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The Cubs’ offseason is starting to take shape · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A lot of these moves made sense. I'm not sure
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: if we'll see any of these guys back, but Mike
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Talkman was probably the surprise of of the grew.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick. We're your Cubs beat
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: writers over at the Athletic Patrick, we have some non
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: tender news. Mike Talkman is a little bit of a surprise.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Nick Madrick will not so much of his surprise, and
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: there were there were others over the course of the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: past few days, including Patrick Wisdom, Adbird, al Zalai.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I'm a Trey wingenter.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Uh. I think I got all of the non tenders.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Brennan Davis that is the other name, but I think
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the most interesting one is Mike Talkman.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: You know was very impactful, I'd say in twenty twenty
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: three and even twenty twenty four, but even he didn't
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: play much at the end of the season. I thought
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: it was impressive how he was able to come off
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the bench and help the team. Still showed he could
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: kind of help the team in various roles, right Like
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: he's been a starter, he's been a part time player,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: He's been a barely part time player and helped in
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: all those roles. I you know, I think his non
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: tender came as a little surprise to me. But then
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: when I see all the names being non tendered, I
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: guess there's a lot of decent players out there now,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and there must not have been much of a trade
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: market for a guy like Mike Talkman.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is what you dream about when you
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: get into this business, waiting around on a Friday night
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: for procedural moves of guys on the fringes of the roster.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: I'm with you, though, Talkman was a bit of surprise,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: But I do think, you know, if his number was
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: going to be around three million, and if his playing
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: opportunities were going to be severely limited, I think they'd
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: much rather reallocate that money and create a little more
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: room for the.
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: Owen Casey, someone like that.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Whatever name your left handed hitter or prospect type that
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: you want to get more at bats for. I think
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Mike Takman would be snapped up by a good team
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: very quickly. We all remember that catch, what was it?
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: The walk off against Cardinals at Wrigley this year where
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: he had that huge hit and there's one of those
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: mob kind of celebrations.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you'll just big moments, extremely professional, very thoughtful. I mean,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: I think you probably talked to me even more than
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: I have. But I always got the vibe of someone
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: who could do a lot in this game whenever he's
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: done playing. Offers a lot of like wisdom, young path
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: good sense of routine. You have to to be ready
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: when you never know when your number is going to
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: get called. So I thought there were kind of two
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: things with this. Like I said, the they're watching every
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: dollar here.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: You know. I think in.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Another another time, another team, maybe you would tender advert
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: and try to let him rehab at your facility and
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: hope maybe he could help in a playoff run, and
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: if not, you would still control his rights for I
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: believe another year. But look, they want to see what
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: they have with some of these young pitchers. They want
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: to repurpose those dollars and create some new pathways for
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: young talent.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and there were at least three names that I
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: saw on the non tender list as far as other
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: teams and relievers that instantly caught my attention Hoby Milner
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: being one of them. Lefty with who formerly of the Brewers'
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Craig Council, obviously managed him. I don't know, we don't.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: It's too early to say whether the Cubs have interest.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: But a guy like that, a guy like Jordan Romano,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: former closer, there was one other high leverage relievers. Yes, yes,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: it makes perfect sense. These guys, these are the types
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: of names I would keep an eye on. But they
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: probably have a solid enough market too, so I can't
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: assume it's just the Cubs. But especially like all these
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I want to say, like, like I didn't look up
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: all their numbers. Milner had an ERA over four, I'm
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: sure those. I think Vinegan had a pretty good season.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I thought he was an All Star. My guess is like,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: just based on the the what I saw on social media,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Romano probably had a high RA. This is like the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: pro health concern, I mean, how hell Okay, yeah, he
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: had season ending surgery. I believe an elbow issue. So yes,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the Blue Jays know more about that that we do.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: But still, you know a homegrown guy who grew up
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: in Ontario, uh and was really awesome for you know,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: three to four seasons on a playoff contending team.
