The Cubs, in the wake of a 2019 showing that can’t be classified as much other than a brutal disappointment, are now facing several fascinating offseason questions. Among them: Which person should they choose to succeed ousted championship manager Joe Maddon? Should they shop Kris Bryant or any other stars? Should they make a serious effort to re-sign soon-to-be free agent Nicholas Castellanos? There may not be an obvious answer to any of those questions, but there is in regards to the future of left-hander Jose Quintana. Should the Cubs exercise his $11.5MM option (in lieu of a $1MM buyout) for next season? Absolutely.
To be clear, 2019 was not a stellar season for Quintana, whom the Cubs acquired from the White Sox in July 2017 in what could go down as a costly trade for the North Siders. The Cubs gave up then-prospects Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease, two players who now look as if they’ll be cornerstones for the White Sox. It was understandable from the Cubs’ perspective at the time, as Quintana was then one of the game’s most underrated front-line workhorses – not to mention someone on a sweetheart contract.
Unfortunately for the Cubs, Quintana simply hasn’t produced like the under-the-radar standout from the White Sox since they got him. At that point, Quintana was coming off four straight seasons of 200-plus innings – an 814 2/3-frame span in which he notched a 3.35 ERA/3.34 FIP with 7.73 K/9 and 2.23 BB/9. The Cubs’ Quintana hasn’t amassed more than 188 2/3 innings in a season, and his run prevention has fallen off since his South Side salad days. Quintana owns a less impressive 4.23 ERA/3.95 FIP in 429 2/3 frames as a Cub.
To Quintana’s credit, he has struck out 8.55 hitters per nine against 2.83 walks since changing Chicago addresses. His 91-92 mph average fastball velocity and roughly 8 percent swinging-strike rate have also remained intact in recent years. So, unlike some other prominent pitchers whose bottom-line results have recently declined (Chris Archer?), Quintana’s far from broken. It’s pretty clear Quintana’s still an asset, though whether the Cubs see him as integral enough to keep in 2020 – his last year of team control – is up in the air.
Again, it should be a slam dunk to say yes to Quintana’s option. But will the Cubs shop the soon-to-be 31-year-old around after picking it up? On one hand, the answer should be no. The Cubs don’t have clear non-Quintana solutions in their rotation aside from Kyle Hendricks, Yu Darvish and Jon Lester, especially with Cole Hamels set for free agency, and they’re not teeming with young starters who are about to take the league by storm. With that in mind, keeping Quintana would be a perfectly defensible choice from the team’s perspective. On the other hand, there’s a case the Cubs are really in position to shake things up this winter, and parting with Quintana could prove to be part of their restructuring. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein was upset with Chicago’s performance off a playoff berth a year ago, so he may well be apoplectic behind the scenes now after a late collapse and no October ball this season.
One problem for Chicago, which is leery of the luxury tax, is that it hardly has an endless supply of spending room. The Cubs opened 2019 with a payroll a little over $203MM, per Cot’s. MLBTR’s Chicago aficionado, Tim Dierkes, forecasts something in the $205MM range (slightly below the tax) for next season. Including arbitration projections and excluding likely non-tender Addison Russell, the Cubs come in around $180MM. Finding a way to shave Quintana’s money via trade would free up quite a bit more spending space for the club while perhaps opening the door for a major upgrade (would it pursue Gerrit Cole?). And it shouldn’t be that challenging for the Cubs to find a taker for Quintana, who’s better than the extreme majority of pending free-agent starters.
Pound for pound, aside from Cole, opt-out candidate Stephen Strasburg, Zack Wheeler, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Madison Bumgarner, are there any free agents-to-be who are clearly preferable to Quintana? Hamels? Dallas Keuchel? Jake Odorizzi? Arguably, but they’ll all come at higher commitments than what Quintana’s owed next year. Quintana’s affordability could help persuade the Cubs to retain him, but if they shop him in an effort to make over their roster, there should be a solid amount of interest from around the league.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Theo has his work cut out for him this offseason. hopefully for his sake Yu is still on the upswing and stays healthy in 2020.
Q for q? Epstein can’t sign reclamation projects any more. Clear need is impact players. Quintana and cash to Tampa for prospects is best trade senario I m o.
Tampa never trades prospects to improve their chances to win short term. The Tampa business model is the opposite.
If Q is shopped around, then it’s most likely the Yankees who pay up prospects.
