FEBRUARY 1: The signing is now official.
JANUARY 28: The Cubs have agreed to terms with righty Jeremy Jeffress on a one-year MLB deal, per ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter). It’ll pay him $850K and includes $200K in available incentives based upon appearances.
Jeffress will hope to regain his form in Chicago after falling flat last year with the Brewers. The sinkerballer was lights-out in 2018 but lost about 1.5 ticks of velocity in the ensuing campaign. He was dropped by the Milwaukee organization after throwing 52 innings of 5.02 ERA ball with 8.0 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, and a 48.4% groundball rate.
It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride over the years for Jeffress. At his best, he has gobbled up grounders and limited the long ball and even on occasion recorded a decent number of strikeouts. The history of home run suppression (0.67 per nine for his career) is of particular interest in the era of the aerodynamic baseball. But Jeffress hasn’t always been consistent and had a worrisome DWI incident back in 2016.
For the Cubs, it’s a low-cost signing that has some relative upside. There’s really no reason to think Jeffress can replicate that ’18 outburst — his sparkling 1.29 ERA was certainly the result of good pitching, but there was some good fortune mixed in as well — but he doesn’t need to reach those heights to pay dividends. If he can regain some lost velo or learn to live without it, Jeffress could end up pitching a lot of high-leverage innings at Wrigley.
Pedro Strop 2.0
Strop had a heck of a good career in Chicago. 5 consecutive seasons with a sub-3 ERA. You’d be hard pressed to find a setup man who was more reliable season to season between 2014-2018.
I’m surprised this guy’s ego can handle making a measly 850k this year.
You do realize he’s only earned more than a million for a season 3 times and only once was it over 3 million right? I’m not sure what who you’re taking about or how you think his past salaries reflect on it.
Yea measly. Nearly 3 times more than what a physician makes. How the hell well Jeffrees survive?
Jes, but Jefress is a doctor of sorts too. Doctor of outs!
That would be a great sign for the Cubs if he was as good as Strop.
One time stud most recent dud. Surprised he wasn’t signed already.
Super surprised he got a MLB deal
Why? In the six seasons prior to 2019, he had a cumulative 2.64 ERA.
I take that back, also because oh yea, They has 39 players on their 40 man.
meanwhile the reds steal your outfielder.
You meant: The Cubs already have a 1B and don’t need a DH.
Bad comment. Watch a game sometime, then comment.
Cubs don’t have the payroll flexibility as evident by their signings this year or lack there of. They were never going to re-sign Castellanos.
Ugh too soon Jt…too soon
the Cubs dont need or want him
I actually think he was great for us, not just because of his hitting, but his energy and attitude. He was far less complacent than some of our guys seem to be sometimes.
Loon.
He would’ve been VERY MUCH welcomed back. He was incredible as a cub and I envy the Reds at the moment. They sure look pretty good this year. And not just for the reds…
He would’ve been VERY MUCH welcomed back. He was incredible as a cub and I envy the Reds at the moment. They sure look pretty good this year. And not just for the reds…
At the price the Reds paid, let them have him.
He can be a free agent next year or the year after anyhow, so it’s not like the reds are guaranteed to have him long term. The only way they have him for the full length of the contract is if he’s a complete dud there.
I’ll bet by years end his offensive numbers are better than Bryants and I doubt he’ll have Bryants team leading 15 errors either. Castellanos should have been signed by the Cubs.
Not that it matters but you should understand, mistry, that 3B is a much easier position to rack up errors than RF.
And I’d take that bet against you on the offensive numbers but I get the feeling you want to compare batting average and RBIs.
You do realize that teams don’t use errors to evaluate defense, right? They use the advanced metrics, and everyone knows that Castellanos is a poor defender.
He was a Cubs player for 90 days as they were under .500 while was on the roster
He was their best hitter during that span too. That’s a pretty bad take.
Can’t pitch outside of Milwaukee. Proved he couldn’t even do that last year.
His 1.33 Road ERA in 2018 begs to differ.
