***Official 2024 Chicago Cubs Thread***

Cubs 40 man sits at 45 (because of 60 day ILs)

Important names that are Rule 5 eligible if not added to the 40 man this offseason

Owen Caissie - Will obviously be added
Burl Carraway
Ben Cowles - Acquired in the Leiter trade; Unsure on 40 man rule since he's out for the year
Manuel Espinoza
Christian Franklin
Darius Hill
Ed Howard
Ben Leeper
Zac Leigh
Rafael Morel - Christophers brother
B. J. Murray
Jack Neely - Acquired in the Leiter trade
Reggie Preciado
Frankie Scalzo Jr,
Chase Strumpf

Becoming FA's automatically opening the 40 man:

Jorge Lopez (you seriously couldn't find anyone to take him for a flyer?)
Kyle Hendricks (FA)

Likely cuts
Smyly
Neris
Brewer
Bote
Nido

Gets you to 38 out of 40 spots filled. Probably going to need at least 5 more to include the above minor leaguers and any free agent additions.
 
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Cubs 40 man sits at 45 (because of 60 day ILs)

Important names that are Rule 5 eligible if not added to the 40 man this offseason

Owen Caissie - Will obviously be added
Burl Carraway
Ben Cowles - Acquired in the Leiter trade; Unsure on 40 man rule since he's out for the year
Manuel Espinoza
Christian Franklin
Darius Hill
Ed Howard
Ben Leeper
Zac Leigh
Rafael Morel - Christophers brother
B. J. Murray
Jack Neely - Acquired in the Leiter trade
Reggie Preciado
Frankie Scalzo Jr,
Chase Strumpf

Becoming FA's automatically opening the 40 man:

Jorge Lopez (you seriously couldn't find anyone to take him for a flyer?)
Kyle Hendricks (FA)

Likely cuts
Smyly
Neris
Brewer
Bote
Nido

Gets you to 38 out of 40 spots filled. Probably going to need at least 5 more to include the above minor leaguers and any free agent additions.

Good list there. I'm not familiar with all of them, Only Caissie, Cowles, Murray, and Neely are on MLB.com top 30 prospects in the org. Caissie will be added either this season with a call up or afterwards. The rest I guess depends on how close they are that they worry they might lose them. Strumpf has been in Iowa for awhile and Murray didn't look anything special to me when I've seen him play this summer so not worried about them being taken. I think most are still AA or lower, only guys on that list besides the ones I named currently in Iowa are Scalzo Jr and Hill, not sure where they are assigning Cowles and Neely to but could be Iowa? The other question is besides pending free agents which fringe guys currently on the 40 man that still have team control could get DFA to clear some spots. Keegan Thompson, Madrigal, Mastrobuoni, Bethancourt, Nido, Brewer (broke his hand hitting a wall after a bad outing) and Mervis are all guys that aren't key to the future success that either have injury issues or performance issues or both that could be running out of chances. I could see the Cubs allowing some of them go seek other opportunities with another organization as they likely won't get anything of value trading them and they are just going to be minor league depth at this point. Still need some guys like that in AAA to fill in for injuries but some of them have been around long enough that they would allow them to find another organization if that conversation comes up or there is a need for a 40 man spot.

We actually have 7 guys currently on the 60 day IL: Almonte, Alzolay, Brewer, Brown, Kilian, Little, Wicks. Kilian is just about done with his rehab assignment and I am not up to date on the status of the rest but there are going to be some guys taken off the 40 man this season still when some of these guys are ready to play again. Brewer is the only 1 on that list I see that will be cut, he probably would have by now if it weren't for his self inflicted injury.
 
Cubs 40 man sits at 45 (because of 60 day ILs)

Important names that are Rule 5 eligible if not added to the 40 man this offseason

Owen Caissie - Will obviously be added
Burl Carraway
Ben Cowles - Acquired in the Leiter trade; Unsure on 40 man rule since he's out for the year
Manuel Espinoza
Christian Franklin
Darius Hill
Ed Howard
Ben Leeper
Zac Leigh
Rafael Morel - Christophers brother
B. J. Murray
Jack Neely - Acquired in the Leiter trade
Reggie Preciado
Frankie Scalzo Jr,
Chase Strumpf

Becoming FA's automatically opening the 40 man:

Jorge Lopez (you seriously couldn't find anyone to take him for a flyer?)
Kyle Hendricks (FA)

Likely cuts
Smyly
Neris
Brewer
Bote
Nido

Gets you to 38 out of 40 spots filled. Probably going to need at least 5 more to include the above minor leaguers and any free agent additions.
Burl Carraway has some of the most interesting pitching stats I’ve ever seen.

