The Cubs are closing in on a deal with free agent outfielder Steven Souza Jr., per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). If completed, it’ll be the Chicago organization’s first MLB contract of the offseason.
Souza was previously cut loose by the Diamondbacks. The Arizona organization decided against tendering him and paying a projected $4.125MM salary in Souza’s final year of arbitration eligibility.
This news helps explain the Cubs’ decision to open a 40-man spot today. Adding Souza will not really change the pitch of the austerity-themed offseason, but it does represent a notable commitment that could potentially have an intriguing butterfly effect.
Souza, who’s looking to bounce back following a 2019 season lost to injury, has played almost exclusively in right field during his five seasons in the majors. That has been the primary domain of high-proced Cubs veteran Jason Heyward, who could also appear in center.
There’s now a bit of a crowd in the outfield picture. Kyle Schwarber has spent most of his time in left and figures to do so again. Ian Happ has been seen as an option up the middle but could be utilized in a variety of manners (including in the infield). Albert Almora is a possible platoon partner for Heyward or Happ. Star third baseman Kris Bryant has also spent time in the corner outfield in recent seasons.
At a minimum, the addition of Souza makes it tougher than ever to envision Nicholas Castellanos returning. Even sans Castellanos, the roster may yet be pared through trade — with Bryant still the most intriguing possibility.
Souza won’t necessarily be assured of a significant role — or even a roster spot out of camp. He’s not only working back from a serious knee injury, but needs to prove he can rebound at the plate. Souza managed only a .220/.309/.369 batting line in 272 plate appearances in 2018, another injury-limited campaign.
The Cubs obviously hope that Souza can rediscovery the form he showed back in 2017, when he was an effective performer for the Rays. He turned in .239/.351/.459 slash with thirty long balls and 16 steals over 617 trips to the plate, easily representing his best season in the bigs. Souza was even then prone to strike out in about three of every ten plate appearances, but drew walks at a healthy 13.6% clip and made plenty of good contact.
Souza has also graded as a plus defender and baserunner at times. When he put it all together in ’17, he was a 3.8 fWAR / 4.1 rWAR performer. Anything approaching that level of production would make this signing a slam dunk for the Cubs, though that’s probably also a low-likelihood outcome given Souza’s more recent track record.
well, guess those speculating on a Castellanos reunion can toss that take into the gahbage
Maybe, hopefully this does not mean Heyward is back to CF.
Nope. He’s a career .233 hitter. Even if he has a bounce back year it wouldn’t matter. On this one I have to ask myself ….. why?
You mean… why would I consider his batting average as a significant portion of a player analysis??
bencole, batting average is not the end all be all but let’s not pretend it’s irrelevant.
His other hitting totals over his 5 mlb seasons are not impressive other than 2017. He’s s not good.
4 WAR guy in 2017
Cubs believe he is somehow related to “Sosa”!
Not at your convention supporting your team today? Nope, you’d rather do what you do best and that’s continue to troll Cub news with your ignorance.
Probably assigned to this duty by his brethren, the stereotypical ones are “so toxic and hateful”.
Ahhh, gotta love white cox fans. All the moves they made this offseason that might just put them in contention and their jerk off fans are reading Cubs new and making stupid comments
Not all of us are like that, I’m a huge Sox fan and I’m sick of all the trash talking between both teams. I grew up hearing all this stupid bickering and it’s annoying. There are a holes on both sides
You cub fans are doing the exact same thing. So why should you expect Sox fans not to?
This is true. It’s kind of annoying and very embarrassing
honestly, its not proportional. For the amount of cubs fans there are compared to white sox fans, the south siders do so much more smack talking that its not even comparable. I tend to usually not engage, bc why feed a troll? Most cubs fans could care less about the sox, and many (such as myself) wish you guys the best unless we’re playing you. But the culture of your fanbase demands you belittle the cubs. I’ve seen this from attending games, grabbing drinks at a bar, or even at Hawks and Bulls games. You guys consistently bring the cubs into conversations that have nothing to do with them, while taking such a bias approach. If most of your fans could just get over this little brother complex it would go miles in having us actually bond as fans over a game and city we both love.
We know. Cubs fans never stop saying “they could care less about the White Sox.” Usually it’s right before throwing another jab about attendance. Funny how that works.
