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rants welcome everyone to the rant it's Saturday Saturday oh it's Sunday
November 3rd um the the first weekend following Halloween my son is very
excited for the Simpsons Halloween Special that's on today and uh and so that's what we're looking forward to
today Evan nice I'm good this is also the first weekend following the World
Series and between today and yesterday because of the timing of the 2016 World
Series we get two days to celebrate the anniversary of the Cubs uh winning the greatest Championship ever in the
history of American Sports so that's pretty cool it is cool yeah I love it I always love it it it's like a bitter
sweet though right because like it was really cool to celebrate it is really cool to celebrate and fun and everything
like that but then it's also like annoying that we have to continue to celebrate something that we felt would there would be more than one
of yeah and and the fact that it was eight years ago right like it every time we
celebrate that anniversary gets farther and farther away and so do the Cubs
seemingly get farther and farther away from from returning or at least not any closer right and if you're not getting
any closer you are getting farther away and yeah so it it is and it's one of
those things too of course it was funny right um and it it came back up again obviously with it with it being the
anniversary and also you know the Dodgers were um you know reportedly had like a million people at theirs you know
and then you go back and the Cubs had like six million or whatever was like the seventh largest gathering of of humans in in recorded history um and you
know so it's a little bit different but but you know it's the Dodgers first legitimate one but second one since uh
since 2020 there since they did win in the short season and so although that that whole season like I was looking at
this today because I was writing up some stuff about the the Cardinals and trying to trade some dudes that whole 2020
season Still Remains like almost entirely blacked out to me right like I
remember it I went to I went to the game that the Cubs were eliminated uh because the Cubs as you recall were the only
team where people could even be in attendance at all because you get rooftop seats and so I got uh I got
rooftop seats courtesy of Red Bull uh which is a pretty cool little deal and but it was like the worst game ever
right the Cubs got shut out swept by the Marlins and it was just like a brutal finish to the season and so maybe
because of that I pretty much just blacked it all out but anyway that's that's well you should have and really
the beginning well wasn't the beginning of the end but it was the end of the end let's put it that yeah I mean you know
The Following Season uh obviously they traded away
everyone in 2021 I believe right yeah now we're here you know now we're here I
was in Chicago on in 2021 when they traded away
everyone and I just remember like you know a it was like all the news was just
breaking so quickly um because it was like one after another after another oh yeah and my
kids were were breaking down so quickly because it was one after the it's like
first the Rizzo then you know uh yeah had H yeah well and like yeah because
Rizzo was the first one right because he was like two days before the trade deadline or whatever like he went and
then and then that was what because Bryant got the news he flew with the team to Washington remember that they
flew to Washington and then he was like because that's when the deadline was happening I think it was it was that
afternoon or whatever and he was in uniform or at least in his warm-up stuff for BP and whatnot and got the news like
in the CT yeah in The Dugout which was just yeah they did the hug bizarre hugw watch
yeah and it was just such an odd the whole the whole thing right to kind of
look back on and you know to think that that was even then right we've said it's
eight years since they won and like that the the 21 you know we're talking that
was still five years removed from the World Series like they had another five
years and that's the part that still is baffling me right like you had all those guys still but that's where it's like
that failure to continue to and and you know again some of those
players whether it was from injuries or whatever else did not develop and improve
beyond what we saw in 2016 but the fact that they did that
with those guys who were all so young and the fact that they they had even come in and added you know whether
you're talking you darish or some other guys but they they did so in a manner
that just turned out to be unsustainable and now we're seeing sort
of this this opposite it where it's like they don't have any of those
Superstars like there's nobody on this team who you can look at and be like oh yeah you know that's that's good and
then how do you find those guys do you can you develop them but then do you have any room they don't
have a team where you could call up three or four prospects and give them
immediate playing time like they were able to in 2015 yeah and that's a problem
interesting deal you know to look at it still I'm looking at like H it's been eight years man I can't look into the
future and tell you confidently that within the next two to three years the Cubs will have a team that we could look
at in a similar fashion yeah and then it seemed like the the downfall to me for the Cubs really
started with the Jose canana trade uh you know and where they traded ceesa
away um and C turned out to be just obviously a stud and ELO Jimenez mhm or
a player that that canana came over and was not good just wasn't
good um certainly not worth the hall they traded um and and that year was
2018 right um when they went to uh Los Angeles and and lost really
lost a series that they really could have and should have won um it was what was it going into
Extra Innings and they put in um Joe Madden put who did he put bring
in a starter uh the guy from Cardinal lacky you you the 17 17 yeah yeah oh was
at 17 yeah that's right um yeah in 17 they should have won and
then 18 they traded can for canana right is that I have my dates right yeah should I again like I'm my brain is
smooth like an egg so I don't I only remember certain things that seems about right right and so it's like was when
they choked down the stretch and then lost to the Brewers in game 163 and then got shut out by the the freaking Rockies
you know in the when we had the one game Wild Card setups back then and then it
was you know the 19 they kind of fell off a cliff and then 20 they bounced back but yeah realistically I mean I you