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: I have interesting name to file away, no doubt.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is what the Cubs have done when
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: they've done well, picking up relievers. Right, It's guys that
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: have had success in the past that are coming off
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: down seasons or you know, down seasons purely results wise,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and and there were underlying things that suggested that they
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: they could bounce back, or the Cubs saw something that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: they liked. I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: any one of those guys or or had interest in
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: any one of those guys. Uh, there's probably a few
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: other names of guys that got dfad that that they're
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: going to be interested. And I joke when I put
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: down there Nick Madrigal lower body injuries. Listen, when he
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: was one hundred percent healthy, that was the lone time
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: he looked like he could help this team. The problem
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: was he just never was healthy. His body just could
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: not survive the big league grind, like, constantly suffering from
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: lower body injuries, muscular injuries. That initial injury with the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: White Sox just completely sidetracked his career. When he had
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: his legs underneath them, he seemed like a decent enough
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: player I think that was a month and a half
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: that we saw of that to the point where I
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: remember talking to coaches. I was in twenty three, like,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: we need to give him extra days off because the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: second we noticed him in the trainer's room getting extra
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: treatment after game, it's like, no, that's not going to work,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and like, and he was hitting and he was helping
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the team, but they needed to they needed to give
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: him days off. And then I think soon after I
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: had that conversation with a coach, he got hurt trying
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to track down a foul ball in like a short
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: like Ryfield. It was unfortunate, and that goes down as
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: a you know, a trade that that doesn't that's not
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a winner for Jed Hoyer, right, Craig Kimberrell was probably
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the best reliever on the market at that point in time,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: and the Cubs got, you know, not very much value
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: in terms of Cody Hoyer and Nick Madrigal. So that's
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that's unfortunate for them. Uh. You know, Patrick Wisdom, I
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: liked him as a power bat off the bench, but
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: you know, at the price that he was gonna make
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: this year made sense. So I just think, uh, these
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of these moves made sense. I'm not sure
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: if we'll see any of these guys back, but Mike
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Talkman was probably the surprise of the group.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I think just an overall sense of sort of
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: time to move on. Yeah, agreed.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: I think you know what we call them a business
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: a transition right right?
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And uh, as far as new Cubs go, Patrick with
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the Cubs did add two new names this week, h
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Matt Tice backup catcher.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I we'll see if they.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Don't upgrade beyond that, if they go into next season
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: with Miguel Amaya and Matt Tice, I don't think, I
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: think right, Yeah, and I would, and I think Cubs
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: fans would have every right to be frustrated with that.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: If that's when you end the season and it was
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: circled as an area that you had to improve, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: it's a guy that just got dfaied by a non
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: playoff team who's never really produced at a high level
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: at the big leagues. Yeah, perfectly fine to be your
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: third catcher and a depth piece in the minors. If
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: there's this is a long offseason, right, this is early on.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't get too worried about it. If you're a
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Cubs fan right now, and you're stressed about that, but
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: it's the reality is it could it could be. You know,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: they're they're going to continue to look for an upgrade.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: There is what I would say, no doubt in my mind.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: And Eli Morgan's like, you know, the first or if
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: you want to include rob zis Risney the second step
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: in creating real depth in this bullpen.