And yes, they almost always say I *could* care less.
You can be at the convention with a cell phone and still message. Unless you are a boomer without a cell phone and only have a Macintosh desktop at home. Que the aol dial up
Cub fans are amongst the worst in all pro sports. Stupid in relation to knowing their own team, and think they have been as successful as the Yankees over their history.
Spot on priggs
As are stereotypical Cub fans. GTFOH with that nonsense. Both fanbases have trolls. You epitomize that with your statement.
It’s little brother syndrome. They’re jealous of all the things that make the Cubs so great and the only way they can cope is baseless smack talk. Kind of like when Hawk Harrelson said Wrigley sucked. Obviously absurd.
Yes tell us if the championships the Yankees won when there were 8 teams and half the players were farmers
Catuli Carl, What makes the Cubs so great???? ONE World Series title in 108 years???? So the WSox have ONE World Series title in basically the same amount of time. What’s your point???? You’re probably going to go back to the number of fans argument, Cub fans always do. The way I look at it, you’ve just had more people to be miserable with the majority of your time as a Cub fan.
Haha, this goes both ways. I know many cub fans that are super bias against the white Sox at all times and bring Sox into the conversation even if it’s unnecessary.
Cubs great? Nice joke, tell it again.
Just get the grievance decision over with so the Cubs can start dealing.
I am a joke. Terrible at managing the MLB. I can’t even make a decision on Kris Bryant. I don’t even know why I don’t reinstate Pete Rose except that he doesn’t call me Sir. I should fire myself!
It’s not the MLB making the Bryant decision… it’s a third party arbiter.
Do you always just make stuff up?
But it still took 4.5 years to even hear the case. That’s all on MLB
Bryant’s agent filed the grievance last fall, genius.
Manfred is still wack though
Pete Rose deserved what he got too.
Pete Rose has lived a life that is exactly what he wanted when he set out. Me first fame.
Absolutely agree. The Bryant decision is taking a long time. Thought a decision would be made by early January. Just a gut feeling, but the longer it takes, I believe the decision is favoring Bryant.
So many outfielders, none of whom can play decent CF.
Almora can, but he can’t hit his own weight.
I really hate my team right now.. can’t have enough below league average hitting outfielders. Only the Cubs could finally win a championship and then take the organization backwards.
The Cubs are actually pretty ok and a reasonably good contender, other than the bullpen.
It’s just so weird they could have gotten Hudson, Betances and Martin for less than $40M and didn’t. Like, why come that far and just get to the finish line and right when you have a contender you just throw your arms in the air and be like, “Actually, nah…. I don’t care about this anymore”
???
Team with like second or third highest payroll in mlb should have doled out big burdensome contracts for three relievers (the “Colorado Special”). Genius. Hire the man.
Anyone who “hates this team right now” probably doesn’t remember anything prior to 2015.
The 84 win Cubs team that lost Castellanos, Zobrist, Russell, Hamels and most of their bullpen without replacements and with one of the 2 or 3 weakest farm systems in MLB is going to be OK? They have no depth. They don’t have any quality young starters. The Cubs were the only team in MLB to not have a starter under the age of 29 record a win in 2019. Tyler Chatwood is probably gong to be the 5th starter. Where exactly are they going to get the wins to compete in the NL Central? They are clearly less talented today than in 2019.
They missed their Pythagorean by six games last year and FanGraphs has them about 87, higher than the other NL Central teams.
Theo and Jed have been pretty good at cobbling bullpens and I think the no names – there are a lot of interesting talented pitchers in this group – and Kimbrel will surprise this season.
Darvish, Hendricks, and Quintana is a good top three. Just hope that Lester doesn’t decline any further and a fifth starter is hit-or-miss for most teams, even contenders.
Happ and Hoerner should help the black holes that 2B and CF were last season.
Hamels was terrible in the 2nd half, Zo barely played last year, Russell was horrible the entire season, and their farm will most likely rate between 16-21 when the new rankings come out, so the fact that you think their farm is bottom 2-3 is an absolute joke and shows you’re incapable of accurately assessing the situation.
