Consider me shocked that Luis Vazquez was our option to DFA to make room for Berti. Vidal Brujan having a job here seems nuts but I wonder if it's more Jed trying to protect himself after trading Mervis for Brujan.
***Official 2024 Chicago Cubs Thread***
- Thread starter CycloneErik
- Start date
It seems like the Cubs should disband their minor league system. They have guys work their way through the system and even if a guy has decent success in Des Moines, they never really get a legit shot in Chicago.
Will be curious who projects to be a major league backup shortstop out of Brujan, Berti, Workman or Cowles. They have all played some SS, but would be curious if any at a high level. I thought that might be Vazquez' leg up.
Cease would be great add to the front of the rotation. He's going to make almost $14mil and primarily SD is looking to shed salary, so I imagine they'd be looking for prospects or our young/cheap arms in return. Taking on all or most of that salary would just about use up the budget under the first tier of the luxury tax, so we'd need to shed salary to make any notable further adds. Only ones that'd make sense, that'd be finding a partner for a Taillon or Hoerner trade.
I could see something like Alcantara and Assad for Cease working. The Padres have no pitching depth, so Assad would have decent value to them as a controllable innings eater. But you make a good point on the money. The Cubs haven't shown any interest in going into the luxury tax this year.
Yup, just thinking through the other contexts of a potential trade. Now I do think a guy like Cease is the type they SHOULD be looking to add and maybe the cost isn't too bad since the SD is primarily looking to dump salary but there are lots of teams that'd be interested in Cease.
Seems like there are three pretty distinct options for the remainder of the offseason for the Cubs and they're in a position where they are just waiting it out and trying to be as opportunistic as they can.
- Sign another impact reliver on a short term deal (i.e. Roberston) and roll into the season with what you've got
- Trade for a high end starter (Cease in this scenario) and need to shed salary (Hoerner or Taillon) in order to make any more meaningful bench/bullpen additions
- Shed salary and sign Bregman to a "Bellinger" contract
If the Cubs could get off that cheap, it would be awesome. But doubt the Padres want Assad, whose ceiling is a 4/5 starter to replace a 1/2 starter.
Wouldn't surprise me if the Padres would want 2 top prospects (Horton & Alacantara) for a 29 year old top tier starter. I could see the Padres asking for a couple pitchers among Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, Luke Little plus a hitter among Alcantara, Caissie, Shaw, etc.
I'm sure that would be the Padres ask, but I'm not sure they will get it unless there is a ton of competition. Looking at recent comparable trades (i.e. the Corbin Burnes trade to the Orioles a year ago), it seems like the going rate is a back-end top 100 prospect, a second young, decent (but not great) player, and maybe a little more. In the Burnes deal, the Brewers got 3B Joey Hall (rated ~65-75 in the top 100 lists), RP D.L. Hall (a young middle reliever without much MLB success, but some prospect pedigree) and a competitive balance pick. (Cease is good, but not nearly as good as Burnes, so I would expect the return for Cease to be a bit less.)
Maybe it's Caissie and Assad, or Alcantara and Ben Brown, and maybe it includes another throw-in, but I don't think it's going to be substantially more painful than that.
Also, the Padres have Cease, King, Darvish and little else on the starting pitching front with Musgrove out for the year. They are going to need at least a couple of people to eat innings with decent performance, which is why I think someone like Assad does have value to them.
Last edited:
The Padres want salary relief. You have to put the prospect return in the context of the Cubs taking the full $14M off their books.
Caissie and Assad is probably about right. Caissie is immediately their starting LF and Assad gives them pitching depth and a guy that can eat some innings for them.
Now's the time to sell high on Caissie. His K-rate in AAA is alarming and it's not going to get better in the bigs plus the Padres liked him enough to take him in the 2nd round at 17.
IMO there are a handful of teams that will line up to add a #1/#2 starter for $14M whose value as a FA would easily be $25M+. So sure the Padres want to unload payroll, but they also have an under-priced asset.
A little different than Ryan Pressly who was overpriced. Not many set-up guys make $14M. Heck that is elite reliever money.
Jed is probably working the phones trying to stash some more cheap relief arms, reclamation projects, and backup catchers in the minors feels like this guy sometimes
FWIW the people I’ve been following this offseason and are hitting decently well seem very confident we will not be getting Cease. We’ve checked in multiple times but sounds like both teams are miles apart.
I saw Luis Vazquez got traded to the Orioles for cash. Wish he would have gotten some time over Mastrobuoni last year.
The word was the ask was Shaw+. That's insane for a rental where the Cubs are taking all the money.
Hard pass on that.
Geez, why? I'm always a Cubs guy first, 4th gen fan even. But living in Missouri for 25 years of my life, the Royals are my 1B and I'm a big fan, I follow them closely, go to half a dozen games a year, etc...I mention that because I've seen a LOT of Lopez, and if you can believe it, he's actually got more of a noodle bat than Masterboner. Waste of time.
Minor league deal so he'll have to play lights out in Iowa to even get a shot at the 40 man. They always sign some guys to fill the AAA roster and some of those guys don't even play more than a month or 2 before they are cut or the Cubs grant them a release so they can find more playing time with another organization. I don't read too much into any minor league signings, any marginal player that gets a contract that takes a 40 man roster spot I scrutinize more.
