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What have the Cubs been up to at the Winter Meetings? · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. I'm
0:08
Speaker 1: Sahad a drama with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
0:10
Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. We
0:15
Speaker 1: are out in Orlando for the winter meetings and there
0:20
Speaker 1: have been a few signings, obviously a couple you know,
0:25
Speaker 1: massive deals, with the Ale Schwarber signing at his age,
0:30
Speaker 1: his you know, lack of a position really, but he's
0:34
Speaker 1: getting a massive one hundred and fifty million dollar deal.
0:36
Speaker 1: That's it's well earned and someone that you and I
0:39
Speaker 1: both have a ton of respect for, a ton of love,
0:42
Speaker 1: easy to easy guy to root for, and just you know,
0:46
Speaker 1: good for fans, good for media, good for teammates, like
0:49
Speaker 1: a great dude all around.
0:51
Speaker 2: Definitely worth that deal.
0:53
Speaker 1: And then the Edwin Diaz deal, that's the other monster,
0:57
Speaker 1: biggest contract.
0:58
Speaker 2: For a reliever a v wise.
1:01
Speaker 1: Uh, I guess it's not shocking to see that, but
1:04
Speaker 1: the Dodgers just keep churning out these massive contracts, surely
1:09
Speaker 1: to the frustration of many and non Dodger fans. But
1:12
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of the reality of baseball right now.
1:16
Speaker 1: But other than that, the rest of the league doesn't
1:19
Speaker 1: seem that interested in in uh, you know, making a
1:23
Speaker 1: ton of movement. Obviously the Blue Jays have been super active. Ah,
1:27
Speaker 1: there's just not not a lot of aggressive action.
1:31
Speaker 2: And and the Cubs are right there.
1:33
Speaker 1: Uh, they're they're they're clearly being talked about. They're clearly interested.
1:40
Speaker 1: How interested it's hard to tell how how aggressive do
1:44
Speaker 1: they want to be. That's that's kind of you know
1:47
Speaker 1: what we're hearing. It's like, yeah, the Cubs are interested
1:50
Speaker 1: in these guys. Yeah, the Cubs would like to make
1:51
Speaker 1: a move. The Cubs are talking trade, The Cubs are
1:54
Speaker 1: interested in free agents. Getting to that finish line seems
1:57
Speaker 1: to be a little harder than than fans would like.
2:02
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I.
2:04
Speaker 3: Don't know if it's aggressive or maybe a little passive aggressive.
2:09
Speaker 4: It has been hard to track.
2:13
Speaker 3: There are some obvious needs on this team, and we've
2:16
Speaker 3: outlined that before.
2:17
Speaker 4: But it you just be talking to people.
2:20
Speaker 3: We've both heard this of, like, you know, they're on
2:25
Speaker 3: free agents, the instant in trades, maybe another proven hitter,
2:31
Speaker 3: an accomplished starting pitcher, you know, looking at a higher
2:34
Speaker 3: range of bullpen guys. But to this point, and we're
2:37
Speaker 3: recording on Wednesday morning. Nothing's gotten to the finish line,
2:42
Speaker 3: and I think most people except for us are planning
2:45
Speaker 3: on flying home Wednesday afternoon.
2:49
Speaker 4: Wednesday night after the Rule five draft. And so.
2:54
Speaker 3: We were kind of going into this taken by how
2:57
Speaker 3: people were talking about the Cubs, how they were engaging
2:59
Speaker 3: different parts.
3:00
Speaker 4: Of the market.
3:01
Speaker 3: They had a little bit of money to spend, maybe
3:03
Speaker 3: not as much as everyone would like, but that you know,
3:07
Speaker 3: they could be players here, a team to watch. And
3:13
Speaker 3: Jed Hoyer, when kind of, you know, presented with that idea,
3:17
Speaker 3: you know, kind of went back to we're not going
3:20
Speaker 3: to force deals just to force deals. He did not
3:22
Speaker 3: say which inning of the off season this is, but
3:25
Speaker 3: he still was kind of referring to it in more
3:27
Speaker 3: of a kickoff stage than you know, any sort of urgency.
3:33
Speaker 3: You know, we'll see if they do something before Cubs Convention,
3:36
Speaker 3: I would imagine yes. But these winter meanings are also
3:41
Speaker 3: different from when we first started covering it, Like they
3:43
Speaker 3: cut a day off the schedule. And to your point,
3:47
Speaker 3: it's not like everyone in base else in baseball is
3:50
Speaker 3: going crazy and the Cubs are sitting on the sidelines.