That 84 win team was their floor, not their ceiling. They had untimely injuries all year, and extremely unlucky sequencing as far as runs produced versus given up. They had a better run differential than Milwaukee, and they would have had a better RD than STL if not for that extremely unlucky last several weeks. Kimbrel never looked right, and now has a full offseason and spring training. They have plenty of talented depth behind him (these people demanding contracts to non elite relievers should come to the realization they fail more times than not, so you need to acquire as many upside arms as possible and let the attrition game play itself out unless you have tons of controllable elite arms). The rotation scares me a bit, but its not as bad as people are making it out to be. Darvish and Hendricks are a fine 1 and 2, with Lester and Q being you’re MOR/BOR guys. The 5th starter job will be a competition, and there are plenty viable internal candidates to fill that void.
This team as its comprised right now is still a contender in the Central. Are they elite? No. But the ceiling is still there for a mid 90’s winning squad. As of now, they’re probably a mid to upper 80’s win team. But hopefully Ross gets them playing D and running the bases well again; 2 things Maddon let slip the last 2 seasons. Factor in a full season of Hoerner, and Schwarber’s amazing 2nd half (which the data and batted ball profile suggests is legit) and Maddon not leaving his starters out there too long and its conceivable to see this team making large internal strides
Haha they aren’t going anywhere this year. It’s going to be the same.
@spinach
In no way, shape or form are those “big burdensome contracts”. Under any circumstances. At all. Please get some perspective. The Cubs basically have a contender, but their bullpen is a very clear, massive weakness, to which the owners are just hard capping themselves based on their own greed.
Agreed! Sad state of affairs!!
Schwarber is on the verge of one of the premier outfielders in the game, so there is that.
Yah? That 2.6 fWAR season last year was borderline elite.
“Premier Outfielder”, LOL No he isn’t. His defense will always be under average thereby lowering his overall value. He hits HR’s and that’s about it. He doesnt hit for average, K’s around 28% of the time, hits for low average in high leverage situations, and isn’t a very good baserunner. I get it, just remembered they legalized recreational marijuana in Illinois, you must be smoking some strong stuff!
Hahahahaha PREMIER. Only a Cubs fan would think that hahahahahaga
Castellanos returning to the Cubs seems little chance now.
Souza will never make it to the majors.
Souza already had made the majors
There never was a real chance they would pay to sign him.
Washed Up Wranglin’ Theo!!!
Didn’t Hahn give 18.5M a year for 3 years to an aging pitcher who last season nearly had a 4 ERA, a FIP of almost 5, barely over 7 K a game and could only pitch 112 innings over 19 starts?
Another jealous Cubs fan!!
Ha ha! 4th place for u!
There is no way Cubs finish above third place. Neither way The White Sox above the Twins. Therefore no WC for the White Sox where other WC probables have better teams.
Almora needs a red hot Spring Training or he is out the door !
I don’t get it
Souza’s not going to start unless he gors back to 2017 form. He’ll take AB’s away from Schwarber and Heyward vs tough LHP.
No he won’t. That kind of mindset is what set Schwarber back in the first place. He can hit lefties and maintain his OBP if they just leave him alone
Schwarber isn’t going to play 162 games. He’ll get rest vs. SOME lhp.
That Grievance Decision is becoming a JOKE now !
Read the Players / Owners agreement……..in simple terms, Bryant cannot win !
There is something shady going on with this grievance. This is not an overly complicated situation and if this arbitrator knows how to read then it should be pretty simple.
Or neither of you have any idea what you’re talking about and the situation is more complicated than you believe.
Its not. Agents dint get to pick the 25 man roster, GM’s do.
The facts have all been presented to the arbitrator for months now. No reason it should take this long.
Bryant is a goner. Bote will be the full time 3B, and 2B will be some combo of Happ/Robel Garcia/Hernan Perez.
Nico Hoerner?
No Hoerner at 2nd huh… Thats odd
He will be DFA to make room for Perez. Makes sense
Herman Perez isn’t making the 26 man roster. At best he’ll be a call up for an injury or if he’s not release by Sept 1st. He might be one of two call ups. I doubt it though. He’s a last desperate ditch effort if everyone gets hurt. They have players in Double A that have a better chance than Herman has to make the team
Will hit 40 hrs this year playing at Wrigley and on road at cincy
Totally
Here we go. Where are the those Cubs fans who complain about the Ricketts being cheap despite having a top 3 payroll.
yeah.. the same cubs fans you just made up to justify your false statement. Pathetic.
