Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein held an interesting chat today with Waddle and Silvy of ESPN Chicago (audio link). He likened his desire to acquire a premium free agent to a second helping of dessert — of course, he wants it, but he just can’t have it — and says the organization still believes it can find improvement from its current roster. Epstein insists there’s positive energy within the friendly confines; despite the lack of roster activity, he says, the offseason has otherwise been a proactive one in which the entire organization has focused on hitting the ground running from the start of the present season. At the tail end of the talk, the veteran baseball executive also gives a detailed account of the organization’s stance on embattled shortstop Addison Russell. It’s well worth a listen, regardless of one’s general viewpoint on that subject.
Elsewhere in the division…
- The Brewers still have interest in bringing Wade Miley back to the organization, writes MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy in his latest inbox column, and Miley thoroughly enjoyed his time with the Milwaukee organization. However, Miley’s camp is still holding out for a multi-year deal, and the Brewers have a fairly large collection of arms from which to choose as it is. Jimmy Nelson, Jhoulys Chacin, Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, Zach Davies, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra and Adrian Houser are all options to start for Milwaukee. Given that depth, it seems that GM David Stearns is content to see if Miley’s price (or the price for any pitching target) comes down to a more palatable point.
- The Cardinals still don’t have a defined timeline regarding right-hander Alex Reyes’ return from shoulder surgery, writes Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The prized 24-year-old prospect has been throwing recently, and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak tells Goold that Reyes is “long-tossing without limitation.” The expectation, per Mozeliak, is that Reyes will progress to mound work within the next two weeks. However, he’ll also have an “individualized build-up” in Spring Training, and his return to pitching in a game setting will be determined based on milestones within that personalized program. Reyes has long been touted as one of the game’s most promising arms, but he’s never reached 120 innings in any professional season. Given that he’s already had Tommy John surgery and now last year’s shoulder surgery, one can imagine the Cardinals will be particularly cautious in getting him back up to speed.
The Cubs the mystery team in on Machado!
Not they’re not.
Yes they are!
No… maybe they are. No they’re not.
When do pitchers and catchers report??
Miley will fall right into the Reds’ lap. He’ll be our 5th starter after we get Kluber or Keuchel.
Wasn’t Reyes’ injury a lat muscle?
That’s what I thought….?
The lat muscle is responsible for the extension and internal rotation of the shoulder joint.
But I don’t think it’s correct at all to call it “Shoulder Surgery”……since the Latissimus Dorsi starts under your armpit and wraps around your side, connecting to your back
“The Latissimus Dorsi muscle is one of the largest muscles in the back. There muscle is divided into two segments, which are configured symmetrically along the backbone. The muscle is located in the middle of the back, and it is partially covered by the Trapezius.”
…just saying…..
Sadly, from what I’ve seen on Twitter, a lot of fellow Cards fans are counting their Reyes chickens before they hatch. Gimme at least 25 MLB innings out of him before I make any assumptions as to what he has to offer this year. That’s why I want Mo to still go get another starter. (Waino isn’t, contra some of those same Kool-Aid drinkers, and Wacha is an injury waiting to happen himself.)
That was the story last fall. Now we hear it is a shoulder problem. Hard to know which story is correct. Maybe both. That would be real bad news. He could become a franchise player if we can keep him off the DL. That’s what they hoped for with Fowler too.
Signing Harper or machado would be stupid for the cubs.
They need to replace 5 guys who are free agents after 2019 in the pen, need to get younger as those 5 are 31+
They’re gonna need to get extensions to Bryant Rizzo Baez Hendricks in the next 3 years
Gonna need to replace Lester Quintana Hamels in the rotation the next 3 years.
And have Darvish and Hayward on the books till 2024.
Padres should swing a deal for Ian Happy in return for taking Chatwood from the cubs- 2 years left on Chatwood contract and put happ at 3B.