know I look at a couple different things I I look at that so if you look at you know 17 then 18 but but when we look at
like that the the real the turning point for me I know you mentioned canana my my
big turning point was a move they failed to make which was heading into
2019 when Bryce Harper wanted to be a cub he wanted to be there and they
simply didn't put out you know there were meetings reportedly and and and I think there was there were talks but
like at that point right they had they had signed you darish the previous year
um you know they still had Jason Hayward and again a lot of people say oh those contracts were albatrosses whatever like the Cubs could have made it work
especially when Harper wanted to be there right and when you look at it now
and at the time that seemed like a whole bunch of money you know 330 million 13 years whatever but the dude is making
less money per year than Dansby Swanson over the next five years right or four years or whatever like they could have
had Harper starting in 2019 what does the trajectory look like how does that change things if they make that move and
again I think that was purely on ownership because Theo Epstein and I I won't I shouldn't be bitching about this
at all so I'll I'll shut up pretty quickly but Epstein effectively made it sound like they would have the
flexibility to go and get Harper I feel like the goalpost got moved on him at
that point and and that to me is when we really saw the degradation of this club
in to what it's become and what it's now trying to dig back out of because at that point they made a very conscious
decision to not get Bryce Harper and I I just think if you add that Superstar
right there right like do they do they win more World Series I don't know but I
think that would at least show that willingness it would have brought more people around it would have allowed them to maybe keep some of those other guys
um and and to have another you know a Bonafide Superstar to kind of help him well into the future but alas um you
know he's in Philly the Cubs are without a star and you know we'll deal with
whatever it's kind of it's it's like almost linear though like I'm looking at it kind of just jotted some notes down
here so in 2017 uh when the Cubs brought in John Lackey in that extra innings game really
felt like a failure and he gave up a the game-winning home run was that a Turner Justin Turner hit the home run against
Justin Turner and Lackey wasn't strong that year I mean he was like kind of on and off
and he was he he just it just that's that wasn't the right time to bring him in so that was that was a mistake 2018
the canana trade 2019 Harper
2020 uh Kyle schwarber and non- tendering Kyle
schwarber yeah and so that's pretty linear yeah that's there's a few other
things that happened and then the 21 we traded every the Cubs traded everyone away yeah and I mean and and you know
think about that and it's it's kind of ironic that then the the two guys there you know the the things the moves they
didn't make or the ones that they effectively let walk away or or you know in one way or another both ended up in
Philly right and it's I I wrote something up the other day you know just and it kind of just around um Juan stto
who you know the Cubs are are unlikely to pursue which I know like a lot of people get upset about this and and
somebody was like even trying to push back on me about it it's like I think it's going to end up being like an Otani
situation where it it didn't matter what the Cubs were gonna offer because he was never going to sign anywhere other than
LA right and I think I think stto wants to stay in New York whether it's the Yankees or the Mets I think he just
prefers the East Coast that's what all the reports seem to be I know there's stuff about Toronto maybe offering the
Dodgers could get in but but the whole thing with that too again the reporting is like they want to gauge whether or not he would even come to LA and he may
not um but I I I don't think it even matters right because the Cubs could
offer whatever some astronomical figure at least two other teams out there could
offer the same and if you look at again a lot of people like to dump on the Mets myself included but as the roster is
currently set up they're much more competitive you maybe depending on what happens with Lonzo or whatever but
you've got an owner who is the richest in all of baseball who's clearly willing to spend money right the Yankees are
clearly set up to be more competitive the Dodgers are clearly set up to be more competitive if you have a dude who wants to win and you give him those you
know the two New York teams the Dodgers and the Cubs which of those is he gonna be able to walk into and know that he
can win immediately it ain't the Cubs like they're a distant fourth on that list to me you know so people like he
could be the man here it's like um yeah dude he went to New York and played behind judge where he he clearly wasn't
the man I mean I he he's played behind Harper you know when he when he first came up now when they won Harper was
gone and Soto was kind of the the man there but he played in San Diego where he had multiple Superstar level players
so I don't think he's got anything to do with that yeah that's the problem with Soto is stto is kind of like keys that
you add to a team that's already got power right like and and I think that's
why he did so much better with the Yankees than he's done with the Padres than he did with the
Padres um you know and he did well with Washington to your point he had some protection there like you put him in the
Cubs lineup and he still there's still no protection for him necessarily right like who's the protection for him right
and that's you know and that's same thing and and I you know I can respect some people like there's a lot of folks who want him in ch I want yeah do I want
the Cubs to give him 600 700 million whatever it is because I mean it's not
my money and especially if they can defer it you know the present value makes makes it way actually way way
lower like they could potentially get him for something in the neighborhood of 43 million AAP to me that's a no-brainer
but they still have a lot of work to do like put him on this Cub's roster right now it's still not nearly as good as the
two teams we just saw in the World Series exactly right like that's I mean look at they judge and stto and Stanton
back the CBS don't have anybody any of yeah and they still lost to a team that has mie Betts and show Otani
and Freddy Freeman who went just absolutely insane with like six straight homers so it's like or six straight
games with homers again the Cubs have no one who's close to the level of bets