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: This is.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Eli Morgan's a very good reliever. He is not a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: great elite reliever. He's not going to close out games
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: for this team, but he can eat more than three outs.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: He's consistent, he can be trusted to get, you know,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: in the sixth or seventh inning some outs for and
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I think that's that's what this team needs, right They
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: need up more than this. But this is a nice
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: addition for a minor leaguer who played at low A
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: last year and it struck out it an above a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: thirty percent rate. Listen, I know prospect fans are going
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to talk about a phone scene Rosario a lot, but
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: he's it's a boomer bust guy. It's perfectly fine guy
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: to move in this type of deal.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Cleveland's one of those places where you
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: do wonder if they could unlock something or they're just
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: going to give him more opportunities they would have gotten
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: in Chicago. But what really jumped out to me when
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: I read your piece in the Athletics Sahadev was how
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: the Cubs are lining up this they're board in terms
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: of free agent pitchers and that even though you know
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: we're in that in between stage GM meetings and Thanksgiving
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: and kind of building towards the winter meetings, it seems
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: like we have a pretty clear idea of what the
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: clubs are thinking in terms of those rotation upgrades. What's
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: what's your sense of the market here.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we knew it wasn't gonna be Corbin Burns, right,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: it seems like Max Freed is probably unlikely. Uh, just
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: in general, those those qualifying offer guys, it doesn't sound
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: like that's not been what they do in the past,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and I don't think that's changing. Uh, you know, they
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: can the more they talk, the more they discuss things,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: these these thoughts can shift, right. So nothing's locked in
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: just now, but it is a deep market in that
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: mid tier starting what do you want to call it?
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Upper middle class, the upper.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: You know, like you feel like, you know, Nathan Valdi
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: has been a very good picture for a long time,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: so I feel like, yeah, you'll kind of imply as average,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: and I feel like what they're getting would be an upgrade.
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: And there are some guys who who do jump out
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: a little.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Bit right, and I think you look at qualifying offers
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: knocks out a decent chunk of those guys. Sean and
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I had a great bounce back season, Louis Severino great season.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: The two names that you know, I think if they
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: weren't attached to qualifying offer, would make some sense with
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the seasons that they had. I don't think they'll be
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: at the top of the list when you have Nathan Nevaldi.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Nick Pivetta is a qualifying offer guy. I think he
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: would have made sense, but the qualifying offer like drops
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: his value a little bit in terms of what you
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: want to spend on him. But it's like, I think
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: the primary names that come to mind are Vivaldi, you say, Kakuchi.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know how the Cubs feel about Jack Flaherty,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: but he doesn't have a qualifying offer. They loved him
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: coming out of the draft. He's a polarizing guy, you know,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: so like, I don't. The shoulder is questionable. Health wise
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: is definitely questionable. I personally like him. There's going to
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: be debates in that front office from what I understand
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: about whether they would be in on him, and I
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: think the price tag may may get maybe even years
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: may get longer with that health history. I'm not sure
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: if that makes the most sense. Kakuchi's a guy that
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I like. I was specifically told they need to dig
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: in more to understand see how he did, like how
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: he did what he did at the end of the season,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and I like, depending on the years, I know he's
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a little older. He's thirty three, I want to say,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: depending on the years, Like when you kind of figure
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: things out, it's like, oh, my slider is so much
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: better than I realized, and I'm going to use it
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: more type thing. Maybe he has like a late career,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: like you know, jump whatever it is, like, if it's
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: not one of those names, they need to find someone that,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you know, that gives them some some sort of certainty
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: in that in that middle of the rotation, someone that
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: pushes ty one to like or or equals tye and
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: and is right. And it could even when they're pitching
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: at their best look like a steal or or Shota.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Uh and and I think they're also this front office
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: we have to you know, they they're they're not stupid,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Like they don't expect Shota to repeat that season. They like,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: that's gonna be really hard. And that's part of the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: reality of it too.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I wouldn't only get one of these guys,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: but there's also that bucket of Walker Bueller, Shane Bieber.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: There's some interesting names out there. I think the Shaman
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I as, the Severarinos, even Jack Flaherty, Like those are
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: the guys you signed last.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: Offseason, right right, It's like, yeah, the.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Whole Brandon Morrow theory, just on the starting pitching side.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: So I think, you know, I remember it even a
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: name a couple of years ago, like Andrew Heaney, right,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: like some some guy that maybe we're not thinking of
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: or like, I think the qualifying offer is just like
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: the final kind of disqualification from the Cubs perspective for
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: a lot of those guys who had like great, like
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: bounce back years and are.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: Looking to cash in.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, uh Patrick. If if the Cubs are going to
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: upgrade their their offense, they're gonna have to get creative.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: We've talked about this, but now we're hearing more about it.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: What is the can they move Cody Bellinger? What is
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: the market for Cody Bellinger? Is it silly for a team?
