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North Side Territory: Previewing what 2026 may bring for the Cubs · Foul Territory

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul of Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
0:07
Speaker 1: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
0:10
Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic and Patrick,
0:14
Speaker 1: it is our twenty twenty six preview episode looking ahead
0:20
Speaker 1: to kind of the main storylines for twenty twenty six,
0:24
Speaker 1: and I think it all kind of comes down to
0:29
Speaker 1: one big team. Maybe this is a theme that you know,
0:32
Speaker 1: we'll be talking about all season long, but it's kind
0:35
Speaker 1: of you know, obviously, you know, don't want to go
0:38
Speaker 1: to negative town with this worrying about just go for it,
0:43
Speaker 1: to go for it twenty twenty seven holes. Who knows
0:48
Speaker 1: it's something we can deal with a year from now
0:50
Speaker 1: in all likelihood. But the specifically with the Cubs like
0:57
Speaker 1: this is that cliff that I mean, how how long
1:00
Speaker 1: is Like Jed and even before him THEO, they talked
1:04
Speaker 1: about these cliffs and there was a cliff coming up
1:06
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, and now it feels like potentially
1:11
Speaker 1: there's another cliff with Seye Suzuki, Ian Hap, Nico Horner,
1:18
Speaker 1: Jamison Tyne, you know, Carson Kelly, so many others as
1:24
Speaker 1: Matthew Boyd. There are a lot of pending free agents
1:29
Speaker 1: for this Cubs team, a Cubs team that is built
1:32
Speaker 1: to win right now, just made the playoffs and is
1:36
Speaker 1: looking to do that again. But I think, you know,
1:40
Speaker 1: what do they do to take advantage of a very
1:44
Speaker 1: clear two year window and also how do they make
1:47
Speaker 1: sure they avoid it being a cliff? What are what
1:50
Speaker 1: actions are they going to take? And I don't want
1:53
Speaker 1: to make it seem like they're devoid of talent. There's
1:57
Speaker 1: young talent on this team and that's something that twenty
1:59
Speaker 1: twenty one did not have. But there's a lot of
2:04
Speaker 1: talent up for you know, free agency that could be
2:08
Speaker 1: walking at the end of twenty twenty six.
2:11
Speaker 2: The cliff was I believe one of Jed's lines after
2:15
Speaker 2: the Darvish trade was that when he sort of called
2:18
Speaker 2: out the Tigers, Phillies maybe another organization of this idea
2:23
Speaker 2: of sort of running all the way to the edge
2:25
Speaker 2: of the cliff. And you know whether or not you're
2:30
Speaker 2: willing to do that, you know, at what point do
2:34
Speaker 2: you start to build something different and hopefully better. I
2:42
Speaker 2: think this group, I'm not going to call this some
2:45
Speaker 2: sort of like Last Dance. I don't think this group
2:48
Speaker 2: has accomplished enough. I don't think there's that sort of
2:51
Speaker 2: connection to the city the way that the prior group
2:56
Speaker 2: obviously had made an in double mark on franchise history,
2:59
Speaker 2: on baseball history like period.
3:01
Speaker 3: But I do think.
3:02
Speaker 2: It's kind of fascinating of just like, how do they
3:10
Speaker 2: manage that? And we're joking off air like it feels
3:15
Speaker 2: like a big trade should be coming, but we also
3:18
Speaker 2: felt that way like years ago. Yeah, obviously Kyle Tucker
3:23
Speaker 2: trade was obviously a blockbuster trade, but just sort of
3:26
Speaker 2: like but that was less kind of minor league talent
3:32
Speaker 2: that was more kind of moving. I guess Cam Smith
3:35
Speaker 2: just became major league so quickly that I'm already forgetting
3:40
Speaker 2: that part of it. But just this idea of like,
3:44
Speaker 2: you know, they had a you know, really strong farm
3:47
Speaker 2: system and some of them have graduated and performed in
3:49
Speaker 2: the majors.
3:50
Speaker 3: Matt Shaw, Kate Horton, Pete kow Armstrong.