Freeman or Otani and the Dodgers have all three of those guys right so it's like yeah you can get sto and you can
pay him all that but you still got a lot of other work to do and the flexibility
to do that was just decreased by the fact that Cody Bellinger opted back in and so you know I as as strange as this
sounds they're probably better off you know not being able to get stto because
if they did you know a lot of people are like oh now the Bellinger's back rickets won't spend okay well that's foolish I
think but if they were to commit you know the largest contract in club
history you know three times more than what they've ever paid anybody with him I think that would severely limit their
ability to go out and get other guys so if there's a shot at it um but I think
they're gonna have to be very very open or very very active in the trade market because they just really it's tough for
me to see where they go from here and how they can make those improvements but they're going to have to continue to add
which is going to be very tough because there's not a whole lot of room to do that at this point so um it's going to
be an interesting winter that's for sure I hope well I hope I should say I hope it's interesting it's kind of has to be
like it has to be I mean and the Cubs can't value their way into the world
series I mean if there's anything we we've we saw in this world series and to your point of all the Superstar players
on both teams is like you there's when was the last time you had a team that
kind of had value players uh that won the World Series uh
I mean I'm looking at the list here I the Nationals maybe but they didn't
really right they that was a solid team with a lot of really good players I maybe well and they had you know there
they they did it a lot of that was with pitching right because they had Scherer at his prime they had Steven strawberg
in his prime and then um now I can't even remember for the life of me who their number three was oh my goodness
it's killing me former Diamondbacks pitcher but anyway but they had like three of the top five NL sa young vote
Getters right so it's like that that and then you know stto and some decent dudes
on the on the roster otherwise in the lineup they were able to kind of pitch their way there I would say like you
know hey the Diamondbacks recently right like they kind of valued their way in there I mean they had some some stars
and and obviously um Corbin Carroll you know got a big extension from them but but they didn't win
yeah they they they got there um you know and they got beat by a team that paid a ton of money for a bunch of free
agents right and yeah you know you look up and down like when I when I looked at this and I didn't look at every single
team but the Cubs right now have one player with the nine figure deal right that's Dan B Swanson nobody else even
close I mean I guess Cody Bellinger at at 80 million possible but that's still not close to nine figures you look at
like the Phillies and Dodgers I think have six a piece you know the Mets have like four four or five the Yankees have four or five um the Padres have several
right like these teams don't just sign one big money player and then say cool
we'll surround You by value based guys and go with that right like no it's you keep adding good players that's the way
this works right like you you can luck into it one season at a time again like
the Diamondbacks right and that's kind of the thing or you look at look at the Royals right do we or the or the
Guardians do we trust those teams I I would be hard pressed to even see a scenario in which the Guardians are
still as competitive next year as what they were yeah right or the Royals like that you you get flashes in the pan but
if you go out and sign legit and for all his struggles like Dans B Swanson ended up leading the club in war he his now a
lot of that's based defensively but if his offense if he hadn't struggled so badly in the first half like his second
half good but yeah yeah his first half was terrible his second half was really good you know
similar to Pete Crow Armstrong and that's you know one of the one of the issues people brought up like
I looked at it and then I had some guy who I I think is like maybe not even I don't even know he's the young guy said
something to be like son if that's your understanding well I'm like first of all buddy I'm I'm like I'm probably twice your age listen Maybe not call me son
but you know I I'm like I'm not presenting War as a as a direct
correlation of like this is how many wins this is worth but where I'm looking at it is and we talked about this on our
last episode this idea that the Cubs have very finite room to outperform
expectations right and and when you look at the two guys who you could on that roster the only two that you could
reasonably see reaching six War are Swanson and PCA the only two like I I
don't think anybody else you could reasonably project for even five or more and the problem with that is that
neither of them achieves that value through offense alone right that's
largely defensive based take away the gloves and now you're talking about very
you know mediocre is like okay League average-ish slightly above offensive
producers maybe and so they're in lines of the problem you're looking at a team that as of right now is
constructed like some team in the 80s right where the defense up the middle I mean you got gold Glovers second base
short stop and in center but it's so based on defense the off like niiko
Horner is never gonna hit for any power PCA is gonna he's got some pop but it's limited Dan B Swanson if he gets 20 home
runs that would be a pretty like a really not a big surprise but like that
would be a huge value ad if that's the case so that's like how teams got built in the 80s but those teams also had
tremendous power at all the corners the don't have much power at all yeah and and you gota have the dominant pitching
and that's that's a problem and so you've got Bellinger exercises 27.5
million player option for 2025 I think that caught a lot of people off guard because most of the pundits
were saying that uh the the word was he was actually going to opt out and then
he didn't and man that that tells you a lot because it's like I mean it I mean
when you look at that decision from a just from Cody Bellinger's perspective right I mean it makes me feel like he's
either gonna have a an outstanding year in 2025 you know I mean maybe he's thinking
you know what it it it'll be better than 2024 right and so maybe he's thinking
that's a year to build off of versus 2024 where he was down uh versus 2023