3:53
Speaker 3: Like there's been a lot of I guess patience and
3:57
Speaker 3: fiscal restraints shown thus far across the league.
4:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, even previous big spenders. Look, the Dodgers are the Dodgers,
4:03
Speaker 1: and I think they've kind of established themselves as in
4:06
Speaker 1: this league, in a league of their own. They don't
4:11
Speaker 1: they don't follow the same rules, They don't live in
4:13
Speaker 1: the same reality as the rest of baseball, and I
4:16
Speaker 1: think we just kind of have to put them in
4:18
Speaker 1: a separate category. The Mets aren't, you know, acting like
4:23
Speaker 1: the Mets normally do. David Stearns is a very you
4:27
Speaker 1: know when he was in Milwaukee, like he learned, you know,
4:32
Speaker 1: different habits and he was really good at what he
4:35
Speaker 1: did in Milwaukee. I don't think he wants to behave
4:39
Speaker 1: completely like the Dodgers all the time. Obviously he has
4:42
Speaker 1: a different set of rules that he can work with
4:44
Speaker 1: in New York. But it seems like the Mets are
4:47
Speaker 1: even being a little bit more fiscally responsible than they
4:51
Speaker 1: had in previous offseasons. So, I mean, who are these
4:56
Speaker 1: teams that are going to act while the Yankees can?
4:59
Speaker 1: We hear hell Steinbrenner saying, like the Yankees aren't as
5:02
Speaker 1: profitable as you think.
5:04
Speaker 2: Like everyone's talking about these things, okay, buddy, Yeah, yeah, right.
5:09
Speaker 1: Uh So the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Cubs, these
5:12
Speaker 1: teams that you'd you'd like to see be incredibly aggressive
5:16
Speaker 1: with their spending just aren't. Whether that's uh, the way
5:20
Speaker 1: front offices work right now, whether that's the you know
5:24
Speaker 1: reality of them all accepting that, accepting the reality of
5:29
Speaker 1: you know, a lockout happening a year from now, uh,
5:32
Speaker 1: and and not not wanting to spend in a fashion
5:36
Speaker 1: that you know, may be outdated in a year. Right,
5:41
Speaker 1: it may not, it may not fit into whatever financial
5:45
Speaker 1: reality the league is in a year from now or
5:47
Speaker 1: a year and a half from now, whenever we have
5:49
Speaker 1: a new CBA. So there are reasons for this. I
5:53
Speaker 1: think fans just to you know, want want action, They
5:56
Speaker 1: want to see their team improve.
5:58
Speaker 3: Uh.
5:59
Speaker 2: It's not as it's clearly not as simple as.
6:02
Speaker 1: That one one funny did bit I heard, and the
6:06
Speaker 1: person was being serious when I talked to him.
6:09
Speaker 2: They're like, he's like.
6:11
Speaker 1: I think a lot of teams just that they don't
6:14
Speaker 1: want to do the press conferences at the winter meetings
6:18
Speaker 1: and they'll just they'll they'll get to the finish line
6:20
Speaker 1: on Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Friday. So and I mean,
6:24
Speaker 1: and you know, a lot of times we've seen that
6:27
Speaker 1: the deals get done. I want to say the Dansby
6:30
Speaker 1: Swanson deal was done Saturday after the Winter meetings. Kyle
6:34
Speaker 1: Tucker did not. Jed Hoyer did stay an extra night
6:37
Speaker 1: last the last last year, last Winter meetings because he
6:43
Speaker 1: didn't want to get the Tucker deal.
6:46
Speaker 2: Done while in the air.
6:47
Speaker 1: And I don't remember the exact day, but it was
6:50
Speaker 1: after the Winter Meetings that it got done. So a
6:54
Speaker 1: lot of this you'd like to You'd like to think
6:57
Speaker 1: they get the groundwork done at like they said, like
7:01
Speaker 1: the discussions or get some ideas at the GM meetings,
7:05
Speaker 1: and then spend that month laying the groundwork for deals,
7:08
Speaker 1: and then now is when they finalize the deals. I
7:11
Speaker 1: think that's I mean, there have been Winter meetings past
7:14
Speaker 1: where that was what happened, right where we've had like
7:17
Speaker 1: these flurry of moves. This has not been that type
7:21
Speaker 1: of Winter meetings. There's been some moves, but just.
7:25
Speaker 2: It's the deal.