His 2.66 ERA in 300 career innings with the Brewers and 4.76 in nearly 100 innings with any other team doesn’t beg to differ.
You have to go all the way back to 2013 to find a season in which he spent an entire season with another team, and he threw a 0.87 ERA that year. He had 6.75 and 4.70 ERAs in the two seasons prior with KC, but that was 9 8 years ago. Things change in 8 years. He had three partial seasons with other teams since then, two of which were poor and one that was excellent.
That’s not enough to tell me that’s he’s incapable of pitching well with another team, especially when your best evidence of data on that is from almost a decade ago.
Once again, I didn’t say he’s been as good with other teams as he is with the Brewers, but the evidence definitely disputes your claim that he’s incapable of pitching elsewhere.
When are the Brewers putting up their wild card banner? Just curious.
God bless you wonderful cub fans.
Hahahahaha
Tell us again about 2016. We’ve forgotten.
Good, at least he’ll be good vs Milwaukee.
Could be large! Strop next!
Hey, pot’s legal in IL now.
Nailed it
He probably can’t afford the taxes with this contract
Yah, it must be hard to struggle by on $16,000 a week. How much do you make?
What’s your issue with players salaries? They have a unique and rare talent, not to mention the fact that they generate billions of dollars, and are compensated for it.
Let’s just go ahead and get it out of the way-dumpster divin theo. On with the show
Don’t reinforce the bad behavior and stupid comments
When the owners say sorry no more big spending, wtf do you think theo is going to do? He needs their approval….you know that right?
Should have came to Cincinnati to reunite with Derek Johnson, who was his pitching coach in Milwaukee when he was pitching well.
Wish they would of waited to legalize pot in Illinois till the season started. Theo will change the ivy to pot plants he’s so high
Warm up music: “Because I Got High”.
Or “I Want To Get High” by Cypress Hill
Ease up on the guy he was trying to manage anxiety due to having seizures. He didn’t kill anyone
Jeremy Jeffress is a great bounce back candidate. Jeremy Jeffress is not a great name to have as biggest offseason addition though.
Nailed it.
I don’t know why I bother to pick up my phone and check Twitter and MLBTR every hour and hope the lead story is that the Kris Bryant grievance has been resolved. Why do I torment myself?
I want this Bryant grievance to be resolved too, because I think it is what Jon Daniels is waiting for as the big 3b addition.
Wait another 5 years.
What he said.
Ditto
Exactly.
Requesting “Less to come…” on this tropic instead please.
Heard he was gonna be pitching the 2020 home run derby. Theo with the garbage picker all offseason
What should Theo do? Rob a bank? He can’t just go out and get who he wants, this isn’t MLB the Show. Owners say no, he has no choice….not that complicated.
Well, you should be happy to hear that it will be winter for a little while longer…
He was awful in 2019 but great in 2018. Maybe he can bounce back. As a Cub fan I get wanting to see bigger and better signings – but no one is left out there on the FA market really. You can’t hate this deal. It’s only $850k guaranteed! I mean if he has a decent year that’s great value, and if he doesn’t – what else do you really expect them to do right now FA wise. I’m sure once the Bryant grievance is settled you’ll see Baez locked up to a long-term deal – I have to think they have money ear-marked for him on a long term deal, just waiting to see how many years of control they have left for Bryant first. Other than that, maybe a trade domino falls but I really don’t think we are going to be looking at too much drastic change on the Cubs roster between now and opening day.
Manfred should be ashamed of himself and his ineptitude in handling the Bryant situation.
It’s NOT Manfred making the decision. It’s a third party arbiter.
Why do people keep assuming it’s Manfred/the MLB holding this up? I see a ton of people on this site blaming Manfred for this. Do people not bother researching the situation before they go tossing blame around?
You answered your own question: no, people don’t research first.
Research? You act as if every question could be answered by typing a few key words into your browser… Can you imagine such sorcery?
I know right???
Googling will be the downfall of this world. Type a few words and all of sudden everyone’s an expert.
