to fill in for the retired Lester/hamels in a couple years. That keeps the window open another 7/8 years.
The Cubs need to find a way to improve the offense. The possible positions would be SS/2B depending where Javy plays. Lf/Cf because they are stuck with Heyward. Maybe Bryant moves to LF full time but it’s doubtful at this point. They need a difference maker (Machado type), or multiple contact guys. Way too many strikeouts from the club with not nearly enough power.
I would like to see Josh Harrison in a Cub uniform cause I think Machado or Harper are highly unlikely. He would fit right in on this team
DJ LeMahieu…….solid defensive player—good average hitter….has won gold gloves and a batting title in the past. This is only if Addison Russell is gone. Tough spot for the Cubs on that one. No value at all to trade—-public relations nightmare if he stays…but it will be seven months before he can play…out of sight, out of mind for a while.
DJ would be a great fit at leadoff, not much power since.his career high was this year at 15 but he has high on base, takes walks hits career .300 and won like the last two or three gold gloves at second base and prolly winning this year as well. And he won’t be a.ton of money and years since he’s 30. Pair him with Harper as a lefty power high average guy and the cubs will have a nasty offense again and nice righty-lefty mix
So proud to have guys like Theo and Maddon representing the organization. They are ALL class, and represent the city well.
Theo is correct. Why would any GM/President want a “yes man?” Only insecure guys need that reassurance.
You want someone who is on the ground floor to always give you an HONEST assessment of how it is and what he needs and thinks.
That’s what debate is all about. The media is always trying to stir up some b.s.
Djones—Theo is first class. Here’s a story non-baseball related. I have a brother in law, who about four years ago was diagnosed with two different forms of leukemia. He is a huge Red Sox fan and made it his mission to get an autographed baseball from every member of the 2004 Red Sox….every one—one at bat, fill in coach–every one. It took almost twelve years, but he did it.
I’m a Cubs season ticket holder and got hold of my tickets rep, telling him the story, adding that I thought it would be pretty cool to add Theo’s autograph on a ball to this collection. Two hours later I got a personal email asking my address and wishing my brother in law well. Two days later I received a delivery at my door, personally from Theo, with a handwritten letter and autographed baseball from him.
It’s certainly easy for anyone to troll a site and bash about some signing that went awry….but in my book, Theo is nothing but class.
Always great to hear things like this. Especially great to hear that media coverage was not needed.
Maddon is way overrated. Should of won at least 2 by now with that talent. Lucky winning the first one with the dumb moves he made during. Great radio interview poor manager.
90 wins nine of last eleven seasons and if you want to insert all those (Devil) Rays that are going to the Hall of Fame, please insert here…….I have Baldelli, Crawford, Shields….who am I missing?