7:25
Speaker 1: Like the deal everyone expected to get done at the
7:28
Speaker 1: Winter meetings was Kyle Schwarber. That happened, and now we're
7:32
Speaker 1: kind of just waiting and seeing what happens. I do
7:36
Speaker 1: believe that the trade market is what people are waiting
7:39
Speaker 1: to move as well, and that takes that's just a
7:42
Speaker 1: process that can take longer to get going, but I
7:45
Speaker 1: do believe that's active behind the scenes.
7:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that period just before the holidays as
7:54
Speaker 3: well of players wanting to know where they're going and
7:58
Speaker 3: having some of these matters settled, and what we're talking
8:02
Speaker 3: about could become outdated if something in the damn breaks
8:07
Speaker 3: or whatever. I think as we've been walking the lobbies
8:11
Speaker 3: here and checking in with colleagues and sources and the
8:17
Speaker 3: whole gamut of people who show about the winter meetings,
8:20
Speaker 3: I think we've we've as just been kind of like
8:22
Speaker 3: our heads have been spinning a little bit of just
8:24
Speaker 3: like just how people describe the cubs of you know,
8:28
Speaker 3: they're in kind of stealth mode. They're on a lot
8:32
Speaker 3: of different players, exploring a lot of different ideas, you know, trademarket,
8:38
Speaker 3: free agents. We'll get into some of the names like later,
8:41
Speaker 3: but they've been a little all over the place, and
8:46
Speaker 3: I don't I'm not saying that they're disorganized, but just
8:48
Speaker 3: that like it's been kind of hard to harder than
8:51
Speaker 3: normal to kind of keep track and get a sense of,
8:55
Speaker 3: you know.
8:55
Speaker 4: What they really want to do.
8:56
Speaker 3: It's like, yeah, we got interested in that guy, or
8:59
Speaker 3: oh yeah we've talked to them, or yeah we're staying
9:01
Speaker 3: in touch. It's just been a lot of that and
9:03
Speaker 3: like to this point, it hasn't really emerged of what
9:06
Speaker 3: they're like like true priority is. And that's just kind
9:09
Speaker 3: of how this front office has evolved. Right of it's
9:13
Speaker 3: less like obsessed with like kind of one player or
9:17
Speaker 3: you know, a singular talent that it's this whole like
9:21
Speaker 3: model driven.
9:22
Speaker 4: We just want to do good deals.
9:24
Speaker 3: And like that's that's harder to kind of pin down
9:28
Speaker 3: because they're always talking. They they're all of course they
9:31
Speaker 3: have you know, preliminary interests or a degree of interest
9:35
Speaker 3: or you know kind of a level of inquiry whatever
9:38
Speaker 3: the phrasing is. But eventually they're gonna have to pin
9:42
Speaker 3: some of these things down.
9:44
Speaker 1: And it's important to remember that the deals that get
9:48
Speaker 1: done first, especially before the winter meetings, are the ones
9:52
Speaker 1: that you know, the players are like a player isn't
9:55
Speaker 1: going to sign a deal unless they're really happy with
9:57
Speaker 1: that offer above market. Yeah, yeah, So these are the
10:01
Speaker 1: you know, massive deals that get done early and then
10:05
Speaker 1: for the most part the prices will start to go down,
10:08
Speaker 1: and like you said, like they get to the holidays
10:11
Speaker 1: and some players just want to know where they're going
10:13
Speaker 1: to be, and that's you may get a deal around there.
10:18
Speaker 1: It's looking like maybe not if it AAV Wise, Phil
10:25
Speaker 1: Mayton steel looks pretty good. I want to say Soroka
10:29
Speaker 1: has more per one if you're just looking at AAV
10:32
Speaker 1: it's seven point twenty five, correct, and that like Soroka
10:36
Speaker 1: made more for one year. And then there was there
10:39
Speaker 1: was another deal that was signed yesterday which would be Tuesday,
10:43
Speaker 1: that it was a one year deal, but still more
10:45
Speaker 1: than what Mayton is making per year. They were hoping
10:49
Speaker 1: that that would look like a deal as names went
10:53
Speaker 1: off the board, and it is looking like it at
10:55
Speaker 1: least with his track record.
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Speaker 2: Uh, that's that's a bit of a deal for them.
11:02
Speaker 1: We've spent a lot of time thinking pitching, pitching, pitching,
11:05
Speaker 1: and the Cubs are you.
11:07
Speaker 2: Know the Cubs.
11:08
Speaker 1: It sounds like they're they're not just focused on pitching,
11:12
Speaker 1: which makes sense. You lose Kyle Tucker, you have to
11:18
Speaker 1: at least check in on bats. We talked about Alex Bregman,
11:23
Speaker 1: I believe last podcast that's not off the table, and
11:28
Speaker 1: I don't think people should just rule that out.