No one should underestimate Cashman’s pressure to win now. The Yankees had their first decade long franchise WS appearance drought and no one can blame it on the coach this time.
The Cubs should try to send Bryant and Q to the Yankees and reload for the next window while teasing the fans with the small hope of contention that the remaining players offer.
It makes little sense for Yankees to get Quintana: they have plenty of mid rotation arms in their system. They could use a top of the rotation starter, which Quintana has not become.
The Yankees had Quintana. And released him. TWICE.
I focus a lot of the “blame” on the Pitching Coach and the style of pitching the Yankees promote, teach, and demand.
Watching their starting pitching underachieve year-after-year makes it obvious why they can’t get into – and win – a WS.
The Jeter led Yankee dynasty relied on hired veteran guns to seal the deal on championships.
Cashman would be smart to follow that model. Q is not front line but he is durable and good enough to give them those few extra wins needed for home field advantage in the playoffs. Obviously the Yankees would need to add some cheap but good pitching to compliment a Cole signing. That is where Q comes into play.
Also, the Yankees will need a 3B next year when they shift things around to fill SS gap created when DD leaves.
This sounds exactly like the same situation the Braves are in with Julio Teheran. Teheran was supposed to be great but never fully lived up to his potential. He us however very serviceable. The Braves have a 1-year $12 million option with a $1 million buy out basically making it an $11 million option. Do they let him go and turn down the option? He is never gonna be the ace the Braves need and the Braves have plenty of serviceable starting pitchers. Then again he led Atlanta in innings pitched last year and his ERA was below 4.00. Somebody is gonna want him and $11 or 12 million is a relative bargain for a veteran innings eater with an ERA in the 3’s. Maybe the Braves pick up his option and trade him to the Cubs for Quintana. They sound like similar pitchers and it is basically a cash neutral deal. A change of scenery could do both of them some good.
I can see the Cubs trading Q. They need something.
Bryan Mitchell ?
I’ll take “Pitchers with live arms who can’t throw strikes” for $200 Alex.
Q for q?
Any chance the cards-cubs could match up on a Q and Fowler/Cash/prospect trade?
LMAO…….Seriously Doubt It.
1. Arch-ememies rarely swap players.
2. Cubs will only trade him away from the Central.
3. Cards don’t historically spend money/trade prospects for mediocre players.
4. Cubs would just decline Q’s option before trading him for Fowler
Cubs trade Q they ought to trade others too, if they plan to contend his deal and production is what they need. They are probably going to get as interesting a prospect at the deadline next summer than what they would now, if things head south in 2020.
Q’s an average pitcher at this point. The real question the cubs are facing is, should they hit the reset button now, or run it back and see what happens. I would choose the former. They’re spending too much money to just be ‘average’. Trade Q, Bryant and Contreras for some assets and use the money freed up to reload the next two years.
I’d love to get JQ back with the Sox.
There is zero chance that they trade Contreras. He has 3 years of control left still and Miguel Amaya is probably still 2 years away.
Also, there is no benefit in tradin him for cap relief. He is still a huge bargain right now.
Caratini is more than capable of handling the full time catching duties and Contreras would bring back a huge haul.
I think you have to consider it if you are Theo
From what the GM of the team said, NO ONE is untouchable. But you probably know more than Theo
You’re right, Theo has one more World Series title I’m Chicago than I do and is clearly smarter.
But again, there is no chance he trades a 3 WAR player with 3 years of control and start Caratini if they are in “win now” mode. The time to trade him is before the 2022 season starts.
What if Contreras commanded a Realmuto-like haul?
If the team believes in Caratini’s ability to handle a starter’s workload, a Contreras trade is not a crazy idea. Caratini is among the best pitch framers in the majors, but it would be a pretty big leap of faith to anoint him the starting catcher.
Scumbag
I think it depends on whether they look to trade a Schwarber and/or others for assets. Particularly pitching assets. If they can swing a deal or two to bring in a starter or two, then Quintana is easy to part with.
But if the Cubs can’t bring in at least one starter via a trade, then they should probably keep him.
The only way they trade Q is if they sign/trade for a couple starters first. Q’s price tag is too low to pass on… his durability alone is worth his salary.
That trade was terrible.
Almost as bad as the White Sox trading for James Shields…
I’ll take the MLB batting champ thanks
You couldve had both…
Don’t forget Sox acquiring Samardjiza for three key Oakland A’s pieces last year and a 4th prospect
(Semien, Bassitt, Phegley)
This trade will go down as the WORST of the Theo Epstein era. Even taking into consideration the Gleyber Torres trade. Rick Hahn made Epstein look like a fool on this one.