If Theo had actually spoken to domestic violence experts as he claimed, he NEVER would have spoken to the victim and put any of the onus of Addison’s punishment on her. It’s not surprising he lied, the cubs protected russell or have now used her as a partial scapegat. But it sucks.
PS- It’s also not Russle’s “2nd chance” as Theo clams. There have been various credible accusations against him since 2013 the Cubs have turrned blind eyes to.
Cubs are an absolutely terrible and shameful organization for their actions regarding Russell. Well beyond baseball.
Yankees and Chapman?
Mets Famila?
Puig dodgers?
Osuna blue jays?
Sano Twins?
Olivera Braves
Reds for taking puig?
Steven Wright Red Sox?
Reyes Rockies ?
Torres padres?
All bad organizations for keeping ?
shouldn’t it be Astros Osuna?
We live in a world where Chris Brown is still putting out music after beating the hell out of his girlfriend, and a world where Michael Vick still played football after he drowned dogs. I think it is fair to give Russell a second chance for a lesser offense that is usually resolved by a divorce. If the guy gets help and really tries to change, I will support him.
Theo Epstein confuses me. How can you be pleased with a team filled with injured and underperforming players?
The notion of Adrian Houser starting games for Milwaukee is a stretch. He has worked as a starter in the minors in recent years but to poor results. He’s also out of options, so would need to earn a spot in the bullpen or miraculously beat out the competition for an Opening Day rotation spot to ever be a starter for the Crew.
When the cubbies are sitting 3rd in that division looking up at St Louis and Milwaukee they will realize the non-moves they made or moreover the previous wrong moves they made (cough heyward, cough darvish) have really cost them.
yes he can most certainly have that dessert, and can afford it.. There is no reason they can’t they have plenty of money. they are valued at about 3 BILLION dollars.. but as long as fans will buy a less talented team there is zero reason for them to spend for a more talented team..
There are a lot more expenses than just salaries, and that’s why there’s a limit. Contracts like Heyward’s and Darvish can cripple a team enormously when they are injured or under-perform.
The Rangers and Tigers are still paying Prince Fielder through 2020, and he hasn’t played the game in years.
in 2009 the team was valued at about 1 Billion, 10 years later it is valued at 3x that amount.. 3 billion.. it is pretty easy to see those contracts are not hurting the team as people suggest. in fact you cannot show a team that has lost value. those contracts aren’t holding them back. it is desire for higher profit margins.
When a team is “valued at X”, that doesn’t mean someone comes along and writes you a check for the difference of what you paid and the current value. You have to sell the team to get money. They have already spent big on players plus are privately financing the expansion and renovation of Wrigley Field. Heyward is a bad contract with the potential to get less bad, but it’s too early to say that about Darvish or Chatwood. Epstein is a genius and I think Cubs fans should stand by him, with the expectation that there will be a mistake here and there between all the good moves. He is human after all.
I personally feel they still have the most talented team in the central. Who has a better starting 5? Who has a better lineup? Defense? Baez, Rizzo, Contreras, Almora, and Heyward are the best at their positions.. Even Russell is one of the most elite defenders in the game, no matter what your opinion is of his personal life. They may lack a true closer, but that’s about it. Edwards, Strop, Cishek, Montgomery, and Morrow are way above the average bullpen already. Spring training may yield hope in that department, who knows. That Maples kid has crazy good stuff and could be a factor.
You could argue most talent but that certainly isn’t a given. The bullpen was strong during most of last season but Joe has an early hook and that wore them out, as evident the past 2 postseasons.
Cubs have a few great defenders but their issue was consistently putting runs on the board. It was feast or famine all year. 10+ runs one day, shutout the next.
I’d love to know what you’re using (other than sportscenter) to come up with these defensive rankings. Fangraphs had all besides Contreras as mediocre at best last year – and they had Rizzo as one of the absolute worst fielders in the league at first base…
He is using homervision.