and so maybe he's thinking he pops back up in 2025 and shows a little bit more power and and it gets his average back
up there but if that doesn't happen and
he's right around where he was in 2024 he's opting in again for
2026 yeah and so that's that's something that the Cubs have to take into consideration and to your point like as
we you know as as we go through all these different scenarios and and options for the Cubs that's that's a big
kind of pole in the tent there that that is restrictive because a you have to have
Bellinger on the roster obviously uh you've got to pay him 27 a half million dollar and then what that's doing is
it's blocking uh a lot of other players and so the point there is is that the Cubs
are really in a situation where like in order really improve the power on the
team they're going to have they don't have that in the minor league system that's visible at least and obvious and
they don't have that on the team and so what they're going to have to do is they're going to have to pull it in from
trades and it's like man if the Cubs don't pull any like substantive trades
in this offseason and it's kind of like last offseason where it was like nothing really happened and really the last many
off Seasons actually with the exception of Bellinger um you know it feels like the
Cubs that their trajectory is just kind of like status quo right it's like how do you get to that next
level without without pulling off some pretty big trades yeah I mean they and
they kind of have to right because who if you look at their position players who's gone nobody's
gone the entire the entire roster of main everyday position players is all
back y with Bellinger coming back right um and you know do they upgrade at
backup catcher or you know get somebody to be the at least the time Shar or the
primary and Miguel lay as a backup like okay maybe but like who are you getting is that player does the player
even exist who all of a sudden elevates that tremendously no a little bit better
you know but it's not like we're talking about Mike Patza being out there and and hitting 50 bombs you know um a lot of
people are talking about you've got bios who's tearing it up yeah in the AFL but
he can't really catch it's the only problem exactly and your DH and now that you've got
Bellinger you know I mean yeah Suzuki's got a DH Suzuki the D now some people
said Suzuki's not great in right field anyways no and that and that's fine but then the other thing this is another one
that I've heard is like okay we trade Herer put Bellinger at first move Bush
to second and then have Casey play right field okay well now you've downgraded
your defense like I I don't Casey's gotten better but I don't expect him to be I like maybe he'll be as good as
Suzuki was um but like Bush turned himself into a gold glove first baseman
Bellinger is very good over there so that's not much but then you're talking about one of the best defensive second baseman in baseball and niik horer who
got screwed out of the the Gold Glove voting this year but like Bush isn't going to be as good of a defensive
player as Herer was now you're downgrading that you're not necessarily improving your power because I mean yeah
would it be great like does Casey have 60 grade power potential yes but can you reasonably expect that out of a rookie
is he going to produce better out there then they're like well you could just you know and then but then what do you
do with Matt Shaw well you can play him at third okay but is his defense at third where it's it's not expected to be
great so are we talking about another Morel situation defensively right he's
not going to be as good defensively is isach paradus even though we saw a lot of struggles from him and then
offensively I I still want them to move paradus at this point because I think like if you look at it for him to reach
kind of that four War potential even like four to for he's got to hit 35 homers and I am I was not sold on that
trade yeah from the start I didn't like it I still don't really like it and and I think he can be fine he can be a
decent player but with his super super pull heavy
approach in a ballpark that doesn't play very well for that particularly with the
wind doing what it's done um and who knows that you know the environment could shift a little bit next year maybe
the changes but unless he learns to go Oppo and use those gaps more I just don't see how there's any way that
paradus actually reaches kind of where he was able to to be with the Rays I ju
I just don't see it so I would I rather have them upgrade with Shaw sure but what do you do with triantos what do
you do with alcantra what do you where where are these guys going to go I've said all along that multiple of their
top six are going to have to be traded like BOS might be one because where's he gonna play he's like 5 foot n and 260
pounds that do you want a five foot n first baseman I mean like I joked about the
guy who said Matt Shaw was too short to play or I'm sorry um uh Michael Bush was too short to play
first base um and so B sto certainly is but he can't be a major league catcher next year you can't put him at first he
can be a DH but then we're like the the construction of the current MLB
roster and the spots of their current top prospects are very much to me in
misalignment right now well they're kind of in like a reverse situation where they were in and 2021 when they traded
everyone away right and they got all these prospects who were like prospects
and they weren't anywhere near MLB ready and now it's it's different because now you do have if you want to call them
prospects still that's fine but they're they're they're players that are pretty much MLB ready right I mean they need to
be playing in the major leagues and they've got a whole bunch of them as you just named and so it's it's like but you
look at the current Rost and you've got it filled with other players it's like something's going to
have to give my my concern and and my biggest worry is that Jed makes trades
that are bad because the Cubs have I'm trying to think of like okay they made
they made good I guess they made good trades it's hard to say like you know what they what they got for for all the
players that they traded away in 2021 I we can go back and look at every single one of them um
the PCA deal should end up being way better like that's the one yeah theas trade they got I mean they got Kevin
alcantra definitely better yeah but but I mean like what you know the the Bryant
deal got him Canario and and Caleb Killian but like Canario is done where
where's he gonna he's an outfielder who now isn't just behind the three guys who were there or four or five if we put in