3:53
Speaker 2: Do they do that or I mean, we're still starting
3:56
Speaker 2: on our spring training schedule, but I'm guessing there's gonna
4:00
Speaker 2: be some big names still out there, and I'm guessing
4:02
Speaker 2: we're gonna be covering free agency in Arizona again, because
4:05
Speaker 2: that seems to be the way the market has unfolded
4:08
Speaker 2: in recent years, and this out of the Cubs position
4:12
Speaker 2: themselves sort of like hanging around the basket, you know,
4:15
Speaker 2: trying to like get a put back at an easy,
4:18
Speaker 2: easy basket instead of setting the market and having the
4:24
Speaker 2: big show at the winter meetings.
4:26
Speaker 1: If they're adding someone like Alex Bregman, it feels like
4:31
Speaker 1: you have to make a trade that has to be
4:34
Speaker 1: coupled with the trade. Now I'm not saying it has
4:37
Speaker 1: to be an infielder. I'm just saying there's not enough.
4:41
Speaker 1: I'm saying it, whether it's by Astero's casey, Kevin Olcontra,
4:45
Speaker 1: like someone. These guys have to play. You can't just
4:48
Speaker 1: have them stay in triple A for the rest of
4:50
Speaker 1: their careers. Eventually their value plummets if you don't play
4:55
Speaker 1: them or move them. And we were getting to that point.
5:00
Speaker 1: I guess we're there where we're so you have to
5:03
Speaker 1: make some decisions here. There was you know, like Kevin
5:09
Speaker 1: el Contray, I think is an interesting name in the
5:11
Speaker 1: sense like this guy has high upside talent. There are
5:13
Speaker 1: talent evaluators that believe he can be a really good player.
5:19
Speaker 1: Where does he fit on this team? This is a
5:21
Speaker 1: guy that can handle center field. Well, he's not playing
5:24
Speaker 1: center field on the Cubs. At some point you have
5:28
Speaker 1: to get some value for a guy like that. If
5:32
Speaker 1: you add a bat, if you add Alex Bregman, who
5:35
Speaker 1: are you moving? What do you You can't just shift
5:38
Speaker 1: everyone to the bench or uh. It just like there
5:43
Speaker 1: needs to be something done. There needs to be moves made.
5:48
Speaker 1: I agree like it. When when's that big trade coming?
5:51
Speaker 1: You know, we saw them pull the trigger last winter.
5:56
Speaker 1: Curious if if that comes at any point this this winter,
6:00
Speaker 1: in the spring, where whenever it may be, I agree,
6:03
Speaker 1: I what I do wonder? I don't know. Maybe there's
6:06
Speaker 1: enough rumblings with Regman that that'll get done before the spring,
6:13
Speaker 1: but there'll probably be something that we're talking about. There's
6:16
Speaker 1: going to be a move. There's gonna be something still
6:19
Speaker 1: happening in the spring that we're covering. Uh And and
6:23
Speaker 1: the roster isn't fully settled by the time pitchers and catchers.
6:27
Speaker 1: It used to be you didn't have to worry about
6:29
Speaker 1: this stuff, and that era kind of seems gone. We'll
6:32
Speaker 1: see if the new CBA changes that at all. But
6:36
Speaker 1: certainly something that I feel like we're just going to
6:39
Speaker 1: be talking about uh for for a while here. And
6:44
Speaker 1: I think there's pressure on them to make these things happen, because,
6:50
Speaker 1: like I said at the start, like they have this
6:52
Speaker 1: kind of too. They even view it as a two
6:54
Speaker 1: year window. You know, this isn't something that we're kind
6:58
Speaker 1: of throwing out there. They see this. They they are
7:01
Speaker 1: aware of their contract status, they are aware of what's
7:05
Speaker 1: going on, what type of team they have right now.
7:08
Speaker 1: And I think it's interesting to think about some of
7:10
Speaker 1: the players that are coming up. I know he's not
7:13
Speaker 1: beloved by every fan, but Ian Happ is a career
7:17
Speaker 1: Cub and like, is this his final run with the Cubs,
7:22
Speaker 1: what does that look like for him? What kind of
7:24
Speaker 1: season can he put together? And of course the name,
7:28
Speaker 1: I think fans nobody, there's nobody that's in this fan
7:32
Speaker 1: base that has bad things to say about Nico Horner.
