MLB: ***Official 2019-20 Cubs Offseason***

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ISUCubswin

Well-Known Member
Mar 3, 2011
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My Playhouse
Growing up this was my favorite time of year, but after the World Series, I really despise the Cubs offseason starting before November.

A lot of moves are expected for this offseason - I’ll list the 2019 guys who had some sort of impact on the season, playing or financially, which will include Ben, then try and find a way to see who is kept, kicked, or brought in for 2020.

Rules to remember for next season
  • Pitchers must face 3 batters minimum (no more lefty-lefty bullcrap)

  • Rosters are expanded to 26 men, 13 pitcher maximum.
Green = Added player
Yellow = Players future unknown
Red = Player no longer a Cub

Catchers
Willson Contreras
Victor Caratini
Jonathan Lucroy - Free Agent - $550,000 for 2 months of service

Infield
Anthony Rizzo - $16.5 million team option - Accepted
Javier Baez
Nico Hoerner
Daniel Desalsco
Kris Bryant
Addison Russell - Non-Tendered - Free Agent

Outfield
Jason Heyward - $84 million/4 Year - Opted In
Steven Souza - $1million/1 Year, up to $3 million with incentives

Kyle Schwarber
Albert Almora
Nick Castellanos - No financial significance - Gone to Reds for $64/4 years

Utility
Robel Garcia
David Bote
Ian Happ
Ben Zobrist - Free Agent - $12.5 million off the books
Tony Kemp - Traded for Minor League player Alfonso Rivas

Starting Pitchers
Yu Darvish - $22 million player option - Accepted
Jose Quintana - $11.5 million team option - Accepted
Jharel Cotton - Acquired for cash from Athletics

Jon Lester
Kyle Hendricks
Kendall Graveman - $3 million team option - Declined - Gone to Mariners for $1.5 million
Cole Hamels - Free Agent - $20 million off the books - Gone to Braves for $18 million


Relief Pitchers
Dan Winkler - $750,000 one year Minor League Deal
Brandon Morrow - Free Agent - $12 million team option - Declined - Resigned to Minor League Deal
Danny Hultzen - Non-Tendered - Resigned to Minor League Deal
Jeremy Jeffress - $800,000/1 Year

Tyler Chatwood
Craig Kimbrel
Dillon Maples
Alec Mills
James Norwood
Kyle Ryan
Duane Underwood Jr
Rowan Wick
Brad Wieck
Brian Duensing - Free Agent - $3.5 million off the books
Xavier Cedeno - Free Agent - $1 million off the books

Steve Cishek - $6.5 million off the books - Gone to White Sox for $6.7 million
Pedro Strop - $6.25 million off the books - Gone to Reds for $1.82 million
Tony Barnette - $3 million team option - Declined - Retired
David Phelps - - $5 million team option - Declined - Gone to Brewers for $1.5 million
Brandon Kintzler - $5 million off the books - Gone to Marlins for $3.2 million
Derek Holland - $7 million team option - Declined - Gone to Pirates - Minor League Option
 
Last edited:

tman24

Well-Known Member
Feb 6, 2008
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Team is built on HR or K. Need to get more balanced with single/double hitters.

Fielders:
Sign Castellenos, Billy Hamilton if possible. Maybe Gennet or Castro.
Cut descalso. If Garcia or Hoerner can beat out Russel cut him also.

Pitchers:
Yu will come back. He would be dumb not to.
Sign Cole or MadBum. Sign some bottom of rotation like Wacha or Harvey.
Bullpen was crap so about any warm body would be equal or greater than what we had. Luckily we dont have Madden bringing them in fresh of an injury in pressure situations.
 

CyJack13

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2010
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Team is built on HR or K. Need to get more balanced with single/double hitters.

Fielders:
Sign Castellenos, Billy Hamilton if possible. Maybe Gennet or Castro.
Cut descalso. If Garcia or Hoerner can beat out Russel cut him also.

Pitchers:
Yu will come back. He would be dumb not to.
Sign Cole or MadBum. Sign some bottom of rotation like Wacha or Harvey.
Bullpen was crap so about any warm body would be equal or greater than what we had. Luckily we dont have Madden bringing them in fresh of an injury in pressure situations.

Billy Hamilton is not the answer to any problem the Cubs have.
 

clone4life82

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Dec 17, 2008
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Ankeny
Team is built on HR or K. Need to get more balanced with single/double hitters.

Fielders:
Sign Castellenos, Billy Hamilton if possible. Maybe Gennet or Castro.
Cut descalso. If Garcia or Hoerner can beat out Russel cut him also.

Pitchers:
Yu will come back. He would be dumb not to.
Sign Cole or MadBum. Sign some bottom of rotation like Wacha or Harvey.
Bullpen was crap so about any warm body would be equal or greater than what we had. Luckily we dont have Madden bringing them in fresh of an injury in pressure situations.