talkman at the major league level he not even in their top 30 prospects anymore I don't believe so he's buried behind at
least two other young outfielders like he's going to get guy like that but he's got a high ceiling as Velasquez he does
they gotta move him he has to tr problem is you're gonna have to trade him for next to nothing you're never gonna get
the value for a guy like Canario they wanted to tr before got yeah if he
hadn't gotten hurt a couple Winters ago they would have moved him and then they got screwed they couldn't trade him because he was rehabbing right and then
and then his performance kind of dropped off a little bit and strikeouts went way up and the poers down a little and he was hurt again last year so now you're
still like and that is my fear right how many times we see like you're trying to
wait and wait and wait until the value is right you can move these guys at a premium but if you wait too long you end
up screwing yourself like something bad can happen and now you're left with nothing and I and I just I fear that
they are so worried that they're going to trade one of these D and I'm oversimplifying and I'm I'm I don't
think Jed Hoyer stays up at night like freaking out that he's going to trade a dude who's going to become an All-Star immediately but I do think and this we
go back to threading the needle Hoyer wants to thread that needle so badly that it's like these two extremes
either you flip a guy you get crap in return and that guy gets traded away and
becomes a star or you hold on to these prospects for so long and you don't have any room for them in Chicago and then
they play their way out of their value in the miners and now you can't move them for anything right and so now
you're left with nothing it's this paralysis by analysis I just I'm that to me is going to be what
Jed Hoyer does with those top six prospects this off season is going to to
tell to me and maybe I'm I'm being a little bit hyperbolic here but I think that's going to determine the Cubs
trajectory for the next three to five years well and the Cubs
it it it kind of seemed like they've they've missed big time because when they traded away their core and they got
all these prospects and and then they didn't really do anything with them they just
kind of let them develop and and stew right and and and and now we're in a
situation where it's like all right we need people on the major league roster you've got people who are blocked you've
got if you're a GM from another organization who wants to trade for somebody that's in the Cub system you're
saying like Canario is a good example you're saying you can go get him on the value no doubt about it uh because what
else are the Cubs going to do I mean the only way that the the Cubs either have to trade somebody that's in front of Canario or they have to trade Canario
for a deal and if you look at who the Cubs have traded the trades the Cubs
have made over the last few years they haven't gotten any impact players what they got Carlos Guzman or they traded
Guzman for uh uh mckinstry and they got had mckinstry and they traded him and
then they had they traded for candelario for hers and M and you know they they've done these things they've done these
trades but they haven't gotten anybody impactful when it was the last impactful trade the Cubs
made I mean you know the the bush trade was decent but we don't even know what's
going to happen with him yet like he's a good player but yeah but like you said I mean as far as truly being impactful I
mean I would say the if PCA continues to develop the way I believe he will than
than that moving jav bayas for him like again I talked about him being probably the and possibly in the entire system
and the entire organization and that's where I look at it like he might be the only one capable of of six War type
output now you know again that's where somebody got pissy with me I'm like obviously you didn't the rest of the
thread here buddy because I laid this all out but he he could be you know perennial
gold Glover so I I would say that but outside of it and and what I go back to though is
and because they've made a lot of kind of safe deals but that's the problem is like you they they moved uh Darvish and
Victor caratini to the Padres I think Casey's the only one left from that deal who's even still in the
organization maybe even in professional baseball right he's still not up um you
know we just mentioned it like Canario has has looked good in in flashes
Killian has never been able to put it together at the highest level that was a Bryant deal and then um alcantra was the
uh was the Rizzo deal right so I mean there again he could be a dude but you
know we looked at like when it when the news broke we were on on our show when they traded Scotty fros for Hayden
wisneski that looked like it could be good at first but wisneski is never never been able to put it together
consistently um you know I mean they they've had some good moves I I think
that at least even though I'm not a huge fan of it at least the paradus move and
and trading Chris Morel and doing all that like it was an aggressive move by Hoyer but I don't think that that's
something that even if he hits his upside that ESO parus I I don't think could be a true impact player so yeah
like yeah and one people keep talking about is Vlad Guerrero Jr can you go out and get him that continues to stand out
to me as like the one obvious move they might be able to make unless
it's like Brent Rooker that's another one that people are looking at you know are there some dudes out there that the
Cubs could go get like but but again I don't do you trust
just flat out ask it I won't say it I said do you trust Jed Hoyer to go out and make it's probably have to be like
two aggressive trades that like are super
you know super high risk we're talking about maybe moving at least one or two of those top prospects and probably a
major league player in order to get somebody who at least from a potential standpoint
marketly improves a roster do you believe Hoyer has the balls The Moxy to
do that the skill no I don't and I mean the trades the the moves that that Hoyer has
made uh since he took over really feel more like the moves the Cubs should have
been Mak making back when they had the core in place like the moves the players that that the Cubs have have gotten and
Acquired and uh since you know 20121 basically really are players that you
add to a core right like this is the thing that was missing that when the
Cubs had the core in place after 2016 that never could happen right like
they just made bad trades like you know I mentioned the canana trade they just couldn't get the right pieces to add to