I took a look at Fangraphs and it doesn’t support what you’re saying about Rizzo. He is a couple years removed from GG and Platinum Glove and is one of the best at 1B. Fangraphs had him at 5 or 6 best in MLB from the past year.
Betts is right there with Heyward at RF but they are the cream of the crop. Baez makes the spectacular plays and boots the routine ones, much like Castro when he was a cub.
Almora will push for a GG in next couple years but I don’t think the same about Contreras. He has a cannon and is very athletic but is still relatively new to catching.
Rizzo won a gold glove, not sure what you are talking about. Contreras mediocre? Some sites do factor in “framing” which is very subjective, but he is one of the best fielding catchers in the game.
Yu Darvish literally fell off the stage at the cubs convention tonight.
Seriously? Time to google for videos….
Yes, seriously. Fell off the back of the stage after being introduced to superman by Soulja boy.
I’m sure he hurt himself.
Looking forward to an interesting and fun NL central race.
Why don’t the Brewers abandon the notion of Starting Pitcher and just have pitchers pitch until (a) they show signs of wear, or (b) they reach, say, 60 pitches.
They’ll only need 3 or even 2 pitchers in some games.
They’ll keep pitchers from getting stale and facing hitters 3+ times, when they are less effective statistically.
Hader has already been used like this. Like Andrew Miller he is a former starter who can handle high pressure long relief situations.
The A’s tried this in the 90s.
It’s a perfect plan for a team whose best relievers are FAR more effective than their best starters, and whose young “future starters” are currently bullpen guys.
12 man staff. 6 pitch one day. 6 the next. Rinse, repeat. Nobody faces anyone in the lineup more than once. Do your best to have pitchers that have varying arm angles and secondary pitches, so the batter doesn’t get the same release point and non-fastball in the same game.
I’ve always thought this could be a winning strategy.
I have a hard time believing a team can’t find enough pitchers that can throw effectively 1 to 2 innings every other day. Most relievers are starters that could throw 1 or 2 innings but not 5 or 6. Hader and Peralta are the types that are perfect for this system. They could easily throw 2 innings every other day.
Terrible idea. Trying to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak. There’s a reason why for over 100 years baseball has had “starting pitchers” take the load if you will. There’s far too many variables involved when changing pitchers so often. There’s too many pitching changes as it is. Let alone pinning yourself into a corner from the get go every game by design.
I think that”sit too rigid, but I do think this is the way baseball is heading. Yous aw it last year with Tampa and the “opener” and the Brewers’ use of Hader. The Dodgers did this a bit too; getting their starters out of games relatively early. I think it’s smart, because starting pitchers always get hurt and starting pitchers are needlessly expensive. Just one example: David Robertson, who has been one of the very best relievers in baseball over the last half-decade, just signed a 2 year/23 million dollar contract. Lance Lynn, who is the very definition of a league-average starter, signed for 3/30. The difference in bulk innings doesn’t make up for the higher-leveraged performance that Robertson excels at.
As much as we want to romanticize the 220-inning starting pitcher and say “that’s how baseball’s always done it,” it’s 2019 now. Everybody throws 98 MPH and everybody gets hurt. (Pitchers have always gotten hurt; we just didn’t hear about it back then. They just faded away). As much as we all dislike pitching changes, this is the smart way to actually manage a baseball game, on the granular level: put players in the position in which they can be most successful. In another era Hader would have been tried as a starter and would have almost certainly gotten hurt; conversely, if Rich Harden were coming up now with a smart team, he might have a good Hader-like role and a long career.
The Dodgers, who are one of the smartest teams in baseball, have done this with a guy named Rich Hill. For years people in baseball understood Hill could be dominant in short bursts, but wasn’t suited for a bullpen role because he couldn’t pitch back-to-back days. So the Dodgers basically looked at his pitches, said to him “throw the curveball, all the time” and they get him out of games early, utilize strategic DL stints throughout the season, and get 135 outstanding innings from him every year. No he’s not Roger Clemens, throwing 230 amazing innings every year, but a traditional usage pattern would have ended Hill’s career. Credit the smart teams for utilizing an asset in a way that maximizes his value.
