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*** Official 2025 Chicago Cubs Thread***

Boyd
Imanaga
Cabrera
Horton
These four are rotation locks.

Steele- keep hearing May
Wiggins- ASB maybe?

Rea and Assad can be solid swings
Assad seems better at long relief than starting

Where does Taillon fit in?
Personally I think he’s no better than Rea and Rea is a bargain. Can JT yield us a good pitching prospect?
 
Cyforce said:
Boyd
Imanaga
Cabrera
Horton
These four are rotation locks.

Steele- keep hearing May
Wiggins- ASB maybe?

Rea and Assad can be solid swings
Assad seems better at long relief than starting

Where does Taillon fit in?
Personally I think he’s no better than Rea and Rea is a bargain. Can JT yield us a good pitching prospect?
Click to expand...
Taillon “no better than Rea” is incredibly insulting to Taillon. Taillon’s career resume is miles ahead of Rea’s and was quite a bit better than him last year as well. Looking at WAR, Taillon has 6 seasons tied or higher than Rea’s best single season, and Taillon is a year younger.

I’ll give you the cost/role for each argument, but Taillon is absolutely better
 
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Think my preferred move to end the offseason would be Bregman. Sounds like he is a baseball freak who eat, sleeps, breaths baseball and doesn’t look at it like a job as some have speculated might be the case with Tucker. Would fit in perfectly with PCA, Hoerner, Happ, and Swanson, who are said to have similar mindsets.

Opens Shaw to be a super utility, which would be cool.

Also gives you a very good lineup in which there’s zero reason barring multiple injuries Dansby is batting in the top half
 
cyfanatic13 said:
Taillon “no better than Rea” is incredibly insulting to Taillon. Taillon’s career resume is miles ahead of Rea’s and was quite a bit better than him last year as well. Looking at WAR, Taillon has 6 seasons tied or higher than Rea’s best single season, and Taillon is a year younger.

I’ll give you the cost/role for each argument, but Taillon is absolutely better
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Not much especially not $11.5 mil better.
Same record
Higher K rate
ERA only marginally higher
Threw 30 more innings
Plus Rea has shown he can throw out of the pen
 
Cyforce said:
Boyd
Imanaga
Cabrera
Horton
These four are rotation locks.

Steele- keep hearing May
Wiggins- ASB maybe?

Rea and Assad can be solid swings
Assad seems better at long relief than starting

Where does Taillon fit in?
Personally I think he’s no better than Rea and Rea is a bargain. Can JT yield us a good pitching prospect?
Click to expand...
Yes we all know you are not a fan of Taillon for some reason but he is going to be part of the rotation to start the season. I doubt they trade him unless they sell off at the deadline because of a disappointing season. He's reasonable at $17 mil in the last year of his contract for the innings he gives us and by upgrading the top half of the rotation it now makes him a good back half of the rotation arm. If you get a healthy and effective Steele back the top 3 are him Horton and Cabrera and that leaves 2 spots for Boyd, Taillon, and Shota which by that time either we will have an inevitable injury in the rotation or 1 of these 3 may have pitched themselves out of a spot. Let's say best case scenario everyone is healthy and pitching well then maybe you go with a 6 man rotation to keep everyone healthy and fresh or then you debate about trading a guy. I don't find that a bad problem to have.

As much as our rotation was in shambles going into the playoffs last year I'm perfectly fine having too many starting pitchers as I'd rather have a problem of too many than trying to patchwork the backend of the rotation with swing guys like Rea and Assad or whatever other healthy arm we have around. Other than a lock down closer which I doubt we go out and get at this point I like how the pitching staff looks on paper right now. Time to focus on a big bat to replace Tucker which seems to be the last piece of the offseason now. Bichette is my preference but I have my doubts the Cubs management is going to really be serious about giving out any long term big dollar contacts. Feels like they are hoping 1 of the big names left market falls apart and they can convince one to play on a bloated 1 year deal or some shorter deal with opt outs.
 
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Nico continues to be criminally under appreciated by some fans simply because he doesn't mash homers. He's one of the best defenders in baseball, a great base runner, never strikes out, clutch (he was one of the only guys who actually hit in the playoffs!), etc. We should extending him, not thinking about trading unless it's a massive overpay by someone.

I do have legit concerns about Bregman dropping off a cliff as he ages. Would prefer Bichette and the fact you could play him all around the infield. Price on both might be higher than we'd expect the Cubs to be paying though of course. We need bench help regardless, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some cheaper routes taken (Kiner-Falefa, Ramon Urias, etc.)
 
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cycloneman003 said:
Nico continues to be criminally under appreciated by some fans simply because he doesn't mash homers. He's one of the best defenders in baseball, a great base runner, never strikes out, clutch (he was one of the only guys who actually hit in the playoffs!), etc. We should extending him, not thinking about trading unless it's a massive overpay by someone.

I do have legit concerns about Bregman dropping off a cliff as he ages. Would prefer Bichette and the fact you could play him all around the infield. Price on both might be higher than we'd expect the Cubs to be paying though of course. We need bench help regardless, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some cheaper routes taken (Kiner-Falefa, Ramon Urias, etc.)
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I'm a huge Nico fan and would love for him to get extended, but also see a ton of value in adding Bichette and trading Nico if the value is right. Nico obviously a better defender but Bichette hits for a higher average and has more pop. I'm not crazy about Bregman
 
cycloneman003 said:
Nico continues to be criminally under appreciated by some fans simply because he doesn't mash homers. He's one of the best defenders in baseball, a great base runner, never strikes out, clutch (he was one of the only guys who actually hit in the playoffs!), etc. We should extending him, not thinking about trading unless it's a massive overpay by someone.