the core where they needed to kind of plug but now they're what they're doing
is they're doing the thing that they should have done when they had the core but they don't have a core and so if
there's one thing that Warrior has shown us it's that he he knows prospects and he can trade for prospects and when I
say a prospect I'm talking about somebody who's two to three years away from the major leagues and and he he can do that but
you know I mean the parus deal is a perfect example like that just didn't feel right from the very beginning and
and and yeah like he came on you know the last month he played a lot better we
don't know if he's gonna if he's that same guy for for the entire season next year then then that'd be great and maybe
it works out but it's still not a guy that's that's like changing your team
into a championship caliber team and so to your point yeah I mean that's kind of
where we are right now right like we've got a bunch of uh complimentary pieces to what could be a championship team but
we don't have a core and and and that's what we're talking about here right it's the Cubs need to go out and get the
because really what is the core if you look at the team right now and you were to say the core and the of course
basically PCA maybe Michael Bush and all the guys in the
miners yeah I mean if you're looking at it long term although you know I mean
four years would be one of those guys but yeah he's only signed for another two years right I mean you know
Swanson's got to be there but but that's I guess the other so the other issue is right like if you if you look
back you look at that 2015 team where they were able to bring up Bryant and then they brought up Russell and then
they brought up schwarber right they were able to do that because they had
the veteran leadership you know Rizzo had already established himself you had Ben zis in there um you had Dexter
Fowler out in center right you you you get some of these guys you had John
Lester um you know you had David Ross like there were a bunch of these veterans many of whom were still very
very good right and you were able to sort of bring these dudes up and SCH
came you know later in the year when they were kind of able to make that work but you could have a
team at which right you could and and you know Javi came up along along with
those guys right you were able to bring these young guys in because he had a few
spots where it's like okay there was clearly a potential to make an upgrade
you know Mike ult started the season as the third baseman and uh interesting story because I'm still I'm actually
I've been in communication with Michael very recently because ran into him in a bar I ran into into a bar in Mesa in uh
in 2015 and uh and now he works in sales for petero which is a like a a Youth
Development player performance app and uh and so um yeah so like and we we use
that through my son's uh travel organization and and I've written up a couple of stories for him on Cubs
Insider and then and uh and then Mike followed me and I know some of the guys who work over there anyway weird that
we've been connected there but like that was a clear potential to upgrade with KB
coming up but the problem that they're in and and this is this is what we keep coming back to right they have a roster
filled with good not great players every every single spot every spot is filled
with good not great players and so there is nowhere they committed to right
they're all under contract you know um you know for for Beyond this year at
none of those spots can you definitively say right oh Matt Shaw is an
obvious upgrade over you know insert name here is it Herer is it paradus
whatever or that Owen Casey is an obvious upgrade because they're not like in potential wise and I'm really high on
Matt Shaw but if we're talking about a team that needs needs to go and win right now different story if we're
talking three years ago we're not we're talking about a team that has won 83 games twice in a row which mediocre is
it is at least above 500 that truly needs to win next year what spot on the
roster right now can you look at and say if I insert Prospect X from the top of
the rankings over current MLB player y
it's going to yield a better team and I don't think you can reasonably do that anywhere and this season and that's the
problem problem with the construction of this roster and what was the
vision that Jed Hoyer had when he was
constructing this roster because to your point right I mean you look at se Suzuki
right what he he got three more two more two three more years something like that two more yeah uh you You' got Bellinger
who just opted in is probably going to opt in again the following TR yeah should might opinion Suzuki has
a no trade clause you got Ian hap that has a no trade clause right you signed Dan B Swanson and so to a multi-year
deal and so what was the vision right when you when when Hoyer was putting
this roster together was he he had to be thinking this was a roster that was going to
be the team right that that got to the playoffs that but but then like was he
discounting all of the the players he had traded the core away for like you
know all the players in the minor leagues was was he did he forget about that because it kind of seems like he he
he kind of like like he dropped the ball there right like it to to your point like the roster were kind of stuck with
a team here that the Cubs are committed to that you're going to have to trade away and there's multiple guys with no
trade Clauses and then you've got all these players that you've developed that that this this is around the time that
you could have anticipated them coming up so I guess what was he thinking well
that and that's I there's a I think a couple different angles to it right like one is that I and and this goes back to the
the thing I keep looking at is that I feel like the the search for
Value right has overridden Ju Just like okay if I go to
the grocery store right and I'm looking around and uh you know it could be just
about anything it could be cereal it could be pasta it could be cheese whatever right like I've got a lot of
options when I go in there I could buy the the more expensive name brand like I could get the the fresh pasta you know
or I could buy oh hey the generic store brand is on sale and so I'm going to buy that because I need pasta I'm going to
cook it I'm going to put sauce on it whatever is there really a difference and for all intents and purposes there's
really not if I'm just making a meal for my family on a Thursday night or something but if I'm having company over
if I'm expecting to put together a truly great meal I'm going to have to get the