Eloy is a 1 tool player. His ceiling is a 2-3 WAR. He has a ton of power. He does literally nothing else at an even average level.
lol He’s 22 years old.
Is he going to suddenly develop tools out of nowhere?
And he’s a weight gain candidate. He’s a DH and soon.
Soler just posted a 3.6 fWAR season and he’s an absolutely abysmal defender with similar skills to Jimenez. I highly doubt Jimenez is ever a top player in the game but you can’t tell me he can’t be Jorge Soler….
Soler is a great comp. in a year where he hit 48 home runs, 33 doubles, and put up a .354 OPB – he was worth only 3.6 fWAR.
Tell me how Eloy tops those numbers consistently, and I’ll consider amending my 2-3 WAR projection.
Uh, as a rookie he hit 31 HRs in 468 ABs.
Your comment was, “Eloy is a 2-3 WAR player at his ceiling”. Those were your words. Not sure if you know what a ceiling is.
Eloy is absolutely NOT a 1 tool player, and if you think so you haven’t paid attention to his minor league numbers OR the 2nd half of the season. His hit tool is close to elite, and he will consistently hit over .300 during his peak years. He will never be a good defender and his speed is underrated but average, so he won’t add there, but to think he could have a year like Frank Thomas’s 1993 without the walks is absolutely possible. War between 5 and 7, especially if he becomes DH soon.
Moving to DH won’t help his WAR total. That’s just not how the statistic is calculated.
JDM has only posted a WAR over 5 twice. Nelson Cruz has only done it once. Plausible for Jimenez to get there but it’ll be hard to hit that consistently. Absolutely no reason to think his “ceiling” is 2-3 WAR though. He was a 22 year old who held his own and has the pedigree to eventually get to that Nelson Cruz level. Which isn’t a 5-7 WAR guy on a yearly basis btw. It’s more of a 3.5-4.5. Which is A-okay.
Okay – fair enough on the actual numbers. My point stands and I especially agree with your final point, which is that I’ll take a 35-40 HR guy who bats .300 with a .350 OBP all day long, and I expect Eloy to be that for many years to come. If he moves to DH rather than LF then regardless of what it does to the actual WAR calculation, it probably helps the White Sox as I don’t expect him to ever be a good defender.
Yeah. The WAR calculation is a reference but you don’t build a team just plucking WAR numbers. A guy who grades out as a poor RF (as long as he isn’t absolutely unplayable) will be knocked less on his dWAR than a guy who played DH.
That’s why a cumulative WAR number for a DH doesn’t really mean a whole lot to me. It’s really only a good number to compare to other DH’s.
Hahaha then tell me what Schwarbino is after 4 years of mlb experience. And “his defense is coming around” is not a valid answer. He is THE definition of a 1 tool player. I’ll put my faith in Eloy and his .267 BA and 31 bombs in 3/4 of his rookie season.
Correct. Schwarber is a 1 tool guy. So is Eloy. Both can be true…
Take Eloys 3/4 of a rookie season as a starting point. Only up from here. We’ve seen what capabilities Schwatber has in the OF. Do you need his GIFs of flipping on his head to prove this?
1. Schwarber is a one tool player. 2. That has absolutely nothing to do with Eloy. 3. Eloy is a trash defender who has gotten himself hurt fielding every year since he was 17.
K.
cubs fans aren’t objective enough to have this conversation. I’ll take Eloy’s 40 HRs and Cease’s velocity over anything Q does next year.
That velocity didn’t do much other than send a lot of balls over the fence at high exit velocity.
You live in a vacuum?
Dylan is an elite talent, with a dominant arm. He needs time to master his control on certain pitches. He throws a 100 mph fastball, and would be a top 5 closer if the Sox needed him there. They’re committed to keeping him as a SP, so it will take some time (see Giolito).
DyLaN iS aN eLiTe TaLeNt. TrUsT mE, hE wOnT sUcK nExT yEaR.
Like my boy Jason Bennetti said, “THANKS CUBS”
Theo’s last 3 Major deals were all farm system gutters. Torres for Chapman. Wilson for Candelario and Paredes. And finally Jimenez and Cease for Quintana.
That was a ton of control given up for very little.