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: This is something I've been thinking about. Is it silly
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: for a team like the Cubs to be looking to
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: shed pay role essentially to add right to have more
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: flexibility because Cody Bellinger kind of has I know, we've
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: seen him really bad before, Like, maybe not Cubs. The
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Cubs haven't seen him really bad, but Ella his last
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: few years in LA were bad, right, They're not good offensively.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: He's healthy though, right, So I think we kind of
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: have a floor for him. We know there's upside there
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: to be, like carrying offense. I think sometimes and I
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: get in this trap too, like where you're like, well,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: they need an upgrade, we need a shining new toy,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: like you have to find someone else. Right. If the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: argument is they need flexibility to play some younger guys
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: that they think are ready to impact the team, I
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: can get with that, But I also think, like he
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: gives you some certainty. I go back and forth on
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: the idea of what it makes sense to trade Cody Bellinger.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I think, I what I if that happens, and if
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: they pull this off, I'd like to know what the
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: other moves are before before they do it, you know
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: what I mean?
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like we're gonna hear Cody Bellinger trade
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: rumors at Cubs convention and like as pitchers and catchers report, Like,
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: I don't know, I'm with you on I think the
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: floor is pretty high, well established now. I don't think
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: the ceiling is gonna be very easy for him to
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: reach anymore.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: But I don't know.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Seeing his name in the lineup seat washing him play
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: every day. He's just a good all around player. And like,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: do you really think Peko Armstrong and Michael Bush are
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: gonna play like one hundred and fifty five games next
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: year a piece and lock down those positions for years
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: to Maybe they do. I mean, they're they're good players too.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: I'm not ruling that out, but I don't know. There's
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: a front office that is kind of obsessed with worst
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: case scenarios. It's a manager who's really good at moving
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: the pieces around. I think he fits. I think he
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: makes sense. I don't see why you have to trade
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: him unless there's some sort of like money crunch, like
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: an extreme money crunch that we're not aware of, or
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: you know, some team that has secretly been coveting Cody
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Bellinger for a long time, which I sort of doubt
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: considering how we've seen this kind of free agent cycle
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: go the last couple of years.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: I think this scenario is Wan Soto signs somewhere in
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: you know, early December some point, and the Cubs are
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: positioned to, you know, to market Bellinger as the fallback
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: lefty out versatile outfielder, slash first base man, and you know, veteran,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: good defender, healthy winner, all these things, right, good clubhouse guy,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: good attitude, all the things that you look for in
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: a player. That's how they market him. Our colleague at
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the Athletic Ken rosenthal Is reported that money is a
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: factor for other teams here. You know, it's thirty two
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: point five million dollars essentially twenty seven point five for
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: this season, five million dollar buyout.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: That's a chunk.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: That's a chunk of change. And I think the idea
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: that it could be a two year deal also changes
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: some some thoughts, So you know, it could just be
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: a money dump like that that either means it's it's
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: changed exchanging quote unquote bad contracts or or getting a
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: lower level prospect that isn't highly thought of. I don't
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: like that. I just don't I get it. And I
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: and I need to see the full moves, like I
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: said before, like what what else are you doing? But
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I just like it doesn't feel right for this organization
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: to have to do something like that. But I guess
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: that's where we are and and and it's not like
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: it's just this weird in between phase right for them.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: It's not like they're cheap and and have no money,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: but it's also not like they can flex their financial
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: might in any way. Uh. And that that leaves me
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: like a little like with a bad taste in my
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: mouth when I when I'm talking about things like this,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: like it's it's like, come on, like there's I can
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: also understand the argument that listen, he just clogs things
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: up as far as trying to as far as trying
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to upgrade the lineup, right, that that's fair. I will
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I will listen to that argument more than you know.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: If you're telling me it's about money, I just I
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: don't love that concept. But it's the reality that they're
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: faced with.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Plus, this isn't like year one of Jed and THEO
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: in Chicago and Bellinger's like Alfonso Soriano, Like this team
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: has to win next year, and Bellinger can help you
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: in a lot of different ways. Now, look, there's no
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: doubt him coming back as a sign that stuff went
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: wrong last year, whether it's his health, the Wrigley weather,
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: just the general sort of state of.
