I’m filling in here and I’m covering all the Cubs news that came out on Halloween. Which, as you might imagine, isn’t a heck of a lot.
- Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd and catcher Carson Kelly have officially declined their contract options for 2027. As that article notes, both players should have some options on the free agent market. Especially Kelly, who has been an above-average starting catcher of the Cubs for the past two seasons.
- Kelly published a big “goodbye” to Chicago on Instagram, thanking the Cubs and the city of Chicago for making a dream come true.
- I don’t link to Jim Bowden because I think the guy is . . .well, let’s just say I don’t have a very high opinion of Bowden and I think it’s a crime that he still has a job writing about baseball. I also think he’s wrong more often than he’s right, but he’s not the only one in that regard. But I will link to someone linking to Bowden arguing that Tyler Stephenson would be a good replacement for Kelly. I mean, sure? I agree with author Jake Misener that Kelly would be the better choice, but Stephenson wouldn’t be a terrible replacement.
- The Cubs made a “big” signing yesterday, agreeing to aminor-league deal with Jyun Yue Tseng of the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (Taiwan). It’s a minor league deal, so Tseng will be able to train and play during a lockout. He also appears to have been a very good pitcher in the CPBL, although that league is about the quality of High-A.
- Joey Pollizze thinks that only Seiya Suzuki will get a qualifying offer from the Cubs.
- Jordan Bastian has the top five Cubs defensive highlights of 2026. Just inject this stuff into my veins.
- Steve Greenberg hosts a roundtable discussion with several members of the 2016 Cubs about their thoughts of that memorable year.
- Ryan O’Rourke has the 25 biggest “Cubs Killers” throughout history. I mean, the top three are no surprise. There’s one for the boomer generation, one for Gen X and one for Millennials. I suppose the fourth one could encompass Gen Z Cubs fans childhood nightmares.
- Brett Taylor reminds us not to put too much stock in “trade speculation” that you find on the internet. Yep, if you see a trade proposal for the Cubs and your first thought is “Do it!”, then the other team isn’t very likely to consider it.
Food for Thought:
This part is hard for me because I already have a forum for my thoughts in BCB After Dark three times a week. But I will say that I think that one of the things that makes this space special is that the staff is allowed to indulge in non-baseball things from time to time.
That makes this place more of a community and it may help us get through the lockout.
But here is some Halloween stuff.
- Dan Aykroyd explains the problems they had with the title for Ghostbusters.
- Every year, Heidi Klum goes farther and farther with her Halloween costume.
- The first couple of baseball social media, Paul Skenes and Livvy Dunne, dressed up as Buddy the Elf and Mrs. Butterworth.
- How giant skeletons (and other holiday lawn decorations) became a big-business arms race.
- I always feature some jazz in After Dark, but I don’t listen exclusively to jazz. In fact, I didn’t start listening to straight jazz until I was in my thirties, although I did dabble in jazz-adjacent pop/rock well before that. Since we’re all coming off Halloween, I’m going to send you off with a song I loved in my late-teens that is a goth classic. This is Bauhaus performing “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” This is a live performance from 1982.
By the way, I first heard the song during the opening credits of the 1983 vampire film The Hunger, directed by Tony Scott and starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. So that’s here if you want to check that out.