7:35
Speaker 1: I would guess a consummate teammate, consummate player, like the
7:39
Speaker 1: type of guy that you want on your team. We
7:43
Speaker 1: reported earlier this winter about you know, teams asking about him,
7:48
Speaker 1: and sure enough, there was a report in the San
7:51
Speaker 1: Francisco Chronicle by Susan Sluss. I believe that the Giants
7:56
Speaker 1: are asking about Nico Horner. It would make a ton
7:59
Speaker 1: of sense. He's from the Bay Area. You know they
8:03
Speaker 1: can he can help any team looking to win. For
8:10
Speaker 1: my money, I just don't see like a point in
8:12
Speaker 1: moving him. I get but again, when you're at this
8:16
Speaker 1: point with so many free agents coming up, you have
8:18
Speaker 1: to entertain these things. Any pending free agent, you kind
8:21
Speaker 1: of have to listen. That's a that's a very Cleveland philosophy,
8:27
Speaker 1: and CARTERI. Hawkins obviously has brought that with him from Cleveland.
8:32
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a bad thing to have an
8:35
Speaker 1: open mind. I do think it would look optically be
8:40
Speaker 1: really rough, and it may take a little while for
8:42
Speaker 1: anyone to see it at the fruits of a move
8:46
Speaker 1: like that. If it were to go down, Yeah, I
8:50
Speaker 1: think is really unlikely. By the way, I wanted just
8:52
Speaker 1: to emphasize that. I think we both feel this is
8:54
Speaker 1: a very unlikely thing to happen.
8:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am curious as the winter plays out, like
9:01
Speaker 2: could they trade someone on an expiring deal. I'm sure
9:03
Speaker 2: they'll entertain it. I still think that'd be a hard
9:07
Speaker 2: thing to execute. I still think Nico Horner or someone
9:12
Speaker 2: you probably discuss the contract extension with. I don't know
9:15
Speaker 2: if that's happened like that yet or if they wait,
9:18
Speaker 2: wait a bit and know that they'd probably have a
9:23
Speaker 2: pretty good shot at matching or getting something done in
9:29
Speaker 2: free agency as well. I still think looking at to
9:34
Speaker 2: kind of spring training, I think a Pete Chrom's from
9:36
Speaker 2: extension is something that.
9:38
Speaker 3: Will likely be discussed.
9:41
Speaker 2: I think it's that kind of window of spring training
9:44
Speaker 2: before opening day that's usually a time when teams and
9:47
Speaker 2: agents and players get together on those sorts of things.
9:50
Speaker 2: Once the arbitration site goes through, once those final free
9:55
Speaker 2: agents are off the board, you can kind of look internally,
10:01
Speaker 2: look ahead and do it in a way that you
10:04
Speaker 2: try and take, you know, the distraction off the table
10:08
Speaker 2: one way or another to get some sort of clarity
10:11
Speaker 2: or resolution. I believe it was around opening day in
10:14
Speaker 2: Tokyo last year when Pete was considering, you know, some
10:19
Speaker 2: some concepts. We don't have all the details, but that
10:22
Speaker 2: was a general timeline. And and then I think it also,
10:28
Speaker 2: I mean, you've written about this a lot recently to
10:30
Speaker 2: hot of like like dude, where's the pitching? And I
10:34
Speaker 2: think that'll be a fascinating, like kind of going back
10:36
Speaker 2: over our notes, I feel like we've covered a lot
10:39
Speaker 2: of different sort of iterations here of the Cups trying
10:42
Speaker 2: to figure out that pitching pipeline, and there has been progress,
10:48
Speaker 2: there has been success stories. There are different ways to
10:52
Speaker 2: do it, see the twenty sixteen World Series.
10:55
Speaker 3: So we're not you know, think about this one dimensionally.
11:01
Speaker 2: It's just kind of kind of obvious that there's not
11:05
Speaker 2: a whole lot coming.
11:07
Speaker 3: And maybe that's fine.
11:07
Speaker 2: If Kate Horton like contends for the Cy Young every
11:11
Speaker 2: year for the next six years, and Jackson Wiggins follows
11:15
Speaker 2: Horton's path and is pitching in the big leagues, pitching
11:18
Speaker 2: big innings, big moments in the big leagues this year,
11:22
Speaker 2: and they add a nice, you know, medium long term
11:26
Speaker 2: piece to the rotation via free agency or trade this offseason.