Smart take. Kudos.
It all depends on the pitcher, and we all have the inning-by-inning data so we can even use something basic like ERA here, so if a pitcher has a career 3.00 ERA in the 5th inning but a 5.00 ERA in the 6th inning, then simply never let him out there for the 6th. Or use “through the order” ERA’s. It doesn’t have to be so jarring, but with some guys we can use different tactics.
For a team to do that, the position players would have to be minimalized into a skeleton crew to carry the extra relievers required to maintain that mode. There’s just not enough quality relievers to load up on.
History shows us that great bullpens are not sustainable. Without inning eating SP, the bullpen will wear out and become ineffective. They also need the right Manager who uses them for the optimal situations.
The ideal is a 4 man rotation with spot starters and auditioning starters to take the 5th spot as needed.
They got their World Series, but stayed for a $260M team of lovable losers.
Steven Wright for Reyes.
Cards should learn from what the Reds did with Iglesias and move him to the bullpen. as goos as a starter he could be, he could work out much better for them as a closer. perhaps they can then try to give Hicks some looks in the rotation himself.
Reds will not trade for Kluber, he feasts on bad teams ( the Indians played 88 games against teams with a cumulative record of 376-596. A .387 percentage.) And as he has shown in the playoffs. He routinely gets rocked against quality teams with a 9.64 ERA in the last two post seasons. Why would the reds or any team really trade for that? Especially when he has to face quality teams like the Cubs, Brewers, and cardinals 57 times a season.
There’s a reason the Indians are desperately trying to move him and not Bauer, Carrasco or clevenger. They know he can no longer beat quality teams. Once teams like the Dodgers and Yankees took a deep dive on him they backed away.
Domestic violence victims and people immigrating for a better life.
You have some strange “triggers”.
Sure, the Cubs could eat half of Heyward’s contract and let someone else have him at a reasonable rate. Or, they could realize that they’d have to eat half of it and play him themselves at that reasonable rate. He is a good outfielder… why let someone else have him at the reasonable rate?
Or just keep him as a well-paid bench option and get Harper to add in the mix?
Why do fans in the offseason suddenly think every starting player is going to play 162 or even 130 games? It’s ridiculous how the concept of depth is glossed over in the offseason for “must. be. every. day. player.” attitudes. Why?
Do the Cubs not realize they can just dump salaries? They know that’s allowed, right?
No, actually, it isn’t.
MLB contracts are guaranteed. They can cut the players but they still have to pay them full value, minus the veteran minimum if he signs with somebody else.
I meant by trade obviously. The Dodgers just did it a month ago, for example.
Cubs can easily go “hey you can have X if you also take Heyward”. Then do it again for Zobrist.
Don’t bury the lede on the NL Central. If you’re a baseball fan in Western PA, you will be in purgatory for the rest of your existence.
Piecemeal bullpen, aging rotation, no leadoff hitter, Chatwood Darvish Heyward. What’s not to like from our current roster.
The Cubs are worth 2.9 billion dollars they can sign whoever they want, they are choosing to be cheap. As Cubs fans we probably won’t see another championship anytime soon. Where’s that wheelbarrow full of money Tom.
Please. Can we not refer to Addison Russell as “embattled”? He is an intimate partner abuser. He was suspended. Looking over people even with drug suspensions, no one refers to them being embattled. This may seem like a minor point, but the use of language is important. It almost seems like he’s the one overcoming obstacles and the abuse he engaged in, and this language used to describe it, reinforces the obstacles women face daily. I get it – the focus is on the athletes for sports sites like this — but that just means you have to be even more aware of the power dynamics at play. And ending it with a “whatever anyone’s viewpoint on the subject” is pretty tone deaf as well. Try using the same phrases if we were talking about a killer who was suspended from baseball. Would we call him embattled? Would we suggest that all views are valid concerning his suspension from baseball? Sugar coating intimate partner violence to make the news more palatable for the misogynists out there. Disappointing.