Go cubs go!
Probably eliminates Castellanos back to the Cubs. They will have an outfield of Schwarber in LF; Almora and Heyward in CF; Souza and Heyward in RF.
Happ probably competes with Bote and Hoerner for 2b.
Eww. Not looking like a “90-win” lineup to me. More like 75.
cubs will be 5 wins better than the sox no matter who the cubs march out there, lmao
Doubt that – Cubs will underperform and finish 3rd in the central .
I love seeing the White Sox being more intereting and talented than the Cubs … it’s refreshing
ChiSoxCity, we don’t expect you to know what a 90 win team looks like
To be fair, he has watched the White Sox win 90 games…. it just took half of the 2018 and all of 2019 seasons.
Of course the white Sox at best win 75 games. They won’t be a .500 team for at least years and guys like Grandal, Keuchel, Jose Abreu,Tim Anderson will be long gone and traded by then. Cubs win at least 88 games. And the NL Central by 4 games.
NLCS bound for the only team in Chicago that matters.
His name is NOT “Sosa”!!!
Cubs headed to 4th place at best. They suk.
The white Sox spend over 120mil this winter and they’ll be lucky to win 75 games.
Cubs are the favorite to win the NL Central. its okay though be salty to the 7th best team in chicago..
Cubs
Blackhawks
Bulls
Sky
Fire > the middle 3 can be in any order.
Bears
White Sox
You win the award as The Mouth Wide of the South Side….
The Cubs/White Sox feud amongst fan bases has never made much sense. They are in different leagues and not a rival. You don’t see Dodgers and Angels fans in the middle of juvenile trolling. I’d love to see a Cubs/White Sox World Series and that means hoping both teams perform well through the season. Having both teams competitive would be a great sports atmosphere in the city. A White Sox WS win would be far more enjoyable than an opposing NL Central team.
“The Cubs obviously hope that Souza can rediscovery the form”
Also “high proced Heyward”, Happ utilized in a variety of “manners” and mentioning Butterfly effect when the reference he was searching for was Domino effect. Stay in school
Tbh I was never a real stickler for grammar as long as I understood the message that was being conveyed. Maybe I’m alone in this lol
Any truth to reports that Hoerner may compete for the starting CF job this spring, or is that just a blogger and/or sportswriter hot take?
Happ more likely CF candidate than Hoerner is. Nico will stick in the infield.
But more likely is their CF (if not Happ) will come thru the Bryant trade.
Best predictor of a future injuries are prior injuries. I would expect Souza to be injured at some point in the season at whatever level of baseball he is rostered.
This guy is just someone to store at AAA. He has zero to do with any upgrades or holding someone else from signing. He’s more insurance for the month Heyward will miss with Yearly hamstring injury
Nice low risk medium reward move. True X factors are Happ, Yu and Kimbrel for this team. Those 3 come through, could be a contending season
Morrow-Kimbrel could be a deadly 1-2 punch out of the pen. If healthy:/
And if the latter isn’t a gopher ball machine like he was last year.
Ah yes, the official irrelevant cheap veteran position player signing by the cvbs. Isn’t this team 3rd in annual revenues behind the Yankees and Dodgers? The fans should be seething, but all they complain about is the extra $5 regional cable sports fee for the Marquee network. lol
id be mad if my owner renovated the stadium only to lean on the tax payers to pay it and never spend anything on the team until this year (15 years since last world series) to get something done. seems like reinsdorf was just lining his pockets. id probably just be numb if i were a sox fan since it happened so often.
Neither Cub fans nor any individuals are paying $5 or whatever to Marquee. That is not how it works. Cable company may pass it on to consumers by raising certain packages but it is not passed on to “Cub fans” in fact it is passed on to you as well sucker.
That is ok. You just do not understand how things work.
Cub fans complaint is related to Marquee NOT having deals with all cable operators. That is a big difference but you cannot understand it is about not being able to get the games. It has nothing to do with what fees cable companies negotiate with the Cubs.
Does that help you?