11:29
Speaker 3: All that could happen. But like they they've acknowledged that
11:34
Speaker 3: it it's an issue.
11:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting how quickly it happened. There were some
11:39
Speaker 1: names that I think, you know, it had been traded
11:43
Speaker 1: over the past couple of years. They're not they haven't
11:46
Speaker 1: turned into top prospects, but they were valuable enough to
11:48
Speaker 1: be you know, used in trades. Ty Johnson comes to mind,
11:52
Speaker 1: a guy that they moved to get Esach Paratis. I'm
11:55
Speaker 1: probably missing a few. Uh, there's but there's been arms
11:59
Speaker 1: that have been traded that are like, oh, that's an
12:01
Speaker 1: interesting guy. Oh, look, he added five miles per hour
12:04
Speaker 1: to his fastball over the past three years. Those guys
12:08
Speaker 1: don't exist in the system. It's Jackson Wiggins. Then a
12:12
Speaker 1: steep decline and talent. Something that I had heard was
12:17
Speaker 1: the Cubs were like a bottom five team this past
12:22
Speaker 1: season and velocity gained. That was something that they changed
12:28
Speaker 1: drastically under Craig Breslo. This was a focus. This was
12:33
Speaker 1: something that was a major issue with the Cubs during
12:40
Speaker 1: you know, the THEO years, during their best years, and
12:44
Speaker 1: it was a complaint within the organization. They're bringing in
12:48
Speaker 1: guys and nobody's adding stuff, nobody's adding velocity. Where is
12:53
Speaker 1: the player development? And I don't know if it's like
12:57
Speaker 1: one thing leads to another, Craig Breslo leaves, this happens.
13:01
Speaker 1: It's hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong? Is this
13:04
Speaker 1: player development? Is this draft? There are things that I've
13:07
Speaker 1: heard from outside the organization that you know, like I
13:13
Speaker 1: don't love these drafts. I got a lot of that
13:16
Speaker 1: this past draft of I liked their strategy, I don't
13:20
Speaker 1: know if I love the players that they selected in
13:22
Speaker 1: that strategy. Why where are the upside swings for pitching?
13:30
Speaker 1: You know, there's who's going to work with like or
13:34
Speaker 1: who where's the talent to work with? So you know
13:40
Speaker 1: that some things need to change and that they're making changes.
13:43
Speaker 1: I will say that was something that we didn't see
13:45
Speaker 1: as much, you know, in the previous years a last decade,
13:51
Speaker 1: as much of like there weren't changes made. It took
13:54
Speaker 1: a while before THEO finally made some sweeping changes. Uh
14:01
Speaker 1: and and now there are changes being made. And you know,
14:04
Speaker 1: I don't want to act like Tyler Zambro can fix everything.
14:08
Speaker 1: Obviously we've talked about him a lot on this podcast,
14:12
Speaker 1: and there's a reason for that. Like he's a he's
14:14
Speaker 1: a pretty big part of this front office, and he's
14:17
Speaker 1: being tasked with some pretty big things. I don't know
14:21
Speaker 1: if he can fix everything. I don't know how long
14:23
Speaker 1: it takes to make changes and and and get things
14:27
Speaker 1: on the right path. If he can get them on
14:28
Speaker 1: the right path, I will say he's respected in in
14:32
Speaker 1: the baseball world and and you can you can do
14:36
Speaker 1: enough that changes can show up pretty quickly. Uh. I
14:42
Speaker 1: felt like they did under Breslo. We we started to
14:44
Speaker 1: see almost immediate changes and and went from like, how
14:50
Speaker 1: come we never see a player develop, a pitcher developed?
14:53
Speaker 1: To here's Edward al Zalai, here's Justin Steele, Here's Keigan Thompson.
14:59
Speaker 1: You know, did all those players turn into great players
15:02
Speaker 1: and stars? No, but we just weren't seeing that. Javier
15:07
Speaker 1: Assad now Kate Horton, We'll see, we'll see where this leads.
15:15
Speaker 1: I think for me that they have acknowledged the issue,
15:20
Speaker 1: are aware of it, and are addressing it. That that's
15:23
Speaker 1: like you just need to see that. You can't like
15:26
Speaker 1: you can't be in denial that like things are fine.
