Happ may be pressed into accepting a trade or risk being essentially out of baseball by the end of his current deal. He isn’t slugging .400 right now and his whiff rate is going way up. He will hit FA at 32 and won’t be an everyday player for the Cubs by then.
This is spot-on. The primary benefit of having a strong farm system is not necessarily to develop megastars. It's to avoid needing to pay a premium for average free agents at positions of need and to use as currency to trade for actual stars. E.g., can you develop a Javier Assad so you don't need to pay $18M per year for Jameson Taillon? Develop a Jeremy Pena so you don't need to pay $23M per year for Dansby Swanson. Your minor league system probably isn't going to develop many superstars, so you need to either use prospects to get the true stars (and extend them) or pay top dollar for them.
Well said! GMs who refuse to ever make a deal that might be just a bit irrational will likely never win anything. The Heyward deal didn’t look great at the end but he was on a team that won a WS. I thought the point of saving money during the suck part of a rebuild is so you could be a little loose with the spending when the time comes. That time was this past offseason.
I posted something like this not long ago too. The mistake with Happ was done when he was given the extension and. NTC. Unless something sours with him and the organization he's not getting traded and neither is Suzuki. Trading Taillon is not a great idea either, yes he has a horrible 1st half last season but since has been a very capable middle of the rotation guy on a pretty reasonable contract. Haven't seen enough out of our young guys yet to think we can replace him internally or for similar price in free agency. Not against seeing what you can get for Morel but have to remember he is still just 25 and barely played AAA ball so he's still a work in progress. Reminds me a bit how they DFA Schwarber who was fast tracked through the minors too and had his struggles then he has been pretty productive since. Not ready to give up on him until a better option is acquired for 3B. Amaya is probably no more than a backup catcher unfortunately.
It's a valid point but some of it is how they do a poor job of managing their development and giving some of these guys the right roles and opportunities when they come up. Either let them keep getting regular playing time in the minors instead of sporadic playing time in the majors, leave them there until you can or clear a path and commit to the next part of their development which is adjusting to MLB pitching. Hard to do that when you only get a handful or so of at bats in a week.
I will be curious if we don't see some adjustments to the coaching staff in season. Counsell supported Harris earlier this year on an egregious send, but at some point....
seen this movie already. just leave guys on base
seen this movie before and leave runners on base again