Torres for Chapman and a WS ring
The cubs could gave gotten a WS ring + another WS had they traded for a controllable closer, or simply kept Chapman. Their window closed 2-3 years sooner than it should have because Theo’s ill-advised roster moves.
* + another WS appearance
Cool… Who was the controllable closer that was available at the 2016 deadline? Miller was the only one traded who years remaining. Kind of a good thing he went to Cleveland since the Cubs crushed him in G7 of the WS. You’re also ignoring that SF was the runner up for Chapman. Cubs might not get past them if their bullpen hadnt been trash.
You can’t keep a FA player if he won’t sign.
Oh emotional, subjective, simple-minded White Sox fan, are the bright lights of Monday night Raw not enough to distract your low-IQ mind?
K.
Candelaria. Jesus Christ. The guy would’ve been outrighted off the roster by now.
I would hope all the top prospects Epstein traded didn’t end up becoming studs. That would’ve made those deals unbearable. Theo paid a heavy premium for every ML piece he acquired. That was my point. At one point I thought the Cubs had a mini dynasty building there. Didn’t turn out that way….
Hind sight is 20/20. At the times, cubs were going for trophy’s. Worked out once. Not so much the others. But that’s the risk you take when your in go mode.
Very little? The first WS title in 110 years is more than very little. Plus, of those 5 guys it is pretty likely that none of them would have gotten the chances at the big league level that they have gotten with their new teams.
Chapman’s trade, sure.
My point was the price they paid to acquire those pieces was extremely high. That’s why I also listed the Chapman trade. No one since has paid anywhere close to a top 5 prospect in baseball for a rental reliever. That is a pure fact
. Your last nonsense about those prospects not getting the opportunity in Chicago is irrelevant. Those pieces had a ton of value at the time. The Cubs at one point looked like they’d have a dynasty like the Houston Astros. They’ve made a bunch of poor signings and paid heavy premium in trades since that point. That is all. They can be critiqued.
It’s important to remember that Torres wasn’t a recognized top 5 prospect until after the trade.
I was going to say the same thing. He was a good-looking #30-40 prospect. He was always young for his level, so it is difficult to gauge, but his A+ OPS for the Cubs that year was only .791. In his entire minor league career, he only hit 24 HRs.
Believe me, I wanted him for the RS, but he wasn’t top-5 at that point.
I went back and looked and you’re right. Looks like MLB.com had him at 17. Still a huge premium for a rental reliever. And one that has not been matched since. I think those days are pretty much over with revaluation of prospects.
Cubs got a ws ring for torres for a complaining closer.
“This trade will go down as the WORST of the Theo Epstein era.”
–
In his first trade for he Cubs, he dumped DJ LeMahieu.
Wow. I’ll stand corrected on this one.
lol
Nope. Lemahieu for Ian Kennedy.
Actually it was LeMahieu for Ian Stewart who was coming off an injury-plagued season with Colorado (.464 OPS). He was predictably awful. Apparently Theo liked Darwin Barney at 2B rather than LeMahieu.
Send Bryant to the Mets for McNeil and Diaz.
Will take more than that.
More than that in which direction? I’m not really high on either of those Mets and if you’re going to sell Bryant (which I think they absolutely should) it should be for prospects only and if they can dump salary with him.
The cubs should get multiple prospects for Bryant. If they move on from him, they’re essentially rebuilding unless they reload with FAs. They’re current course is slow death.
Reading your comments is slow death, pal.
As a Cub fan? Yes!
Quintana and Bryant to the Padres for Wil Myers and a ton of prospects “not” named Gore.
Someone absolutely should be looking to take that bad Wil Myers contract away from the Padres, but I think a Bryant trade executed alone would bring back more than adding him to a Quintana-Myers swap. Something like Quintana for Myers, Taylor Trammell, and a good young pitcher like Joey Cantillo would be a good idea.
How about Sox traded jbj for Quintana
JBJ does nothing for the Cubs. They need a CF who can actually hit.
Raisel Iglesias for José Quintana
toddfather93;
The trades on here are usually off the wall and giver the reader a headache.
What you’re proposing is realistic and possible. Salaries are close. Meets both teams needs.
The Reds don’t need a starter. They already have one of the better rotations in the league. They need offense.
I hope you are joking.
The Cubs have a new TV deal, money isn’t a big issue. Wheeler and Bum are definitely in play
First few years of the new deal is supposed to duplicate the old one
so no probably a no to more spending.