15:29
Speaker 1: We have Kate Horton, Jackson Wiggins is coming, look at
15:33
Speaker 1: you know, we developed Justin Steele. You're not hearing excuses,
15:38
Speaker 1: and I think you know that that's that's what you
15:42
Speaker 1: want to see. You want to see them say like, Okay,
15:45
Speaker 1: this isn't going well enough for us, because if you're
15:47
Speaker 1: not developing pitching, it's the same thing. It's the same
15:50
Speaker 1: thing that happened, and it's sunk a much more talented core,
15:55
Speaker 1: you know, it sunk them. And this whole thing is
15:59
Speaker 1: being built on player development. If you don't develop talent,
16:02
Speaker 1: if you're not going to spend like the Cubs and
16:05
Speaker 1: flex your financial might, then you have to develop talent.
16:10
Speaker 1: So you got to get this right. And and I
16:12
Speaker 1: think there there's some uh, you know, what's the word
16:17
Speaker 1: I'm looking for. They're being aggressive about it, and and
16:20
Speaker 1: there's there's some fire here and they're trying to make
16:23
Speaker 1: things happen.
16:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that previous career of Time Out had
16:27
Speaker 2: a little bit more talent, right. It was like basically
16:29
Speaker 2: the youngest core to like in a world series ever.
16:33
Speaker 2: And here we're talking about a core where like maybe
16:35
Speaker 2: roughly half the everyday players are going to be free.
16:37
Speaker 3: Agents right in in you know, several months. So, uh,
16:45
Speaker 3: I'm curious to see this year. You mentioned Justin Steele.
16:47
Speaker 2: H He is to me a fun pitcher to watch,
16:54
Speaker 2: just looking seeing how fans engage with him on social media.
17:00
Speaker 2: Him screaming in the dugout a couple of years ago
17:02
Speaker 2: in Milwaukee, I think he spoke for a lot of
17:04
Speaker 2: Cubs fans. I think it was his wake up you know, screaming.
17:10
Speaker 2: I think there's another word thrown in there and the
17:16
Speaker 2: return of showed to in Monaga. Like for me, I
17:18
Speaker 2: think I think it's that good year.
17:20
Speaker 3: I believe in what we've seen for.
17:26
Speaker 2: What like ten of his twelve months as a Cubs pitcher,
17:30
Speaker 2: you know what, over twelve months and over two seasons, whatever,
17:34
Speaker 2: however you want to break it down, I think the
17:37
Speaker 2: way Craig Council talked about him, how motivated he is.
17:42
Speaker 2: I think anyone who's encountered showed to understands where he's
17:49
Speaker 2: coming from. On that we've seen him make these adjustments before.
17:53
Speaker 2: You don't want to use injuries as an excuse, but
17:55
Speaker 2: if that set off a tiny chain, tiny chain change
18:01
Speaker 2: on that whole chain of mechanics that have to happen
18:05
Speaker 2: for him to be effective in the majors, maybe is
18:08
Speaker 2: a relatively simple fix. And if you have steel and
18:14
Speaker 2: showed a uh, you know, you go out and add
18:18
Speaker 2: another picture and an unidentified pitcher this offseason, we still't
18:22
Speaker 2: know who that is yet, boyd tie on Colin Ray like,
18:28
Speaker 2: I have a hard time seeing the twenty twenty sixth
18:31
Speaker 2: season going off the rails. I think they do have
18:33
Speaker 2: enough credible starting pitching.
18:36
Speaker 3: I think.
18:39
Speaker 2: The bullpen will frustrate people in April. Eventually they'll figure
18:42
Speaker 2: it out with guys we've never heard of before.
18:47
Speaker 3: And then just the.
18:50
Speaker 2: The Jed having his contract extension, Craig Counsel being one
18:54
Speaker 2: of the most established managers in the game, very professional
18:58
Speaker 2: group of players. I don't see it snowballing with like
19:04
Speaker 2: off the field stuff or distractions or personality conflicts like
19:10
Speaker 2: that does not mean the Cubs are winning like a
19:12
Speaker 2: hundred games and like dusting the Brewers. But with this
19:18
Speaker 2: extra wild card, like meaningful baseball in September almost feels automatic.