As a Brewer fan and for what Jeffress has done for us in the past, I’m rooting for him to bounce back. Just not in games against the Brewers lol
The cubs shouldn’t have screwed big mouth Bryant over to begin with and this wouldn’t have happened. Regardless the outcome the cubs are paying the price for it now one way or the other.
you mean they followed the rules and he decided to get angry about it? hardly any fault of their own that he is bitter.
I bet you love getting screwed over by large corporations. Or maybe you’re just oblivious to it ??
keep shaking your fist at God and see how that works out for you. some battles just arent worth fighting.
i wouldnt even say Bryant is in fact bitter, he just filed because the players union is bitter. Bryant just wants to get paid and play baseball. Boras might be a little bitter too. Any narrative that Bryant is mad at anyone is overblown imo.
well someone is. i dont mean to say that he is at fault here – could be him, the union, his agent, whoever really – im just saying that blaming the Cubs for something that is perfectly reasonable is absurd as a non-party in the litigation.
Amen, dark side
This is the arbitrators way of punishing the Cubs. He knows they didn’t break the rule so he will rule in their favor in the end but he also knows it was to manipulate service time and he is stalling so they can’t trade Bryant at full value. That or he is incredibly incompetent
It wasn’t only the Cubs that have utilized the service time, multiple teams have done it over the years. Acuna is the most recent, though I think that Tatis also fell into this. The Nats did it with Harper too. And the Astros.held back Springer for a few weeks in 2014.
If, and that’s a big if, Bryant wins the grievance, the fallout will be big. But honestly, this grievance should never have been filed given that it’s in the contract that the Players Union negotiated. Chances are likely they agreed to it to get something else.
that’s pretty self-righteous if that’s the case
Solid signing for the dollar amount.
Not a Cubs fan, but I like it as a low-risk, high-upside move. For only 50% more than the league minimum, the Cubs get a decent shot at a serviceable veteran, or better.
Oh man, that Cubs bullpen is gonna cause all kinds of headaches for rookie manager David Ross.
Anyone who is 100% confident in their bullpen in January is deluded. It’s the most volatile job in pro-sports. Guys who are great turn lousy, guys who are lousy turn great. It’s always a crap shoot.
The Cubs bullpen ended last season lousy…. theo said there will be changes…. yet they’re signing no one who could really make an impact. Now the Cubs bullpen will start the new season, being the same old lousy
Maybe they can flip him at the deadline when they are 15 games behind the reds
Fangraphs still projects the Cubs as the best team in the NL Central.
i had picked the Cubs to win last year, and while i wolnt go that far this year, id certainly say its a very close race, and the Cubs have a higher floor than the Brewers and Reds do as currently constructed. (at least that is what I think)
A higher floor? How did hitting than floor the last two seasons feel? The reds on paper clearly have the best team in the central.
LOL fangraphs
If you think you are smarter or understand baseball better than the Fangraphs team does, you are an irretrievable moron. As in, world class buffoon.
He is actually
Well then, if the Cubs are 15 games in back of the Reds at the deadline, then the Reds will be 15 games in back of the Cards. So, both the Cubs and Reds will be out of the postseason.
Reliever Jeremy Jeffress is yet another inexpensive, low risk bounce-back candidate for the Cubs along with ‘versatile’ lefty hitting 2B Scooter Gennett. It’s too bad that the payroll restrictions imposed by the Ricketts ownership is handcuffing the front office but Jeffress and Gennett can fill important team needs in 2020 while also presenting tremendous upside should each duplicate their most recent production before their abysmal 2019 output.
Gennett isn’t signed currently, just reported interest. Maybe you’re thinking of Souza? Also reported deal, no announcement yet, pending physical it seems
I was talking about Scooter Gennett and did state that he and Jeremy Jeffries were each “candidates” who “can fill important team needs in 2020” for the Cubs. Technically, none of these players including OF Stephen Souza Jr. has been officially signed by the Cubs as we post. Reportedly Souza is awaiting his physical which would be especially important considering he is coming off a serious knee injury that resulted in him missing the entire 2019 season.