45.2 IP, 26 Hits, 70 Walks, 61 K’s, 14 Wild Pitches.
 
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Good list there. I'm not familiar with all of them, Only Caissie, Cowles, Murray, and Neely are on MLB.com top 30 prospects in the org. Caissie will be added either this season with a call up or afterwards. The rest I guess depends on how close they are that they worry they might lose them. Strumpf has been in Iowa for awhile and Murray didn't look anything special to me when I've seen him play this summer so not worried about them being taken. I think most are still AA or lower, only guys on that list besides the ones I named currently in Iowa are Scalzo Jr and Hill, not sure where they are assigning Cowles and Neely to but could be Iowa? The other question is besides pending free agents which fringe guys currently on the 40 man that still have team control could get DFA to clear some spots. Keegan Thompson, Madrigal, Mastrobuoni, Bethancourt, Nido, Brewer (broke his hand hitting a wall after a bad outing) and Mervis are all guys that aren't key to the future success that either have injury issues or performance issues or both that could be running out of chances. I could see the Cubs allowing some of them go seek other opportunities with another organization as they likely won't get anything of value trading them and they are just going to be minor league depth at this point. Still need some guys like that in AAA to fill in for injuries but some of them have been around long enough that they would allow them to find another organization if that conversation comes up or there is a need for a 40 man spot.

We actually have 7 guys currently on the 60 day IL: Almonte, Alzolay, Brewer, Brown, Kilian, Little, Wicks. Kilian is just about done with his rehab assignment and I am not up to date on the status of the rest but there are going to be some guys taken off the 40 man this season still when some of these guys are ready to play again. Brewer is the only 1 on that list I see that will be cut, he probably would have by now if it weren't for his self inflicted injury.
Neely has been assigned to Iowa
 
Right now they have Pearson, Roberts, Miller and Hodge on the active roster that could play the AAA/ big club yoyo game so they'll have to opportunity to see others. Hodge and Miller may have made themselves to valuable to ship out though.
 
Matt Cozzi of Locked On Cubs was confident we almost got a cost-controlled catcher at the deadline. The belief at CHGO, who has an insider but this insider HAS NOT HAD INPUT, is that the two big names involved were Logan O’Hoppe for James Triantos.

Given how close a deal for a C was to happening, I wouldn’t be shocked if it is revisited in the offseason, nor if that C was O’Hoppe.
 
Michael Busch vs. Righties: .254 BA, .793 OPS
Michael Busch vs. Lefties: .289 BA, .820 OPS

Guess who isn't starting tonight because a lefty is on the mound?

It's easier if you just quit watching. The Olympics should get you pretty close to football season. If they don't care, it's not worth caring as a fan.
 
Michael Busch vs. Righties: .254 BA, .793 OPS
Michael Busch vs. Lefties: .289 BA, .820 OPS

Guess who isn't starting tonight because a lefty is on the mound?
Dumb but "Wisdom crushes lefties" I'm sure is the reasoning even with the sketchy defense that comes with him. Just play your best players regardless of the matchup. Never going to develop guys if you sit them with the lefty/righty mentality. He's hit lefties better than Wisdom has this year too with nearly the same amount of AB.
 
Haven't listened to it, but Jed had a few talking points on 670 this afternoon

- Reiterated that he will be watching the offense the last two months to inform him what he'd like to do this offseason. (Gross)
- Admits to being more risk-averse than most to big contracts
- Believes for the Chicago Cubs to be good, their offense has to outperform their own projections
 
Does Smyly’s mutual option get picked up for $10 million next year? He’s pitched well in long relief.
 
Does Smyly’s mutual option get picked up for $10 million next year? He’s pitched well in long relief.
Best year as a Cub, I’ve enjoyed him.

That being said, no. You save $8.5 MM turning him down, and you don’t pay low leverage relievers $10 MM, especially when you have the large amount of fringe starting prospects that we do
 
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It's funny with this thread...Cubs play like crap and there is a ton of posts. They score the most runs they have all season tonight, and there is no discussion.

I feel like some of you just want to be miserable.
It's just that we've been watching all year and know games like this are an extreme outlier for this group. No reason to get excited over 1 game.
 
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It's just that we've been watching all year and know games like this are an extreme outlier for this group. No reason to get excited over 1 game.
It's literally every game they win. Zero discussion on the positives. Yet every loss there is a ton of negative posts.

I agree this team is disappointing, but if it's that miserable, stop watching.
 
Dumb but "Wisdom crushes lefties" I'm sure is the reasoning even with the sketchy defense that comes with him. Just play your best players regardless of the matchup. Never going to develop guys if you sit them with the lefty/righty mentality. He's hit lefties better than Wisdom has this year too with nearly the same amount of AB.
I understand getting Busch at bats against lefties from a development standpoint.

I don't believe Busch has sat a game since All-Star break. So he's played 11 straight games (with last Thursday off). It doesn't look like the Cubs will face a lefty starter against STL or MN. With Bellinger as DH-only for the near future, tonight was probably best chance to get Wisdom a start and Busch a rest.
 
It's literally every game they win. Zero discussion on the positives. Yet every loss there is a ton of negative posts.

I agree this team is disappointing, but if it's that miserable, stop watching.

They've lost more games than they have won and are the 8th worst team record wise in all of MLB. Hard to get too excited over wins these days when they have been mostly bad for a good chunk of the season. I mean they are right there with Detroit and Toronto record wise who were 2 of the busiest sellers at the deadline.
 
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