more expensive ingredients because they truly are better right versus just what I'm going to feed my
kids the Hoyer has assembled a roster that is Thursday night dinner at home
with the family more like Tuesday night but yeah but like it's fine like I said it's it's
good they can win games and if they actually at times they they look fun to
watch but they are not going to be able to go up against these the best teams
over the course of the season and certainly into the playoffs and I but but I think that's what it comes down to is he the only reason they ended up with
sha imanaga is because his asking price ended up being like half of what everybody projected people thought he
was gonna get $100 million Cody Bellinger initially the rumors were that he wanted 200 million I feel like Hoyer
ended up buying buying ended up signing him because it appeared to be a great
value relative to what it should have looked like Horner on an extension that's a deal uh Swanson even though
it's the second largest contract they've ever signed as an organization was the fourth rated shortstop in that market
and signed for much less than any of the other three so it's more about the value of the deal perceived than it is the
actual deal itself and that's where I feel like you know he he stockpiled all
this stuff right it's like like a hoarder or like somebody going through the uh whatever and just and just
picking up stuff that he does necessarily need but it's a good deal so
he's buying it and then he's stuck with a roster that he can't move around and
to me that that circles us back to rickets right and and so the real question here is is this rickets saying
listen you got to go get the best value you can I I don't believe it is because they ended up over the uh the threshold
uh for the the salary cap threshold and then so I mean they're spending money they're just not spending
it intelligently and the funny thing is is for the past three plus years all
we've heard about is we want to spend intelligently and yet you look at the roster you're like you're over the cap
and you guys have one what they win 86 games for the second year in a row 833
and so it it's like no you said you've said you've told us that you want to
spend intelligently and look you've got an 83 win team two years in a row you're stuck with a roster full of guys you're
committed to several with uh no trade Clauses you're over the cap I mean that
is actually the definition of not spending yeah and that's what I saying
you'd be better off in a lot of cases and that's why again you'd be better off
having a a Bryce Harper or you know insert Superstar here a guy who you're paying a ton of money
to because then you know you have that higher level of performance right you
you're paying for better better production you know more
Marquee face and name and and endorsements and things like that yeah and but I guess you know again my the
the part where I just keep running into a wall right is is kind of what we were
just talking about earlier and I don't mean to belabor it but it's like you look at this and you say they have to upgrade this this is the other the other
fun thing was like I had a thread about this so it's was like you make it sound like it's so easy like it's just all I'm
like no I'm not saying it's easy I'm saying it's necessary they have to get better they have to find upgrade players
but how because again they've got these top prospects these guys we really think could be very good
but the the issue is the timeline if again like I said earlier if we were
looking at say 2026 is when they want to be competitive
27 then be fine with figuring out ways to move some of these guys bringing up the Young Dudes let them struggle let
them see you know sink or swim figure out where they need to be but if you're trying to turn this into a 90 win team
this next season 2025 how are you doing that like can you
trust that you can slot because like you said the prospects are ready mois spy
steros does not need more time at Triple A to figure it out Matt Shaw does not need more time Owen Casey doesn't need
more time we already saw Contra up that was because he was already on the 40-man roster like Kade Horton if he's healthy
and I have serious questions about that as I shared on the last pod
but what are you doing with those guys because they don't need more time in the miners but as I noted earlier you also
can't put them in and say I guarantee this player is gonna be better than the guy he replaces because as you know
rookies don't always just come up as as many people suddenly you know thought PCA was a bust because he didn't you
know win a gold glove in 19 plate appearances and and and didn't you know didn't look good in 19 plate appearances
that that first year right oh this guy sucks and then they thought he sucked after the first half well clearly that's not true he just needed to adjust can
you win 90 games if you bring three or four guys up and they all have similar struggles for a half no you can't but
you also can't build a contender into the future if you can't bring those young guys up and have them succeed and
be better than the players who they're replacing so it's it is this Catch 22 that I don't I'm not envious like I
I'm openly admitting like I'm not trying to say I'm smarter than Hoyer I'm not saying oh I would do this this and this because I don't know what the hell I
would do I am not envious of the situation that the front office is in heading into this winter because who do
you trade either way who do you replace what do you do there there some guys they already have yeah I mean they're
they're going to they're they're definitely going to move and most of those like there's a bunch of you know Trey wing aner
and edbert alai is going to be done Y alonte is going to be done it's it's G be a lot of but and they're going to
need to spend money I do expect them to actually go get some multi-year guys like Carlos Estes I think is is one of
them they'll look at I think Klay Holmes is another one they're going to look at like legit closer types you know whether
they're gonna replace Porter hodj or or at least have guys who have ninth inning experience that they can slide in and have and then you know you should have
Julian Mary wither back so now all of a sudden you're looking at like seventh eighth ninth being locked in quite a bit
better I think they absolutely will spend there I think and and if if I had to get down to it with what we've said
about the actual position players I do think and this was has been the case for a while they're gonna highly prioritize
pitching you know whether that's Max freed or Walker buer I think they're going to be heavily involved with those