I believe Epstein said the first few years of the tv deal won’t impact spending one way or another. My guess is the cubs will never spend over the lux tax, so all that extra revenue goes to the Ricketts.
Didn’t they JUST spend 235 mil? That’s quite a bit above the Lux tax.
Uh, no. That may have been the Red Sox in 2018.
Yes they did go over the Lux tax, the numbers vary depending on source but every source has them over the limit.
You really don’t know what you’re talking about do you?
Yes they are above the line.
No they’re not.
So in other words you just wanna throw shade and won’t allow facts to get in the way, got it!
If this were 5-6 years ago, the Cubs would have the best rotation in the MLB.
Just goes to show how short windows of contending can be. Lester is toast. Hamels is pretty solid… for half a season. Collectively they’re all getting older, and the cubs will need an exit strategy soon. Even Rizzo’s looking due for some major back surgery. Baez should be moved back to 2nd to keep him healthy. Bryant is a twig. The entire outfield needs to be sh#t canned if you ask me. So many issues with this team, and they’re tapped out.
Braves or Padres probably line up best in terms of interest and pieces to send back. As a Braves fan, I hope they aim a little higher, or wait for the kids to break out, but this seems like an AA type of deal.
Angels?
What exactly did Dylan Cease do to earn the label of “cornerstone” for the White Sox? He was a mediocre starter this year in the majors. Sure he did well in the minors, but doing well in the minors does not make you a “cornerstone” on the major league team.
For that matter, Eloy Jimenez has not yet become a cornerstone either. He had a decent rookie year, but it’s not like he a 100% guarantee to become a player to build a championship team around.
Quintana has not been great without a doubt, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves in calling this a big win for the ChiSox either.
I reserve judgement on Cease until he can locate a fastball below the belt.
Yeah. The Cease stuff doesn’t make much sense. 73ip 15 homers allowed, 1.55 whip 5.79 era and 2.3 k/bb. He clearly wasn’t ready. He made 14 starts and finished with 2 quality starts of 14. Twice he was close but only went 5. He can still be a valuable down the road, but very clearly needs more minor league seasoning
Or he just needs to work out his growing pains. He didn’t look completely overmatched. He’s a rookie starter; there should be hiccups there. Giolito took major steps forward after a rocky start as well. A much worse start at that. I don’t have any problems with Cease working his kinks out at the big league level while the team is still rebuilding.
Cease had to add a few new pitches to his repertoire in order to start for the Sox. He’s still working on his control of those pitches.
Yes on both counts. Eloy’s K/W of 134/30 is pretty weak. I think way too many fans, on every team, are overrating their players based on the juiced ball.
Cease has never had a BB/9 below 3.5 at any level in any year, with a minor league career of 4.2. As a RS, if they trade Betts to the WS, I’d be interested in Cease, since he has a good arm. But not as a foundational piece. I’d prefer Kopech, even with the surgery.
Cubs and their fluke ws. Just be happy you got the one.
A fluke WS? They had the most wins in MLB, best defense in MLB, best ERA by a lot in MLB, and best run differential in MLB in 2016. Anything less than a WS win would have been a failure.
The cubs were a talented ball club in ‘16, but their bullpen was absolute mess. Had they not had Chapman closing out games, the cubs may not have gotten to the WS, let alone win it. Letting him leave was all kinds of stupid.
You trashed them for making the Chapman trade.
They started the year 24-6. Arrieta had the only no hitter in mid-April. their entire infield started the all star game
They have 3 gold glove winners that year.
They came back from the world series down 3-1 suffered a blown save in the 8th inning 4 outs away. And held it together and won it all.
The only fluke was the Indians fans. When 60% of the season they didnt even fill up Jacob’s field.
Fluke fake fan lebron James as well. joe buck literally said 2 positive things about the cubs
Chatwood and Quintana gotta go, but they’ll be selling low lol hence why they’ll be dropping em. This team needs to balance out and I’d start there. Bryant maybe too. That’ll save money as they retool.
If the Yankees are feeling any pressure to win in 2020, Quintana is not the guy to get. Cole is the guy.
The team that can use Quintana is Houston to replace Wade Miley.
A starting pitcher with no history of injuries? Angels should be calling soon.
I think CHC is closer to being an “all-in” mode vs a “blow it up” mode.
