Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma posted an article in The Athletic Sunday that began with this intriguing comment:
The Chicago Cubs are targeting a higher level of the free-agent market and signaling an openness
to spending for certain players, according to team and league sources briefed on the club’s deliberations.
Well. I suspect many of you will agree with the next sentence in Mooney and Sharma’s article:
Reading that sentence, Cubs fans may understandably roll their eyes.
But here’s the thing. The Cubs do have somewhere north of $50 million before they hit the first luxury tax level, according to the analysis we did here last month. They can absolutely, positively afford to go to that “higher level of the free-agent market.” The Cubs missed out on Dylan Cease when he signed with the Blue Jays, but there are certainly some very good starting pitchers still available. That list includes Michael King, formerly of the Padres, and Tatsuya Imai, who has been posted by his NPB team, the Seibu Lions. Here’s the article I wrote about King last month and here’s the one about Imai.
Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer was quoted thusly in the Athletic article:
“It will be an active offseason,” Hoyer said. “We’ll be really active in the pitching market.”
Now, this does not necessarily mean the Cubs will sign a pitcher (or trade for one) or do anything during the Winter Meetings. The eyes of baseball are on that event, of course, but if the Cubs don’t do anything this week, that doesn’t mean they won’t next week, or the week after, or…
In any case, here is your open thread for Winter Meetings discussion today. If the Cubs do make any sort of significant transaction today, of course there will be a separate article on the front page.
Have at it.
