The Cubs have had a busy offseason, signing seven players to big league free agent deals. Most of the attention has been on the position player side, with Dansby Swanson, Cody Bellinger, Trey Mancini, Tucker Barnhart and Eric Hosmer added to the lineup. Chicago also signed Jameson Taillon to a four-year contract to fortify the rotation.
They’ve been rather quiet with regards to the bullpen, however. Chicago inked Brad Boxberger to a modest $2.8MM guarantee in December. They’ve claimed hard-throwing Julian Merryweather off waivers from the Blue Jays. Otherwise, it’s been minor league deals to backfill a relief corps that saw the departures of David Robertson, Chris Martin and Mychal Givens at last year’s trade deadline.
It seems an addition to the later innings could be on the horizon. Patrick Mooney of the Athletic writes the organization is hopeful of bringing in another reliever before pitchers and catchers hold their first spring workouts next week. It isn’t clear which players are under consideration or the specific odds of Chicago pushing a deal across the finish line, though it’s notable the front office doesn’t appear to be done with Spring Training near.
A left-handed addition would be an ideal fit on paper. Chicago has just one southpaw reliever, Brandon Hughes, on the 40-man roster. He had a solid rookie season and should be in the MLB bullpen, though there’s room for another addition. Non-roster invitees Ryan Borucki, Eric Stout, Anthony Kay and Roenis Elías currently stand as the top options to join Hughes if the front office wants to give David Ross a second southpaw.
Last month, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic listed the Cubs among a third of the league that was exploring the market for left-handed bullpen help. That subset of free agency has been bizarrely quiet since Taylor Rogers signed a three-year deal with the Giants shortly after Christmas. Andrew Chafin, Matt Moore and Will Smith are among the top remaining free agents at any position, while former stars Zack Britton and Brad Hand are available beyond that trio.
Of course, the Cubs don’t have to look exclusively at the left-handed market — even if that is the stronger group overall. Chicago could certainly accommodate a right-hander to join Boxberger, Adbert Alzolay and perhaps Merryweather or Rowan Wick in the middle to late innings. Michael Fulmer, Jeff Hoffman and Corey Knebel are among a number of still-unsigned options from the right side.
Still no action with the lefties? Hand, Chafin and Moore are all still available.. right?
Still doesn’t make sense. Mets need to grab one of these guys asap. Preferably Chafin.
I’m thinking Chafin is what’s holding up the market. His camp sees this as an opportunity to score a bigger than usual payday, because he’s a top-tier lefty bullpen option. I would assume he’s asking for $10M a year with at least 2-3 years on the deal, something obviously no one wants to offer, or otherwise he’d be signed by now. Once he signs, it’ll move rapidly. Especially w/ pitchers & catchers next week.
Brad Hand should retire. The dude hasn’t been good for about 3-4 years. Every time the Phillies brought him in during the playoffs it was cringe worthy. He was good-ish with the Padres..he’s far removed from that.
I think signing Moore is the right play here. He could even eventually be a starter if they signed him to a 2 year deal and tried to stretch him out.
I wouldn’t be opposed to adding Knebel as well. He has been up and down, but given the Cubs current right handed bullpen depth, having him wouldn’t be a bad option.
I can’t wait for people to defend Hand and say “he had a sub-3 ERA!
The dudes WHIP was 1.33
His career WHIP is 1.24
If you have that high of a WHIP as a starter, it’s not terrible, but not great. As a reliever, that number should be either right below or slightly above 1 to be dependable. He doesn’t strike guys out anymore, he has a career FIP of 3.78. Last year alone was 3.93 – over a full run higher than his actual ERA.
Don’t think anyone will argue with you that he is still a really strong high leverage option, but as long as a club will pay him a 7 figure salary, retirement can wait. Being a LHP also helps hang around to squeeze every last drop.
He’s good not great and good may be strong but he’s a better than average LHRP and teams pay for that
You know I was really looking forward to the Cubs Iowa team having a bunch of Home Grown prospects for a change instead of the usual collection of D-Bags and rejects the Cubs get. So now I look at the Iowa roster and what do I see? The usual collection of D-Bags and rejects the Cubs usually sign. I’m depressed. Every year the Cubs sign 10 LH P’s that are long shots and none ever pan out. I’d think they’d learn, Especially since some of their best prospects are LH P’s.
Just sign Chafin already.
Agreed. Pay the man. He’s earned it already. Plus, he was pretty well liked by Cubs fans.
He will be signed when a top tier team has a significant bullpen injury in spring training and then the others will quickly follow.