I do have legit concerns about Bregman dropping off a cliff as he ages. Would prefer Bichette and the fact you could play him all around the infield. Price on both might be higher than we'd expect the Cubs to be paying though of course. We need bench help regardless, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some cheaper routes taken (Kiner-Falefa, Ramon Urias, etc.)
Click to expand...

I'd hate to lose Nico. Great glove and the only guy on the entire roster willing to hit for average.
 
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CYdTracked said:
Yes we all know you are not a fan of Taillon for some reason but he is going to be part of the rotation to start the season. I doubt they trade him unless they sell off at the deadline because of a disappointing season. He's reasonable at $17 mil in the last year of his contract for the innings he gives us and by upgrading the top half of the rotation it now makes him a good back half of the rotation arm. If you get a healthy and effective Steele back the top 3 are him Horton and Cabrera and that leaves 2 spots for Boyd, Taillon, and Shota which by that time either we will have an inevitable injury in the rotation or 1 of these 3 may have pitched themselves out of a spot. Let's say best case scenario everyone is healthy and pitching well then maybe you go with a 6 man rotation to keep everyone healthy and fresh or then you debate about trading a guy. I don't find that a bad problem to have.

As much as our rotation was in shambles going into the playoffs last year I'm perfectly fine having too many starting pitchers as I'd rather have a problem of too many than trying to patchwork the backend of the rotation with swing guys like Rea and Assad or whatever other healthy arm we have around. Other than a lock down closer which I doubt we go out and get at this point I like how the pitching staff looks on paper right now. Time to focus on a big bat to replace Tucker which seems to be the last piece of the offseason now. Bichette is my preference but I have my doubts the Cubs management is going to really be serious about giving out any long term big dollar contacts. Feels like they are hoping 1 of the big names left market falls apart and they can convince one to play on a bloated 1 year deal or some shorter deal with opt outs.
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Whether I like him or not is irrelevant. We have three starters in their final year. I doubt we resign any of them.but of the three Taillon is least likely. After Wiggins the SP prospect pipeline is pretty bare. I’d like to see someone added not going to get a blue chip but maybe with better tools than Jordan W.

Really hoping Hodge can find the form he had as a rookie and Brown can reach his potential as a reliever. ( he has the stuff). Having those two and Palencia being effective all pre-Arb allows the opportunity to top off 2027 with a top of the rotation starter to go with Cabrera Horton Steele and Wiggins.

You do have a point though about when to deal JT. Maybe waiting till Steele returns and another team loses a starter to injury. But I’d be very disappointed if all three of our final year starters walked. We all know Tom is a cheap bastard but letting assets walk isn’t in his DNA.
 
1UNI2ISU said:
Get Bichette and sell high on Nico. He's got that big shiny WAR number that's all defense and base running. Let the Giants pay the price for that and get some slug at 2B.

Leave Shaw at 3rd. He's pretty good there and he's going to hit.
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The infatuation with running off Nico every year is disturbing to me. Guy is a baller.
 
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Cyforce said:
Whether I like him or not is irrelevant. We have three starters in their final year. I doubt we resign any of them.but of the three Taillon is least likely. After Wiggins the SP prospect pipeline is pretty bare. I’d like to see someone added not going to get a blue chip but maybe with better tools than Jordan W.

Really hoping Hodge can find the form he had as a rookie and Brown can reach his potential as a reliever. ( he has the stuff). Having those two and Palencia being effective all pre-Arb allows the opportunity to top off 2027 with a top of the rotation starter to go with Cabrera Horton Steele and Wiggins.

You do have a point though about when to deal JT. Maybe waiting till Steele returns and another team loses a starter to injury. But I’d be very disappointed if all three of our final year starters walked. We all know Tom is a cheap bastard but letting assets walk isn’t in his DNA.
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There is zero reason to trade JT outside of a sell off at the deadline. We came into the offseason needing two SP and now we've added two (counting Shota). We are in a great position with upside and depth that was a glaring hole last year.

I love Colin Rea and he will undoubtably make some starts this year, but he should not be inserted into the rotation by default.
 
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For all the depth and upside we have, the following have some sort of questions.

Boyd - Injury history and late season slide
Shota - Couldn't count on him in the playoffs
Cabrera - Injuries
Steele - Injuries

Please don't trade JT.
 
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Short clip but feels like the MLB Network guys think the Marlins got the better end of the deal:

 
BigJCy said:
Short clip but feels like the MLB Network guys think the Marlins got the better end of the deal:

Click to expand...

I mean... I like Owen as a player but what are these guys talking about here LOL. Tucker was a consensus top 10 prospect in all of baseball when we was coming up.

Caissie struck out ~29% of PAs in the minors vs. Tucker at ~18.5% in similar number of PAs all while hitting for the same (or more) power.

Additionally Tucker was/is a real threat on the base paths and a very good defender. Things Caissie is not.

That's just silly.
 
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cycloneman003 said:
I mean... I like Owen as a player but what are these guys talking about here LOL. Tucker was a consensus top 10 prospect in all of baseball when we was coming up.

Caissie struck out ~29% of PAs in the minors vs. Tucker at ~18.5% in similar number of PAs all while hitting for the same (or more) power.

Additionally Tucker was/is a real threat on the base paths and a very good defender. Things Caissie is not.

That's just silly.
Click to expand...
Well, it's Harold Reynolds...
 
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