guys I do believe they're going to spend a lot of M more money than usual which is not saying much because it's almost
in the in the bullpen but more than usual on the bullpen and then I think they're going to let some things sort
themselves out on the position player front I mean niiko Herer you know had had forearm surgery he's probably not
gonna be ready right away that does at least give you the ability to that's the other thing people like trade nio well I
don't know if you're trading a dude who just had forarm surgery like good luck trying to move him during the winter before he's had a chance to rehab and
come back but um I I I think they'll look to shot Bellinger I think they would probably look to shot paradus I
you know could they move Suzuki and or haap if uh if those guys are amenable to it like
it'd have to be the right situation but maybe they're gonna have to make some
aggressive moves and if they are they gonna have to eat some of the oh I'm
sure they will sorry I'm sure they will I I I wonder what are you getting back like probably nothing and and that's
that's right you know little salary relief and then some space which I think you know but I mean hey the Yankees just
uh they just lost their primary first baseman would they be looking uh to get Bellinger because hey that that Lefty
bat with that short porch I mean I I could see that being something and he's he'd be a tremendous upgrade over
Anthony Rizzo um at this point in their careers respectively right can you make
something like that work to where you know you're picking up a couple of prospects and and uh you know taking
some of the salary off the book so you can go attack some of those other dudes who I just mentioned free up that spot
again now you've got Casey that can put out there uh Bush can stay where he is or he slides over to Second you have
somebody else come up you know or Matt Shaw comes up and plays second that's what I I would actually like to see I'd love to see him trade Bellinger get
whatever from the Yankees uh actually I'd love to see him then sign Anthony santand there but I don't think that's gonna happen um yeah
Suzuki Casey Bush dayss at first Shaw plays second Bing Bang Boom you know
trade paradus and then uh then Shaw goes over to third when when Herer comes back and you you deal with the fall out from
there I would personally like to see that happen I highly doubt that's the route they'll take yeah but that is one
way that they can at least free up a spot and some money both of which I
think are are relatively important so the deadline is Monday uh
what 4 400m central time yeah uh yeah four Central 5 Eastern
yep and then once we get there it's kind of like all the decisions that need to be made all the options option decisions
um 60-day iil designations and then free agents get
the ability to start negotiating with teams that's when the real that's when the real fire starts to get lit at the
on the under the hot stove and then you start to move forward from there and and see I mean there's not going to be
there'll be some small deals probably done right away but uh like Wan sto is going to be the big deal right that's
that's kind of like hanging out there in the Market but I mean the pitchers might start that might start right away right
in terms of like uh different pitcher signings and and things like that are
they are they able to talk they're able to talk to teams right they just aren't able are they able to talk they can only
negotiate with their quote unquote current team until Monday um so yeah so
deals could be made the GM meetings are this week coming up too so I mean I think uh something I just wrote up today
too based on not not so much Cub Centric but like the Cardinals are looking to shed a ton of salary and trade a bunch
of dudes all of whom have no trade Clauses so we're talking Nolan arado Wilson Contreras Sunny gry um you know
the the Cubs can and should be very involved in the trade market what I wonder is is if that and that's only two
teams but with them both being in the central you know it's not like they're going to be dealing with each other most
likely but how much of that starts getting moved knowing that like it's it's Juan sta like last year was like sh
Otani and a giant Gap and then whomever else and this is going to be the same thing except with stto is like how much
of that then sort of shifts to where it's like all right he's he's on his own Island not to mention the fact that he's
really probably only negotiating with three to maybe four teams you know at
most so it's like the I don't think he'll slow the market up as much I would I would anticipate seeing a bunch of
these other teams get involved in some of these trades trying to step up and trying to get some of this done sooner
during the GM meetings I think the the winter meetings are like maybe the maybe like December 8th through 10th so so I
would say like in the next you know month and change I do think we see a lot of stuff
happening and and I would expect the Cubs to be pretty involved in it early because as I said like Hoyer has to be aggressive if he sits back and does the
same value based wait for the market to come to us thing it's not going to
work I mean okay maybe it will right I don't want to say it's not going to work but I I find this needle threading
crap is you you could very well end up just completely missing the boat I think
if he's if he's gonna make the moves to make this a 90 win team it has to be
through early aggressive moves to attack this Market to find a couple of
spots and and I think that stuff could happen within the next month um in order
for them to know then from that point what what other moves can it make so um I'm I'm I think this will be a a faster
moving not necessarily free agency but but as far as like offseason moves and
and trades and that sort of thing I think we'll see that that hot stove get lit up and and cooking a bit sooner than
maybe what we've seen the last few seasons yeah yeah all right well it should be good we look forward to uh
whatever is going to happen here and and we'll Circle back in a in a couple of weeks uh try to keep it every every
couple weeks depending on uh our availability but or or as things
transpire in the offseason hopefully as as you just said you know there's a lot of activity and the Cubs are involved in
it so I guess we'll just have to see how that plays out but until until our next episode it's it's been great it's been
good yeah and hopefully it gets better something yeah well knock wood knock on
wood everyone all right that's it for us today thanks everyone for joining us we'll see you
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