19:26
Speaker 2: I know it doesn't work like that in baseball, but
19:29
Speaker 2: I just have a hard.
19:30
Speaker 3: Time seeing them like losing ninety games or being on that.
19:33
Speaker 2: Sort of track you know where they where they sell
19:35
Speaker 2: the deadline like they they should be in it for
19:39
Speaker 2: the long haul here and then it's just a matter
19:41
Speaker 2: of being healthy again, right breaks And at what point
19:46
Speaker 2: do they sort of go outside their.
19:48
Speaker 3: Comfort zone and maybe do a big move that shakes
19:52
Speaker 3: things up.
19:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I agree on a lot of that,
19:58
Speaker 1: outside of injuries, you know, just hitting them hard. There
20:03
Speaker 1: is a core here and I know fans just think
20:06
Speaker 1: like losing Kyle Tucker means it's it's a huge step back,
20:11
Speaker 1: and you can't just assume that the young players take
20:14
Speaker 1: all take steps forward everyone stays healthy. I do believe
20:18
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of young talent here that can
20:21
Speaker 1: whole serve on on the offensive side, maybe not have
20:26
Speaker 1: a top five offense, but a top ten offense with
20:30
Speaker 1: you have to add on pitching. But I do believe
20:33
Speaker 1: that there's a step forward coming from from Kate Horton.
20:38
Speaker 1: What I saw from that guy this past season, Like
20:41
Speaker 1: he's the one that if I'm watching anyone in this staff,
20:44
Speaker 1: I agree with everything you said, Like I think showed
20:46
Speaker 1: a will bounce back. I'm excited to see what he
20:49
Speaker 1: can do. I'm curious to see how Justin Steal looks
20:51
Speaker 1: when he's healthy. But Kate Horton showed me something that
20:56
Speaker 1: I was just so impressed by everything both on the
20:59
Speaker 1: field and off the field, that I think something special
21:02
Speaker 1: is coming with this kid. I don't like being hyperbolic
21:07
Speaker 1: and saying, you know this guy, you know, just assuming
21:11
Speaker 1: stardom for young players when they show flashes, but it
21:16
Speaker 1: was the complete package, and that's why I'm impressed. He
21:20
Speaker 1: got better with each start. The strikeout started to come.
21:23
Speaker 1: You look at the overall numbers and you think he's
21:25
Speaker 1: not striking out enough guys. They started to come, and
21:29
Speaker 1: he learned how to pitch in the big leagues. He
21:32
Speaker 1: expanded his arsenal, like to do that all in one season,
21:35
Speaker 1: to add pitches, to use them differently, to learn how
21:40
Speaker 1: to command your pitches better, and what parts of the
21:42
Speaker 1: zone to attack hitters, and to have like these mental challenges.
21:48
Speaker 1: The Houston start, everyone talked about that, and and that
21:51
Speaker 1: did not sink his confidence. It made him tougher. I
21:56
Speaker 1: really have a ton of respect for the kid and
21:58
Speaker 1: think think special things are coming for him. And I
22:00
Speaker 1: think just on the offensive side, I really want to know,
22:03
Speaker 1: like I don't. Maybe we don't get an answer to this.
22:06
Speaker 1: Maybe up and down is his career. But Peter Armstrong,
22:09
Speaker 1: those two halves were so fascinating to cover, and just
22:14
Speaker 1: like that, that second half was a lot of questions
22:17
Speaker 1: spring up from that. And I don't think it's this
22:20
Speaker 1: is a disaster and he can't handle the moment as
22:23
Speaker 1: much as how does he learn from this? What kind
22:27
Speaker 1: of player can he be? How consistent can he get?
22:31
Speaker 1: Can he reach those highs a little bit more consistently
22:35
Speaker 1: and spread it out over a full season and what
22:37
Speaker 1: can he learn from the struggles and kind of bottle
22:41
Speaker 1: that up take those lessons. There's one thing that you know,
22:44
Speaker 1: like as as crazy as he can seem sometimes as
22:49
Speaker 1: like is undisciplined, I guess as he can see him
22:53
Speaker 1: at times, I think his teammates really like him and
22:58
Speaker 1: they know that, like, hey, look, it can sometimes be
23:02
Speaker 1: a little immature, and you know why, he's a kid.