All-in with a crappy bullpen, mediocre rotation and lousy hitting? Good luck with that. Better hope Baez stays healthy and they add some professional hitters to that lineup.
his ERA+ in a Cubs uniform is 102. $11M for that?
Only two choices, imho.
1-I would pick up the option and go for it. I would change two things. Stop the Maddon strategy is trying to play every player at all 9 positions. Assuming Almora reverts a bit to his previous form, and assuming that Hoerner can play, they have enough positional players to compete. I’d also stop fishing. Don’t pick up anyone for the next two years and hope for the best.
2-If they decide to trade Q, then they need to consider trading everyone. With Q, they can revert to a 90-team. Without him, the chances of success are a whole lot lower.
I think I would just stick with the 2019 team and hope for the best. After 2020, barring any changes in fortune, they can trade Bryant, Rizzo, Baez, Darvish (+cash) and Schwarber That should get the Cubs a pretty good return, and they would be one year closer to expiring some bad contracts.
Schwarbs isn’t bringing anything back. He’ll be a rental at that time. A relatively expensive one as well since Power pays in arbitration. Darvish got back on a track last year but he’ll be 34 after this season and I don’t know what the market will be for a 34 year old starter with that much money owed. Really dependent on how he throws the ball this year. I see that as being more of a cash dump off than a real return. Unless they ate the entire deal. Bryant will also be an extremely expensive rental at the point also.
Rizzo should bring back a solid package. And Baez should bring back a haul. Contreras also would. But I don’t see the value in the rest of the guys a year from now. The time for a complete blow up would be right now to maximize the return.
I do agree with you that it’d be very hard to do though. I don’t see why Q should even be available. Unless they like a starter more on the FA market but Theo’s recent track record of signings is piss poor. If you trade Quintana and don’t replace him you’re just watering down your playoff odds. With Hamels’ departure you’re already relying on Chatwood/Alzolay for the 5th slot.
Pretty much agree. I think they are still an underdog for the 2020 playoffs, and almost any downgrade makes even that small chance pretty low. if I thought that the return would be significantly higher for two years of control, instead of only one year of control, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to blow it up now.
Bryant
Rizzo
Baez
Contreas aren’t going anywhere. That’s that’s just dumb. Rizzo is about to win another gold glove you cant replace what he does at 1st.
Nick Castellanos=higher priced Yoshitomo Tsutsugo with worse defense as far as I have seen and read.
A bit of a hot take here: But I don’t think it is a foregone conclusion that Darvish DOESN’T opt-out.
He is owed 4/$80M(a tad deferred). That is obviously a lot, but it isn’t outrageous. Consider Eovaldi got 4/$68M….
Taking a look at the FA market. You’ve got Cole at the top who will command $200M+. Strasburg is the consolation prize, but he isn’t that young and has an injury history(2020 was 1st 200IP season since 2014). Zack Wheeler is the “Gerrit Cole Starter Kit” and some team will pay him in hopes they can “fix” him and make him elite. Next you’ve got Ryu and MadBum. I think Darvish fits in here, Ryu is an interesting comp. Both are 32-year olds who played professional in Asia before excelling in their MLB career early before suffering injury problems with flashes of brilliance in between. Both have pitched roughly 400IP since 2017 with similar value in that span. If I am Darvish, I’m keep tabs on whispers regarding Ryu’s market.
Darvish’s 2nd half makes things interesting. In 82IP, he put up a 2.76 ERA with 188 Ks and 7 BB. His K-BB% was 35.6%, 3rd behind Cole and Verlander…and 6% above 4th place Giolito. His pure stuff is drool-worthy.
I think it is possible Darvish could get a 5th year because his pure upside and teams love a player that is “a tweak” away.
* 118/7
That said, is anyone going to pay to his age 37 season? He’s certainly a good pitcher, but his ERA over the past 4 years is 3.90/116 ERA+. Certainly good, but I wouldn’t pay for that. Too many injuries. In a lot of ways, very similar to Eovaldi. Eovaldi was more like a $39M/3 pitcher, given that his performances were certainly good, but never great, and always one step away from an injury.
Age. To risk 80MM when you’re 33 less than 2 years removed from a TJ is highly risk. There’s really no way he does that or if he does, he’s going to regret it. That’s a good chunk of guaranteed money for your age 34-37 seasons.
Also you have a typo there. 118 K’s*** If he really struck out 188 then you’d be onto something.
The cubs need pitching especially starters. Why trade one away if you only need 1 quality starter.