11:31
Speaker 2: But I think a big part of what we've.
11:33
Speaker 1: Come away from whether it's Craig Council, Carter Hawkins, Jed Hoyer,
11:38
Speaker 1: each one of them had nothing but praise for Matt Shaw.
11:43
Speaker 1: And I think when you talk about model driven analysis,
11:49
Speaker 1: it's going to be hard to not love the guy
11:51
Speaker 1: with five years of control that had a really good
11:54
Speaker 1: second half, showed a really impressive glove at a at
12:00
Speaker 1: an impressive at a tough position in third base. Obviously
12:05
Speaker 1: they're they're going to be high on this guy in
12:07
Speaker 1: the future.
12:08
Speaker 2: This is a for an office that values youth. And
12:11
Speaker 2: you saw what Pete.
12:12
Speaker 1: Armstrong's impact was, Michael Bush's impact, They're hoping for the
12:17
Speaker 1: same from Shaw.
12:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought it was.
12:20
Speaker 3: The Shaw became a storyline here because of the bregmant interests,
12:26
Speaker 3: because of their interest.
12:30
Speaker 4: In the trade market.
12:31
Speaker 3: And I don't think their votes of confidence in Shaw
12:37
Speaker 3: prevents them from doing anything else, but it's just that
12:41
Speaker 3: they couldnt have been more clear in terms of we're
12:45
Speaker 3: planning to build around Matt Shaw.
12:47
Speaker 4: And so I think regman Is.
12:55
Speaker 3: Was always I don't want to say a long shot,
12:58
Speaker 3: but just that like the Cubs would have to kind
13:01
Speaker 3: of step outside their comfort zone to bring in Alex Bragman,
13:05
Speaker 3: and that maybe they do eventually, but bringing him in
13:10
Speaker 3: does not mean that they're trading Matt Shaw as like
13:13
Speaker 3: a sequence of next moves. And I mean Carter Hawkins
13:18
Speaker 3: could not have been more clear of saying no one's untouchable.
13:22
Speaker 4: But when Matt Shaw has all of those attributes you
13:26
Speaker 4: just listed.
13:26
Speaker 3: To how to have a you know, gold of caliber
13:30
Speaker 3: defender at a position that's been hard to fill for
13:33
Speaker 3: the Cubs for a very long time. Good offensive trajectory
13:39
Speaker 3: and profile, the cost control nature, the club control time
13:45
Speaker 3: horizon here, all of this in essence makes it extremely
13:50
Speaker 3: hard for the Cubs and vision trading him. I mean,
13:52
Speaker 3: they didn't trade him when he was struggling last year
13:56
Speaker 3: and they had a first place team, and this is
13:59
Speaker 3: a guy that other teams kept asking about apparently according
14:02
Speaker 3: to the Cubs. So if they didn't do it, then
14:05
Speaker 3: don't see them doing it now. You know, they don't
14:11
Speaker 3: have a ton of guys after twenty twenty six that
14:13
Speaker 3: they can count on. There's a few, and you know,
14:16
Speaker 3: maybe they do some more moves here, But I would
14:20
Speaker 3: not read their vote of confidence in Matt Shaw is
14:23
Speaker 3: saying we're out on Alex Bregman. It's just that they have,
14:28
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of a lot of ideas up
14:30
Speaker 3: in the air right now. But that Matt Shaw as
14:35
Speaker 3: an part of the opening day roster, if not lineup,
14:40
Speaker 3: seems seems like almost a given at this point.
14:45
Speaker 1: So it for players that had at least let's say,
14:49
Speaker 1: forty games in the second half, it's ian happ in
14:54
Speaker 1: the second half of the Cubs had a one thirty
14:56
Speaker 1: nine way to runs great at plus. I bet, I
14:58
Speaker 1: bet some fans are surprised. I'm surprise.
15:00
Speaker 2: I don't.
15:00
Speaker 1: I guess I don't remember the second half as well
15:02
Speaker 1: as I thought I did. But second was Matt Shaw
15:05
Speaker 1: one thirty way to runs great a plus in sixty
15:08
Speaker 1: three games two hundred and five played appearances. And we
15:12
Speaker 1: know he played really good defense. If you if you're
15:14
Speaker 1: a fan and you were watching those games, you saw
15:16
Speaker 1: how good he was defensively. He turned a corner in
15:19
Speaker 1: the second half. Look, this is how young players are.
