Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
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Steve is showing his anti-Cubs bias in this chat.
As a part time Cubs fan, no bias. They’re just not going to do much.
I can probably think of 10 worse free agent signings/extensions than Heyward:
Josh Hamilton
Prince Fielder
Chris Davis
Homer Bailey
Jason Bay
Rusney Castillo
Carl Crawford
Jacoby ellsbury
Yonies cespedes
Ryan Howard
Chan ho park
Pablo Sandoval
BJ Upton
Veron wells
Jordan Zimmerman….
How many is that?
BJ Upton (5/75.25) is worse than Heyward’s deal. Upton never had positive WAR value in the 2 seasons he was in an ATL uni (before being shipped off with Kimbrel to SD). So bad he had to change his name. Only good that came from that was the comp balance selection where we selected Austin Riley. To this day, Upton has the franchise record for largest FA contract. We should thank him for being so gun shy, though not enough to extend an offer to Ozuna.
Mike Hampton?
I think what Steve meant was the total value of Heyward’s production minus the value of the contract. The Cubs probably lost $100 million. Not many contracts are even over $100 million.
Chris Davis looks like the worst of them.
Denny Neagle
Jason Schmidt
Andruw Jones
Jack Clark
Russ Ortiz
Gil Meche
Mo Vaughn
Wei-Yin Chen
Candidates to be added……
Kris Bryant ?
Javier Baez looks like a disaster also
Cubs have two starters meet year? Thompson 9-5 with 3.36 e.r.a. Not to shabby. As to heyward contract keeping cubs from winning another . 2017 Astros 2018 Red Sox 2019 nats 2020 dodgers and 2021 braves who has won two? Dodgers since 2016 machado Darvish scherzer turner Bauer list goes on and haven’t won a 162 game ship.
The Bauer contract will go down as worst all time but the dodgers won’t have to pay hardly any of it.
Guys who never play can’t affect the team on the field in a negative way.
Whereas a guy like Chris Davis who played how many seasons where he was the worst player or one of the worst players in mlb.
Chris Davis contract was multiple times worst then Trevor Bauer even if Bauer never pitches again and it’s not even close.
By the time Davis was becoming a historic liability Baltimore was in a position where they were better off losing more anyways. You also can’t quantify the PR aspect of Bauer and how it could demoralize teammates.
Hosmer.
With Heyward, some Cubs fans think the Cub never make mistakes. The worst free agent signing in history.
Not even close.
Thanks for answering my question in the chat. I appreciate the expert opinion.
Cubs have Stroman, Steele, Thompson, and Hendricks for next season.
Yan Gomes and P.J. Higgins will probably be the Catchers
Franmil Reyes could be the DH next season depending on how the rest of this seaaon plays out
Christopher Morel has been solid in CF
They probably could use a better option at 1B than Rivas/Schwindel but its not like First Baseman can’t be had relatively inexpensively
Looking back at PJ’s stats recently has had me shocked at how under the radar that dude is. He’s one of the more underrated prospects/rookies in the game.
Morel is not the solution for Center Field. His bat plays but his defense in center, at least thus far, has been awful. It is worth noting however that Morel had a grand total of 52 games in CF prior to this season so maybe with consistent playing time his defense can improve in center but I don’t see it happening.
The Cubs have a glaring need to either improve first base or third base (shifting Wisdom to first) but I also do not think the Cubs can have Wisdom and Reyes in the same line up. The Cubs do have Matt Mervis who is killing it in the minors this season and has seen a promotion from south bend all the way up to Iowa.
A lot of “writers” tend to write off Hendricks but Hendricks has been lights out when Gomes has caught him while with WilCo, their appears to be some type of disconnect.
The Cubs have a ton of pitching prospects on the way and writers/fans have seemed to have forgotten about Alzolay. The Cubs may go out and get another starter but a rotation of Stroman, Steele, Thompson, Hendricks with Alzolay, Kilian, Wicks, Hertz, Brown and Wesneski fighting for a rotation spot doesn’t look horrible.
The pen again looks pretty deep with Alzolay as a piece and Rodriguez, Roberts and Huer due back.
Cubs have Stroman, Steele, Thompson, and Hendricks for next season
Yan Gomes and P.J. Higgins will likely be the Catchers
Franmil Reyes may be the DH depending how the rest of this season goes
Christopher Morel has look decent in CF
They probably do need a better option at 1B than Rivas/Schwindel but it’s not like First Baseman are hard to find relatively inexpensively
Heyward. Worst contract in MLB history.