The 2025 free agent class is not very exciting. Is there anyone the Cubs could/should go after?
Watch – Top 10 Questions for the Cubs this Offseason: https://youtu.be/nYWtZjRTfag
Get a 15% discount to Obvious Shirts. Go to obviousshirts.com and use code “setupman15”
Go to www.setupman.net and subscribe to our mailing list to become a part of Setup Man Nation and so you never miss a show! We also do free giveaways for those who are on our list!
Check us out on social media:
Instagram: https://bit.ly/setupmaninsta
Twitter: https://bit.ly/setupmantwitter
28 Comments
Watch – Top 10 Questions for the Cubs this Offseason: https://youtu.be/nYWtZjRTfag
If the Cubs get rid of Nico via trade then Busch can play 2nd and they can go trade 1-2 of theor top prospects mr Rickets boasted on his letter to bring Vady Jr as 1s baseman.. they can send Paredes plus prospects for Vlady and have Shaw take care of 3rd
Jack Flaherty, Shea Langeliers/Logan O'Hoppe are good targets for FA/Trades. Still not sure where the 'Trade Nico' stuff is coming from. Hes under TC for 10M this year and next, and hes a 4 WAR player. You dont just trade those type of players.
I wouldn't be against some bullpen help too but that's so volatile. I'd like an actual closer, even if we had to give up some pieces. The rest of the bullpen I'm ok with trying to build from the farm only.
Ballinger is the type of player that will work in the off-season to get better. Think he's gonna have a great year next year, hopefully with the Cubs
They absolutely should not trade Jamo. They need a starter but trading one to get one doesn't help or make sense.
Hard pass on Pete Alonso. Wrong side of 30. Boras will think he's worth 100mil more than hes worth.
I've just decided that if the Cubs don't trade for Vlad Jr. or acquire Santander I'm not really paying attention to this offseason.
Depending on the contract Snell or Flaherty could be good pickups for this team. They could really use a starter that has higher whiff and k rates. That's something they severely lack in their rotation. Steele and Imanaga have just about or slightly above whiff/k rates but otherwise that's something they lack in the rotation.
Other than a starter the only clear path to add is at Catcher and the bullpen. Trying to swing a trade for any of Langeliers/Raleigh/O'Hoppe would be huge for the Cubs. Issue is I'm not so sure any of those teams will want to part ways with them easily. May end up having to pay an arm and a leg to acquire one of them.
Lastly they need 1 or 2 reliable back end bullpen arms. Tanner Scott is the obvious choice because he's both a closer and a lefty but Hoyer has made it pretty clear he's uncomfortable giving out bigger contracts to bullpen guys.
If you're looking for talent at C, you're going to have to trade for it. The two best C prospects are Kyle Teel (Red Sox) and Samuel Basallo (O's), both were killing it at AA and both were promoted to AAA late in the year. Teel fared a little better after the promo but neither had a large sample size to go off of. Either one of these guys will probably cost an arm and leg to acquire. But it's not like the Cubs farm system is replete with catching prospects, Ballesteros is all bat and very little glove. I'm with you on Pete Alonso, not only no but F no. To me, Alonso compares to Happ. Both hit .240+, both had about the same RBI, Alonso had a few more HR. Happ is a much better defender and base runner. What we don't need is another Whiff machine in the lineup, Alonso K'd 170 times this year. No, thanks. I completely agree on the pitching assessment, Max Fried is option #1 and Tanner Scott is #2. I'd also consider Walker Buehler, he's now 1 year removed from TJ surgery, maybe you take a flyer on someone with his ability when healthy.
Here's a bit of a controversial take I heard recently. I believe it was Sam on Locked On Cubs, who said he'd sign Willy Adames and shift him over to 3B then package Paredes with some minor/major leaguers to bolster your bullpen or catching position.
Pretty simple offseason – if Belli stays, you hope for a bounce back and focus on serious catcher and pitching upgrades.
1) Sign Corbin Burnes – leverage Counsell relationship to break any ties.
2) Trade a package starting with 2 of your 6 AAA top 100 prospects to the A's for legit closer (Mason Miller) and catcher (Shea Langeliers) upgrades. Both are nearing arbitration when teams like the A's typically are open to trade.