23:05
Speaker 1: He's still young, he's still learning, but he's learning. He
23:10
Speaker 1: wants to learn. He wants to get better. He wants
23:12
Speaker 1: to how do I how do I improve in all
23:16
Speaker 1: facets of the game, whether it's on the field or
23:19
Speaker 1: smashing my helmet or you know, getting ticked after a
23:22
Speaker 1: rough at bat, whatever it may be. He wants to
23:25
Speaker 1: get better at all that stuff. And that that's something
23:28
Speaker 1: that I'm curious to see how that unfolds. And ultimately,
23:32
Speaker 1: I like, I think it's what everyone's waiting for.
23:35
Speaker 3: It's like what what is?
23:37
Speaker 1: And it's what we kind of started this with, like
23:39
Speaker 1: how do you what are you going to do to
23:43
Speaker 1: make this not the cliff? Like is it going to
23:45
Speaker 1: be some trade that adds talents. So now it's like okay, yeah,
23:50
Speaker 1: look yeah in in case he's taking a step forward,
23:54
Speaker 1: feel good about him stepping in at left field if
23:56
Speaker 1: that's the case, a right field for sayah by a
23:59
Speaker 1: steer your everyday dage say it's the kids. You go
24:02
Speaker 1: with a lot of kids. But is there a deal
24:04
Speaker 1: to be made to kind of extend like add some
24:07
Speaker 1: pitching and like, you know, cover the gap of like okay,
24:11
Speaker 1: well the pitching development isn't where we want it to
24:13
Speaker 1: be right now, but here's how we cover the gap.
24:15
Speaker 1: We got a young, controllable pitcher and him with Kate
24:19
Speaker 1: Horton and Justin Steele, we we have pitching for the
24:22
Speaker 1: next couple of years.
24:25
Speaker 2: What what is it?
24:26
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do? Are you going to sign
24:27
Speaker 1: Alex Bregman? And now you have Dancy Swanson and Alex
24:29
Speaker 1: Bregman as your cornerstone veterans?
24:33
Speaker 2: Is that?
24:34
Speaker 1: Are you going to extend Nico Horner? What is it?
24:36
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do? How are you going to
24:37
Speaker 1: extend this? So it's not the cliff, We'll see what
24:42
Speaker 1: it is. I don't know if there's a hard and
24:44
Speaker 1: fast answer coming in the next month. That'll be during
24:47
Speaker 1: the season what we're going to see, But it's a
24:50
Speaker 1: it's a fascinating season in so many levels. Obviously, we're
24:55
Speaker 1: going to be talking a lot about the CBA a
24:57
Speaker 1: year from now. Hopefully it doesn't eat into games, but
25:02
Speaker 1: you know, that's a depressing thought for another day.
25:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll leave negative town and say thank you to
25:10
Speaker 2: all of our readers and listeners and the great behind
25:13
Speaker 2: the scenes people at the foul Territory Network who are
25:16
Speaker 2: on like twenty four to seven, always hustling to put
25:20
Speaker 2: out a ton of shows around the clock.
25:25
Speaker 3: And these shows don't happen without the passion.
25:29
Speaker 2: From our listeners and readers who give us this great
25:33
Speaker 2: opportunity to cover a team that people really care about.
25:38
Speaker 3: We see it in the numbers, and we thank you
25:41
Speaker 3: for your support.
25:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you to everyone behind the scenes putting in
25:45
Speaker 1: all that work. Happy holidays to all of you. Thanks
25:47
Speaker 1: for listening. We really appreciate the support. It has been
25:51
Speaker 1: great to see you over the past almost two years
25:53
Speaker 1: now that we've been doing this show. Everyone really supporting
25:57
Speaker 1: this show and we're growing with episode and we appreciate
26:01
Speaker 1: you guys listening and spreading the word. Uh hope, hope
26:05
Speaker 1: to hear a lot more Cubs news in the new year,
26:08
Speaker 1: and we'll talk to you then. Well, no, we'll talk
26:10
Speaker 1: to you before the new year. We'll talk to you
26:14
Speaker 1: after Christmas time. Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
26:17
Speaker 1: Happy holidays and take care.