The Cubs also have a bit of a crunch with only one spot currently open on their 40-man roster and 3 potential players to fill them on MLB contracts. All this should be rectified in the coming days along with the possibility that the Kris Bryant MLB service time grievance might finally be decided opening up even more trade possibilities ahead of spring training.
Souza is signed now
Always liked JJ as a Brewer, but his collapse started at the end of 2018 and in the play-offs. Then he showed up at spring training with a “tired arm”, unable to reach the mid-eighties with his fastball after being consistently in the mid-nineties throughout most of 2018. Hard to say how that happens…it was weird. Then he gets back up to around 90 mph by May, gets brought up, and basically stinks all year until they release him. I guess it’s a no-risk situation for him and the Cubs, but I’m really surprised it’s a major league deal. Hope he does well.
I read somewhere JJ had changed up his offseason workout regiment which had neglected to condition a certain muscle in his shoulder which cause his stamina to dip.
There have also been multiple reports suggesting the raised seams on the “juices” balls negatively impacted pitchers who threw cutters/sinkers. Not sure how accurate this part is but interesting nonetheless.
Throw 20 darts and you are bound to hit a couple bullseyes. I don’t mind this signing at all. They got some upside bullpen pieces signed for nothing. 2018 Jeffress was one of the best closers in baseball. Treinen got 10 million and was also atrocious in 2019
Building a bullpen is a volume game. Long term deals for relievers are foolish. There are a few closers who warrant a long term commitment, but most bullpen arms are unpredictable. There is a reason most of them aren’t starters… consistency.
Yea like 40mill for Kimbrell
Should of singed him to a long term deal, 4/15 with incentives
Is singing players allowed?
As long as you arent singing the relayed pitch signs.
One of the women from Destiny’s Child owns part of the Chicago WNBA team, so I guess that it COULD be possible…
i actualy have a very high IQ
I’ve heard this to be actualy true
THIS IS THE YEAR!!
Solid bounceback candidate if healthy.
I don’t mind this signing at all.
You’re paying the guy peanuts,
and he was lights out for Milwaukee
at one time.
Theo should be on American Pickers the bullpen addition
I love the upside here. Good for Jeffress for bagging a big league gurantee
FINALLY.
Shows that Ricketts isn’t a headass. Also, I love this deal.
I am willing to give this guy a chance but I probably would have offered him minor league with invite to spring training first and see if he would bite.
The way Ricketts is acting is ridiculous. If I remember right they bought the team for 700 mil. It is now worth well over 3 BILLION. He has made plenty of profit off Cubs fans. We can more than afford all our core and the players they need to support them for the two more years while we have them. That gives us two more years to pick another one or two off before they bust it down and rebuild it. It will not hurt the Ricketts one bit to pay the luxury tax one more year. They are just too selfish to do it. I hate I will be handing any of my cash I worked like hell for on their team but I want to watch the Cubs play.
So easy spending money that isn’t yours.
While it may seem cheapness.. I think it’s more about resetting the tax and allowing them to resign guys like Baez rizzo and maybe Bryant if he isn’t traded..if that is the case then it’s smart to be frugal one year
Could be a sneaky good pickup.
Could be a sneaky good pickup.
Not a comfortable situation, but the team has to hope for healthy, bounce-back seasons from Kimbrel, Morrow, and Jeffress; productive seasons from unproven Wick, Ryan, and Wieck; and catch lightning in a bottle with a few of Winkler, Tepera, Sadler, Megill, and Hultzen; or the bullpen will be brutal.
Honest question. If they catch lightning in a bottle with all three of Kimbrel, Morrow, and Jeffress that’s one of the best 7-9 right? I don’t think it will happen, but if the stars align, that’s a pretty solid bullpen. I can hope, right?
More likely that they catch lightning with Kimbrel, Wick and Wieck.
In today’s game, a good team needs 5-7 quality arms in the pen who can be trusted in competitive games. I’m having a hard time identifying those 5-7 quality arms on the cubs who can be trusted.