3) Spend remaining available FA $ on further bolstering the bullpen – bring back Jorge Lopez and pony up for a proven lefty (Scott or Minter).
If Belli does opt out – replace his spot and $ with more pop (Santander), and still do all of the above.
Really just need a bullpen that doesn't blow leads
Did you notice Alonso’s home runs and rbi?
The safest way to improve Cubs next season is to put money on bullpen and SP, unless you can get Soto, I would break bank for him.
I would go after Teosca Hernandez if we can’t get Soto
Yeah keep pumping out the banger content
Hard pass on Bregman. He will want Matt Chapman $ and we have plenty of infield prospects. Shaw can win 3b in spring training.
Fried and Tanner Scott would be two huge additions. Scott combined with Hodge would be electric. Owen Caissie will be starting RF because I believe Belli will leave. We need a trade with the Dodgers to get their top catching prospect, Dalton Rushing.
What is the possibility if we don't get Alonso then we could trade for Olson or Freeman? Or maybe if he's cheaper Muncy?
Paredes …why are you quoting RBI in this day and age?
If you quote RBI ,why not quote runs scored- it is equally meaningful…..point is neither are important as INDIVIDUAL statistics.Paredes has never hit outside of Florida.I have seen 30 or 40 games at Wrigley field in my life and do not remember it being in Florida.If you use Wisdom( who is cheaper) as much as Paredes he would hit 35 or more homers a year .Yes he has a lot of shortcomings ,but Paredes has so little value.And the guy they gave up to get him ,has SIGNIFICANT upside
Hig-gosh-E-oh-kah
When looking at players production year by year you gotta take into account that 2019 was the year that the balls were juiced. That's why a lot of players have big drops in production from 2019 onwards.
An as for Paredes, his HR total was largely helped by Tropicana being his home ballpark.
As far as pitching market Snell had a bad first month then was on and off the injured list the next 2 months. Snell and Flaherty would be my preference in free agency depending on contract because they both have great whiff/k rates and that's something the Cubs rotation lacks. All that said it's completely possible that the Cubs can trade for a starter instead. They've got plenty of prospect capital it's just whether or not any starters are made available.
The Cubs lack a) team slug b) dependable bullpen arms and c) a lock down closer. I'm also not convinced that PCA is the answer in center field. (Reminds me of a less-disciplined Harrison Bader. Hope I'm wrong). With Milwaukee at the top and lots of young talent in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, the Cubs and the Cardinals could be fighting it out for fourth in the central next year. Ouch!
You can't sensibly improve this offense from outside the organization. It's going to have to come from improvement by Swanson, Bellinger, Paredes, Hoerner, and Amaya (keep waiting for that "next step" from Suzuki too); growth from PCA and Busch: and contributions from prospects. But you can improve the pitching. How about a rotation of Steele, Trevor Bauer , Imanaga, Roki Sasaki , and Jameson Taillon. That's pretty damn good and you've still got SP depth in Assad, Brown, Wicks, Killian, Wesneski, and Cade Horton–some of which can bolster the bullpen. Speaking of which, target Tanner Scott and Jeff Hoffman to shore up the pen. Even with Bellinger's contract still on the books, you could add all 4 of those pitchers for less than the $70M luxury tax space.
And at mid-season I'd look to deal either Hoerner or Paredes (your only marketable and tradeable veteran candidates) to strengthen catching and pitching–Mariners catching prospect Harry Ford is the main guy I would target, as they need position players but already have Cal Raleigh. If you really wanted to try to swing for the fences, you could target Samuel Basalo (who is behind Adley Rutschman) in a good old fashioned challenge trade for Matt Shaw.
Go sign Bauer now!😊
Alot of this stats quoting after the fact and all the stat padding the last 4 weeks doesn't tell the story…
Alonso led MLB in executed scoops this season. I find his Def metrics unusual.
Maybe we should have kept the 2016 core and just got top pitching?
It doesn't matter if it was a loaded free agent off-season because jed would still go for 3rd tier players
Cubs need to trade Nico and get some relief pitching. Bergman only makes sense if it's an opt out contract. Only need 1-2 years to get to Cam Smith who was knocking the cover off the ball. College players are ready more quickly.