Uh, you “no read so well”, do you? I said regional sports fee, meaning a fee that all cable subscribers pay for. cvbs fans booed Ricketts during his announcement at the cvbs convention (heard about it on “The Score”) about it.
Why are you all crying about this? Ever consider maybe he’s at best a back up OF option… Maybe there’s a Hayward/Bryant deal in the works, and still sign Castillinos …
I can still see Bryant/Hayward to Philles for Bohm/Segura then sign Castillinos
The Phillies would be nuts to fo that trade.
Why?
Phillies need a CF (Heyward) and upgrade at 3rd (Bryant)
Heyward and Segura both have 4 yrs left on contract , Heyward at 21/yr, Segura at 15/yr… Phillies would be pretty stacked
Realmuto C
Hoskins 1st
Kingery 2nd
Didi SS
Bryant 3rd
McCutch LF
Heyward CF
Harper RF
Cubs put Segura at 3rd and sign Nic
Contreras C
Rizzo 1st
Happ 2nd
Baez SS
Segura 3rd
Schwarber LF
Hoerner CF
Castillinos RF
Seems like a win win
Im not trading segura , I’ll put him at second base then Kingery at third.
The Phillies have no farm system. If Bryant is traded its most likely to Atlanta. Best farm. Best fit. Atl needs a 3B Cubs need pitching. 4 for 1 maybe 5 for 1 will be the deal.
Youd take Segura 2nd/Kingery 3rd over Bryant 3rd/Kingery 2nd/Heyward CF lol oh my
I predict the 2020 Cubs to be an 81 win team, then proclaim they need to shake things up for 2021.
Yep, they need to shake things up alright; the front office.
an MLB deal? how?
Just happy the Indians can’t sign him. Hopefully they sign Puig. It’s prolly not gonna happen though.
Just happy the Indians can’t sign him. Hopefully they sign Puig. It’s prolly not gonna happen though.
Useless move. He’s not with a MLB deal. Hopefully it’s a minor league deal. No where to play him any way. Heyward can’t play center. Corners are filled already. Don’t get it as anything useful
This signing is a flyer on a player who will never make it back from his injuries. Did you see the medical report on his knee? He is lucky to be walking normally, if he actually is. I hope he proves me wrong, but there is no stabilization left in that knee, particularly for a pro-level of stress. He’s a really nice guy, but his career in baseball is over!
Any word on when the Bryant arb will make a decision?
I heard today that it will be two days after Halley’s Comet flies by.
Oh good grief
It’s apparent that a RESET and not a REBUILD is about to happen. Your core is going to be Heyward, Baez, Darvish and Hendricks because either the salaries are to high or like Baez and Hendricks their just great players. I’d expect Bryant, Lester, Quintana and Schwarber to be moved Contreras has arb years left so makes sense to keep him unless your bowled over by a deal. All those assets will net you about 10 prospects with a third of those being top 100. Teams that have prospect ready players and can afford payroll at the trade deadline will be LA, ATL and NYY for the likes of Lester and Quintana. Bryant and Schwarber market will be greater because a team will use the for building blocks like LAA or TEX.
Reds are trying to improve, Pittsburgh isn’t, the Cards are the Cards and the Brewers have shown the world they do not want to win in 2020. Yes, the Brewers aren’t serious.
That leaves the Cubs, a team where a lot went wrong last year. No closer, little production from Russell and Almora, Lester and Quintana were off and they had a manager constantly tinkering over and over. The Cubs have the best talent in the NL Central. They are not finished. However, a slow start should make them consider dealing assets.
Really irritated they didn’t get Hudson and Martin. Would’ve made the roster look far more balanced for a reasonable amount of money.
He’s a good backup player give depth and won’t cost a draft pick.
Cubs owners are laughable. Donating millions to politics and cry poor. Makes them an easy team to root against
why bring Politics in ?????
BTW, sorry your side lost !
Spoken like someone without enough to donate. Maybe stick to what you understand and leave finances and politics to the adults.
Although, at least you’ll have another prosperous 4 years to figure it out.
Spoken like someone with a reading comprehension problem. Just smile and look cute leave the thinking to anyone else. If you have a penny you have enough to donate.
Theo might be making moves by June if the Cubs are off to a slow start……but looking at their schedule, I like who they are playing the first few months…….I think the wild factor is David Ross and what he does from the dugout on match ups..
