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Another team that might be a fit for Bryant would be the Phillies. You know Dombrowski has to be chomping at the bit to spend some money and get rid of some prospects. Bryant and Harper are big buddies.
The Padres will end up paying somewhere around $54 million of the $59 million owed to Yu Darvish over the next three seasons. Cubs kicking in the rest.
— Kevin Acee (@sdutKevinAcee) December 30, 2020
CHC current payroll is at 128.8mil (cots), 68% of their 189.7mil 2020 opening day payroll, after the Darvish / Caratini trade. CHC to pay 3mil on Darvish and Cots shows it as 1mil each of the next three seasons.
It’s interesting that the Cubs appear to be intent on mimicking the Cardinals going forward. They should have a bit more payroll room to do so, but it should be a comparable system. The Cards seem to do far better at identifying and developing pitchers, which hopefully will continue. There should be a lull that allows the Cards to take hold of the Central for 2-3 years though.
Jed is indeed following the Cardinals business model. He’s always respected the way the Cardinals do business.
It will take years to build a pitching pipeline and development process like the Cardinals have.
Not to be cynical, but I imagine Jed is going to follow the course approved by Mr. Ricketts. So does the Cubs owner admire the Cardinals model?
Ricketts, like DeWitt, creates the impression he is a hands-on owner. Perhaps he will be taking over part of the baseball ops leadership void left by Theo.
Just speculation, of course.
The Cubs may shift to a build from within model but when it comes time to splurge they do have very deep pockets. I expect next offseason to be wild and the 2022 season could be shaping up to be epic. I have always imagined the Cards/Cubs front offices going at it like the Yankees/Red Sox do. It could happen after 2021 when both teams will finally be rid of most of their albatross money.
Sure, Ricketts will be involved. But Jed wasn’t just handed the job. He earned it in Ricketts mind because of his philosophy. He and Ricketts have gotten close. And the Cardinals model of creating excitement every single season by being in the race until the end is attractive. Ricketts knows you can’t buy a WS win every year. But you can create consistent interest and excitement. And when you’re in the playoffs……
Are the Cardinals Division Favorites Following the Darvish Trade? https://t.co/lDyRyqLFS5
— viva el birdos (@vivaelbirdos) December 29, 2020
An excerpt from the Jeff Passan article I posted on the 2021 rules and agreement thread.
However badly the pandemic hit the Cubs, there remains the truth: The Ricketts family bought the Cubs and Wrigley Field for $845 million in 2009, and if the team sold today, it would likely fetch in the $3 billion neighborhood. That is quite the biblical gain in franchise value. Enough of one for fans to reasonably ask: Did they really have to trade Darvish coming off a National League Central title?
This is where the ugly reality of baseball — and the fear players have with expanded playoffs — comes into play. The NL Central is a bad division. The St. Louis Cardinals are solid. The Milwaukee Brewers are fine. The Cincinnati Reds might take a step back, as they’re expected to cut payroll. The Pittsburgh Pirates could be the worst team in baseball. Even without Darvish, the Cubs could ride an easy schedule into playoff contention — particularly if the postseason expands, as MLB would like, to seven teams per league.
The Cubs could have held on to Darvish and signed George Springer or Trevor Bauer. They could have traded catcher Willson Contreras to replenish their farm system and signed J.T. Realmuto. Had they done that, though, would they have been better than the Dodgers? The Padres? The Braves? No. Probably not. If having a lesser chance in 2021 means having a greater chance in 2022 and beyond, is it worth it?
That’s the questions teams ask themselves. The premise is false, of course; who’s to say they can’t win in 2021 and 2022 and beyond? The answer, dissatisfactory though it may be, is most owners. With Darvish gone and Javier Baez’s, Kris Bryant’s and Anthony Rizzo’s contracts expiring after this season, the Cubs theoretically could take their relatively empty balance sheet and use free agency and trades to reload before ’22 — and do so with a farm system that, with a few more moves in the coming months, could wind up as the one of the strongest, if not the best, in the NL Central.
Well this writer pulls no punches. I don’t agree with all of this but it is an interesting read.
Theo Epstein – dubbed "The World’s Greatest Leader" – skipped town when the Cubs fire sale began. Meanwhile, John Mozeliak and the Cardinals Just Keep Livin’. https://t.co/32yi9x0zN1
— viva el birdos (@vivaelbirdos) December 30, 2020
Scotty – Did you ever notice the difference in attitude between an older, experienced employee who’s kids are grown, his house is paid off, and his portfolio is large vs. a younger employee with 3 small kids and a big mortgage?
Pretty evident. Who’s going to go along with what an owner wants? Let’s take Tony Larussa, a future Hall of Fame manager vs.
Mike Matheny, who’s getting his first shot at managing. Or a young GM like Hoyer
vs. Kevin Towers.Passan equates equity with revenue. That’s actually pretty stupid. No business manager is going to count the value of the business as money that can be spent on assets, especially when the assets being discussed are so costly while losing all of their value in 5 or 10 years, or less. All that any business person wants is that their business is viable in that it turns some sort of profit. It’s a good thing that Passan does something other than try to run a business.
I think the point is that most private businesses don’t appreciate in value exponentially unless they are very profitable, therefore, wouldn’t it be plausible for those profitable teams to use their windfalls from past years to make it through a down year or two?
Nice recovery by the Cubs… Scambi is staying with ESPN, but because they are going to carry many fewer national games in their new deal with MLB, Scambi can do both jobs.
Cubs and @WatchMarquee announce that @BoogSciambi will replace Len Kasper as the team’s new play by play man. pic.twitter.com/38PFeWGoQj
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) January 4, 2021
Cubs Release Colin Rea https://t.co/fA3Rmi4sLV pic.twitter.com/l8xVXNnWve
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) January 5, 2021
There's been dialogue between the Mets and Cubs recently about Kris Bryant. The Cubs really like catcher Francisco Alvarez, one of the Mets' top prospects. Sandy Alderson indicated yesterday he isn't trading top prospects.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) January 8, 2021
Bryant looks to be on the block… with Heyman running interference for his agent…
Kris Bryant should have more of a market than he appears to: .889 lifetime OPS, brings flexibility (can play all 3 OF positions in addition to 3B), 1 year to go at fairly reasonable rate (about $18-19M).
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 8, 2021
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