This is rediculous. Everyone knows violence of any kind is bad. At the end of the day these are allegations. Russell has been suspended and will pay his due. Is he guilty? Could be. Is he innocent? Less likely, but he is already being punished for something that could POSSIBLY be false. The Cubs shouldn’t release him or trade him at a rock bottom value until he is proven guilty. That being said I don’t want Russell on the team for the long run I do agree with he has to go, but the Cubs are entitled to get themselves in better position to be without him for the time being.
Terrible take. The Cubs ownership are utter scumbags for not immediately releasing him. Also “The Cubs shouldn’t release him or trade him at a rock bottom value until he is proven guilty.” is everything thats wrong with the game right now. Who gives an honest crud about his value? If it was Trout, the same goes for all. The concept of “bigger than the game” is entirely lost on you. Grow up.
I disagree this is a country of laws and while I do agree that sugarcoating the seriousness of these alleged actions is appalling, so is acting precipitously and releasing him. To me that is just as bad. Putting him in administrative leave until his case is adjudicated or until the commissioners office holds a hearing as was done with Roberto Osuna is fine. This is serious and needs to be addressed as such.
How would you like to lose your job over allegations? If he is guilty which he probably is of course he should be punished, but there absolutely positively has to be a process. He hasn’t been convicted, but has already been punished. If that mountain of evidence existed we wouldn’t be having this discussion because Russell would be in jail. You have to let the process do its job, without it everyone is at the mercy of somebody else’s word. Nobody should have the ability to ruin somebody else’s life without a “small mountain of evidence.” That’s especially true when your dealing with previous lovers.
There is nothing wrong with your position midway. Down is referring to MLBTR s continual effort to frame the issue as less serious than it is. Their use of language to downplay the issue which they have done several times going back years is appalling. We all understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty but MLBTR is so afraid of possible legal action that they fail to report the facts as impartially as they should almost to the point of being an advocate for the accused.
You know his ex was hospitalized after he beat her, several times? There is, literally, a small mountain of medical evidence. Not sure why you are willfully ignoring a painful truth to support a baseball team but says a lot about you as a man.
If you have that mountain of physical abuse proof on you, you better turn it in to the police because they haven’t seen it. Really sick of these millenials who have grown up not understanding the difference of a toxic relationship and true crime. Russell and his wife went through what a thousand different young couples go through daily with the added element of sudden success and money. A divorce and a restraining order would have done the trick, but no it had to become national news. He was a total controlling jerk who let his ego and temper get the best of him. He does need help, and it looks like he is getting some. The need to crucify these athletes, comedians, actors, and whoever else just because they are in the limelight is so cynical and hypocritical. I think it says more about a man to not judge someone you personally don’t know and be able to support another who has made mistakes.
MLBTR is particularly guilty of this. The use of the word alleged is fine. But MLBTR repeatedly goes beyond the pale to sugarcoat this particular issue. I don’t know if it’s because their staff is predominately white males, but their continual effort to avoid and mitigate the seriousness of this issue is offensive
Without Zobrist and Heyward the Cubs don’t have a WS Banner.
How did Heyward help win the WS? You mean that dumb speech that “supposedly” lit a fire in the other Cubs? They really should have never been in that position in the first place, but Maddon kept pulling his starters early and was in full panic mode throughout the series. If Heyward would have contributed anything at all offensively, they also could have wrapped it up earlier.
Kluber 4 runs in 1.2 innings against Tampa
7 runs in 4 innings against the pirates
6 runs in 7 innings against the yankees
6 runs in 1.2 against the cardinals
And a 9.64 ERA against the red Sox and Yankees the last 2 playoffs.
As I said Kluber benefits from the EASIEST SCHEDULE IN history
Are you going to answer my question?