“Yes Theo. I agree Theo. Whatever you say Theo.”
Rickets to Theo: “Let’s go cheap, our Cub fans will keep on buying tickets.”
Basically. A 9-year old could spend $200MM better than the cvbs have. A majority of that is owed to complete trash players. It’s really embarrassing that the cheap controlled players are carrying the big contract players on that team. It should be the other way around.
Relax Cubs Nation….we will win this division in 2020.
Laughable!
Wsox better finish first place in their division or at least get a WC spot. If not, I’ll be over trooling and bulling you every day for the rest of your life. No matter if you change your name here…lol
Yeah Big Bad, your Cubs finished 7 games back last year, but you’re gonna win the division in 2020. Right. Must be all the improvements that the Cubs have made during the offseason that has you so optimistic. Lol. The Cubs have lost numerous key contributors and added exactly NO ONE. Yeah, I’d bet your mortgage on the Cubs.
That’s funny coming from a cox fan, haven’t even made it to spring training yet and you losers already bought World Series tickets. Shut up
Second largest tourist attraction in Chicago are the Chicago Cubs Home Games……..City Tourism Dept said over 60% of people at Cubs games are tourists.
honestly, that figure is probabaly made up mostly from the almost immeasurable amount of out of town cubs fans. you can’t fault people for not living in Chicago and being cubs fans. i’ve worked at Wrigley since 2015 and a ton of the people I come into contact with a cubs fans from outside of the Chicago area. so call them tourists if you want, but they’re cubs fans through and through
Nope. Just tourist watching Facebook videos on their cellphones.
My friends who work at Wrigley say the same thing. Folks who work and live in the city tend to be Sox fans, while suburbanites and farmersonly.commers like to trek to Wrigley. Explains why race baiting incidents always happen at the Friendly confines, out of towners who freak out when they come in from the cornfields into a culturally and ethnically diverse city. Do notice that Cubs attendance takes a deep dive after labor day when the tourists stay home.
And that’s relevant to this conversation how? Congrats cox fans your stadium was the first to put up extended netting. Ironically the stadium with the least amount of people in it. Oh yeah lets not forget guaranteed rate or whatever they call that dump this year is the only baseball park in America where you can pick up a piece of trash (pepsi can) on the side of the expressway and get in for half price.
How does a cvbs fan have the gumption to call another stadium a “dump”? Are you kidding me? I guess it’s true that one man’s trash (wrigley) is another man’s treasure.
I see what you did there. Spelled Sox with a “c” instead. Comedy gold! And trash. What are they screening this weekend at the Scoutmaster Jamboree? Captain Underpants?
Deep Dish and a Cubs game is very enticing.
Just heard solid rumor – Bryant for Todd Frazier!
Even up!
Good luck with that!!
New free agent signings can’t get traded meat head
Stop hanging out in Canaryville bars after midnight. It makes you stupid.
I’m a lifelong National League fan and have been a Cubs fan for more than 30 years. My southside late father-in-law used to get us “free” Sox tickets (with parking fees and food for the kids, the day would be well over $100, so not exactly a free trip to the ballpark) and I would take my son and one or two of his friends as they like the Sox. At those games, I would often overhear a number of Sox fans spending a good amount of their time ripping Wrigley and the Cubs. A number of these folks were well on their way to being drunk before the game evening began and throwing around f-bombs right and left particularly in context of what they think about Wrigley. This is a personality type that runs through a section of Sox-nation and I’m not fond of it. They seem to live to rip and troll on the Cubs. I try to ignore what these people have to say the best I can. On the other hand, I know and work with a number of Sox fans who are good people, good sports and don’t make a career out of trolling Cubs fans. Pretty clear that Mr/Ms ChiSox_Fan is part of that Cubs hating, Wrigley hating element in Sox-nation.
As long as you admit it goes both ways. I’ve been to Wrigley several times and observed the same type of vitriol. Please stop with the victim mentality. A segment of fans on BOTH sides of town are abhorrent. For the most part its harmless. Listen to what you want to listen to, ignore the rest. Here ended the lesson!!
First mlb singing? he better be a milb w/ major option
Woo hoo! Stars and stripes forever!