Not that I disagree with your first statement but look at the teams in the playoffs now vs how many hrs they hit this season. Top five hr teams are Yankees, twins, astros, dodgers, Oakland (all in the playoffs), then you also have the brewers and Atlanta in the top 10. There are a couple outliers but in general, home runs (among other things), translates to good things
 

BigJCy

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
19,512
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Cubs pick 16th:

2020 First-Round Draft Order
1) Tigers (47-114)
2) Orioles (54-108)
3) Marlins (57-105)
4) Royals (59-103)
5) Blue Jays (67-95)
6) Mariners (68-94)
7) Pirates (69-93)
8) Padres (70-92)
9) Rockies (71-91)
10) Angels (72-90)
11) White Sox (72-89)
12) Reds (75-87)
13) Giants (77-85)
14) Rangers (78-84)
15) Phillies (81-81)
16) Cubs (84-78)
17) Red Sox (84-78)
18) D-backs (85-77)
19) Mets (86-76)
20) Brewers (89-73)
21) Cardinals (91-71)
22) Nationals (93-69)
23) Indians (93-69)
24) Rays (96-66)
25) Braves (97-65)
26) A's (97-65)
27) Twins (101-61)
28) Yankees (103-59)
29) Dodgers (106-56)
30) Astros (107-55)

https://www.mlb.com/news/2020-draft-order-set
 

ISUCubswin

Well-Known Member
Mar 3, 2011
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My Playhouse
David Ross said on Baseball Tonight he’s waiting for that phone call and while he would love a managerial job there’s something special about the Cubs dugout.
 
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Die4Cy

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Jan 2, 2010
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Lobbying for the job makes me think Rossy's a long shot. Especially since he's so soon removed from playing on this team and has no experience managing at all whatsoever.
 

CYdTracked

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Mar 23, 2006
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Grimes, IA
I'll add a few comments on ISUCubsWin original post with the roster in regards to options or possible resigning players

Pitchers:
Darvish - no way in hell he opts out, they are stuck with this contract
Quintana: Cubs would be nuts to not pick this option up. He'll be 31 going into the season and will give you 30+ starts. Even if he is the SP4 or SP5 $11.5 mil for a year is reasonable given the market for starting pitchers these days.
Phelps: Probably will pick up his option. For 1 mil he is a serviceable middle reliever.
Graveman: This one is tough, he's a rehab project but at 3 mil may not be worth it
Gone: Barnette, Holland, Morrow, Strop, Cishek, Cedeno. Kintzler maybe a resign candidate on a reasonable 1 year deal.

Position players:
Russell: may be time to cut ties with him. Not sure what his arbitration number will be but whatever that is you pretty much commit to him being the starting 2B or bench player
Hoerner needs to go to AAA to polish his skills. He had a nice run late this season but lets be real he is not ready to play everyday yet.
Descalso: They may just cut him if they need the roster space. Was a dumb signing in the first place.
Garcia likely goes back to AAA, Happ should be trade bait, Kemp either will be non tendered or offered arbitration to keep him for organizational depth.

No way they offer Lucroy a contract unless they trade a catcher. Castellanos probably will be too pricey to resign. I think the way you improve this offense is to upgrade in the OF or you sign Redon and move Bryant to LF which means trading Schwarber. The good thing is Schwarber finished the season strong and now has trade value again and Happ showed enough to regain some value too. Cubs need to entertain deals for some of their position players if they want to fix this roster and I am to the point I would probably be OK with trading Bryant if they got a huge haul of talent back.
 

CYdTracked

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Mar 23, 2006
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Grimes, IA
Team is built on HR or K. Need to get more balanced with single/double hitters.

Fielders:
Sign Castellenos, Billy Hamilton if possible. Maybe Gennet or Castro.
Cut descalso. If Garcia or Hoerner can beat out Russel cut him also.

Pitchers:
Yu will come back. He would be dumb not to.
Sign Cole or MadBum. Sign some bottom of rotation like Wacha or Harvey.
Bullpen was crap so about any warm body would be equal or greater than what we had. Luckily we dont have Madden bringing them in fresh of an injury in pressure situations.

Not really sure that Wacha or Harvey are any better than some of the much cheaper in house pitchers they have. Alec Mills in a small sample size has looked better than both of them lately.

Yu was really good post all-star break. In fact he walked just 7 batters and batters hit .199 against him over 13 starts and 81.2 innings pitched with a 2.76 ERA. He will probably be in the mix for opening day starter with Hendricks going into 2020 if he stays healthy. Lester at this point is going to be the 3rd or 4th starter who will give you 5 or 6 quality innings.
 
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ISUCubswin

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Mar 3, 2011
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My Playhouse
Wonder when Theo will do his end of the year presser. Last year, he did it October 3rd, the day after the Cubs season ended in the wild card game.

Granted, last year his presser got me amped with everything he said but he didn’t deliver, so I’ll need to be a bit more cautious
 

CyJack13

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2010
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"

What?! Teams are beating down the door to get McLeod after what he's done with the Cubs minor leagues? I'm so shocked