Matt Moore actually had a much better season than Chafin last year. I’m thinking that Moore would come cheaper than Chafin too since Moore has only pitched exclusively from the bullpen for one year vs. Chafin who has a much longer track record of success out of the pen. Cubs fans should be happy with either a Moore or Chafin signing as they are clearly the best 2 lefties remaining. I’d steer clear of Britton as he really tanked last season.
Britton’s 2021 record and he’s only just coming back from TJS are far better reasons to stay away. His 2022 was just a few outings at the end of the season..
Moore has command issues and greatly outperformed his expected ERA (FIP). Chafin has good K/BB rates.
Aside from the remaining free agents, the Cubs might also bolster their bullpen via the trade route. Displaced 2B Nick Madrigal is a potential pawn for a quality reliever.
I was thinking the same thing. I keep reading they’re gonna try him at third base, (besides a frontline starter, it’s their biggest need), but he has zero power and a second base arm. They’d also be trading low on him after his lame ’22. They also have some depth in the farm system now so maybe they package him…
Plenty of guys out there still that will help a bullpen.
I’ve been shouting that at my team for weeks, but the kid GM continues to sit on his hands instead of helping the young pitchers.
I still think Chafin ends up back with the Tigers if no one gives him the big deal he is looking for. I think his market is more limited than we think by his desire to be close to home in Ohio. That was supposedly one of the big reasons he signed with Detroit last year. Would love to see him with the Tigers for the next few years as the veteran anchor of the bullpen and they are short on lefties.
I’m calling it. There making it far this season
I dont see the Cubs being good this year. I know people are excited, but Swanson is a good player, but not a superstar. Bellinger is awful and has been for years.
Define good? A game or two or three above or below .500… Probably. Bellinger doesn’t need to be MVP Bellinger to make this team better. Bellinger of ’22 makes this team better as their CF play was horrible. Swanson doesn’t need to be a superstar. Hoerner’s move to 2nd makes the team considerably better because 2nd was below average for the Cubs in ’22. Mancini/Mervis/Wisdom/Hosmer don’t need to be great to improve the team. Cubs 1st base play had around 75 +wRC in ’22 and their DH was something like 89 +wRC.
I believe all 5 opening day rotation starters were on the DL during the 1st half of the season. Cubs led the league with 17 pitchers making starts. 14 pitchers had multiple starts. Stroman missed 7 starts, Steele 8, Smyly 10, Hendricks 16, Miley 24.
I highly doubt they are playoff competitive, but they should be much more competitive than last year.
Define good. If u can’t compete in the NL central -you suck !
^This^
Maybe the market will open a bit when pitchers and catchers report and teams can open places on the 40 man roster with transfers to the 60-day IL.
I still see it as these guys have already made deals with where they want to go. Just because there aren’t any 40 man spots available, Their agents are still free to negotiate. There are probably handshake agreements that have been made. Personally I don’t know what the Cubs are waiting for as they have 5 2B on the roster and McKinstry is the logical choice for the DFA. He’s out of options AND bad so I don’t see the holdup as to which of those relievers they want. Nobody else will take him and invite him ST if you must but he’d be no loss either way. As far as these guys go, none of them are rehabbing injuries as far as I know so they’re all just going through their normal offseasons so it won’t take much to get them in camp.
I agree. I think teams are waiting until they can place players on the 60 day IL to open up 40 man spots. Once that option is available, we will see signings
I have to believe that the agents for Chafin etc are looking for too many years and all of MLB has seen the disaster around relievers getting 3-4 year deals. Makes no sense for the Cubs to spend the $$’s and they missed out on the Gregory Soto trade..
Sign Chafin already. You have plenty of money, he’s a fan favorite, and he’s great in the clubhouse, what more could you want? Pay the man.
Either Chafin had an absurdly high asking price, doubtful, or Hoyer is just playing chicken, which is probably the case.
I still can’t figure out why a Chafin-Cubs reunion hasn’t happened. It’s just painful how obvious the move is, yet the Cubs don’t see it.
Maybe he’s miffed about being dealt the first time.
I’m calling it now..Cubs will sign Will Smith. I would prefer Chafin but I bet they want a one year deal. I am still happy with the offseason.
The reason the Cubs didn’t sign Chafin was that Hoyer wanted a financial buffer at the trade deadline if the Cubs are in contention. Ricketts mentioned at the CubsCon that by getting into the tax penalty they would surrender draft picks. So they signed a good relief pitcher in Fulmer with money to spare.