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: The team last year.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Like those Boris opt out deals are meant to be
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: opted out, like that's the that's the plan. But I
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: also have a hard time thinking of this as this
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: like albatross awful contract considering how pleased everyone seemed to
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: be at spring training last year of oh, Belli's back,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: and you know Boris getting the press conference with that
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: up there, Like, I don't know, it seemed like a
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: pretty good outcome last spring for everyone. And I think,
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: you know, theoretically, sure, it makes sense. In reality, though,
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: I just have a hard time seeing the Cubs finding
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: a match and executing a deal of that.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Magnitude, right. And here's the thing, here's here's my final
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: thought on it. So I think with all the conversations
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: we've had and everybody we've talked to over the past
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: whatever six months really that we've been talking about the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: idea of what will he or won't he opt in.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I think it came as a little bit of a
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: surprise to that front office. I think they expected him
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: to opt out and when he didn't, and I think
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: he did so didn't do it for he feels very
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: comfortable there and he wasn't thrilled with this season, and
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: he wants and he wants to show that I can
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: have a better season. But because of that, I'm wondering
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: if Jed and Carter and the rest of the front
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: office kind of had a plan without his money on
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the books, so it would essentially be getting like moving
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: him for you know, a nondescript prospect, would essentially be
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: like him opting out right and then and then them
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: acting in that fashion. So I come back to what
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: I said originally, I want to see what the rest
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: of the moves are. If this is what they're doing.
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: That's a good's I hadn't thought of it that way.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: That's and and I'm giving them the benefit of the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: doubt when I say that, you know, I'm being very
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: kind to them. I think, and and looking at it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: an optimistic way, but I think I think you could
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: look at it in that fashion and and it all
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: depends on what they do. It's the same thing with
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Matt like what we were talking about with Matt Tice, like
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: if this is the move, then then it's not really
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: like fans should should be upset if this is how
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: you are saying, like, hey, catcher is a really important spot,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and then you go and get you know, a guy
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: that was essentially or that was dea fade, so you
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: know that that's that's where they are. This is I
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: like some of the moves they've made. I I'm not
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: sure if if the others are are moving the needle much.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: It is not even December, so not not any reason
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: for fans to panic or get get too upset about anything.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: This is.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: This is like the off season hasn't even started. I
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: think the Cubs off season will rarely get going when
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: when Wan Soto signs, and then we'll have a better
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: idea of how things will look. I wouldn't even be
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: surprised if in the next two weeks there's more pitchers
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: signed by the Cubs or just more moves in general.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: So we're just getting started with this all Patrick, it
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: is about to be the heart of heart, heart of.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: Hot Stove season.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Everyone have a good Thanksgiving. We'll we'll be back. We're
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: gonna take a little break here from podcasting, but but
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: you guys all have good Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for listening.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe on YouTube. We're
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: doing great on that. I really appreciate you guys subscribing.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Continue to do that. Look at our lovely faces and
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: be the true sickos. People like that I call them sickos.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: They enjoyed that.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: The response I got on Twitter was another social media
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: was was good. So I maybe maybe we should have
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: you know, northside sickos as our as our I like
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: it hashtag. Thanks for listening to everyone. Make sure to
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: subscribe to The Athletic as well, where Patrick and I
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: are writing regularly on on this offseason. Thanks take care.