15:23
Speaker 1: Young players are really inconsistent. They struggle early, especially in
15:28
Speaker 1: their careers. This is not it's much rarer. It feels
15:31
Speaker 1: like for the young player to come up, the rookie
15:36
Speaker 1: to come up and immediately hit.
15:37
Speaker 2: The ground running. Pete Gararmstrong struggled.
15:41
Speaker 1: You know, it's pretty much what we expect from a
15:44
Speaker 1: player to have these struggles and then you hope that
15:48
Speaker 1: they figure it out. It did seem like Matt Shaw
15:50
Speaker 1: figured something out.
15:52
Speaker 2: I don't think. I don't.
15:55
Speaker 1: I think we can have two separate conversations about keeping
16:00
Speaker 1: at Shaw and the potential of signing Alex Bregmant. I
16:04
Speaker 1: know it seems complicated, and it is like the sequence
16:08
Speaker 1: of events to make it all work would be interesting.
16:11
Speaker 1: You know that that that's that's something that I think
16:14
Speaker 1: would have to focus on more if it becomes closer
16:17
Speaker 1: to reality. But right now, you know, it's I think
16:22
Speaker 1: it's what front offices say a lot, like you just
16:26
Speaker 1: can't rule out certain situations just because it seems like, well,
16:29
Speaker 1: how does that work. It's like when when we have
16:32
Speaker 1: these debates of like, well, where is that prospect going
16:34
Speaker 1: to play? Like they have too many shortstops. It's like
16:37
Speaker 1: these things have a way of working themselves out. If
16:39
Speaker 1: you have an opportunity to get a really impactful player
16:43
Speaker 1: and bring them into your onto your roster. And and
16:47
Speaker 1: Alex Bregman's multi dimensional here.
16:50
Speaker 2: Uh.
16:50
Speaker 1: They they believe he's going to age well, they believe
16:53
Speaker 1: he's a you know, he is a great defender, a
16:56
Speaker 1: at a good position. Uh he he can it. And
17:01
Speaker 1: then there's the intangible value that they they love, that
17:04
Speaker 1: they want that they have a strong clubhouse culture. They
17:07
Speaker 1: have someone that can you know, improve that dynamic that
17:12
Speaker 1: they already value. So you know, I think there's ways
17:16
Speaker 1: for it to work. It is not I don't think
17:19
Speaker 1: we were suggesting that Matshaw has to be traded when
17:22
Speaker 1: when we pointed out the potential of Alex Bregman. But
17:27
Speaker 1: I understand where those leaps come from. But that's not
17:29
Speaker 1: that that just isn't how this front office is working
17:32
Speaker 1: unless they're getting an under control player in return or
17:37
Speaker 1: an impact player in return.
17:39
Speaker 2: That like, it just doesn't seem to make sense to
17:42
Speaker 2: move him right now.
17:43
Speaker 1: And I think Carter said it best, like that's how
17:47
Speaker 1: that front office thinks.
17:48
Speaker 2: H they're not going to give up.
17:51
Speaker 1: They did that deal last year, right, and they're not
17:55
Speaker 1: going to do it that that's not the way they
17:57
Speaker 1: that that that's not a yearly occurrent.
18:00
Speaker 2: It's just not going to be the way they do things.
18:03
Speaker 2: And I understand.
18:04
Speaker 1: I think I think Matt Shaw's really like he impressed
18:07
Speaker 1: me with his defense, and he impressed me with his
18:10
Speaker 1: ability to handle some pretty low lows and go out
18:14
Speaker 1: there and make adjustments.
18:14
Speaker 2: He's he's a tinker.
18:16
Speaker 1: It seems like he said, we're going to see a
18:17
Speaker 1: lot of different batting stances in mechanical adjustments from him.
18:22
Speaker 1: It's just kind of like there are players like that,
18:24
Speaker 1: and there are players like that who thrive because.
18:26
Speaker 2: You know, that's how that's how it works for them.
18:29
Speaker 1: But I you know, I don't think we're going to
18:33
Speaker 1: be seeing them giving away Matt Shaw anytime soon.
18:36
Speaker 4: No, I mean they've been.
18:38
Speaker 3: We spent understandably a lot of time on Bregman, but
18:43
Speaker 3: pitching remains the focus. And acquiring that pitching, you know,
18:49
Speaker 3: from our understanding, will not involve trading Shaw. So then
18:55
Speaker 3: it becomes look Jeded said, he wants at least one
19:00
Speaker 3: un sort of established starter to plug into the rotation.
19:06
Speaker 3: We've mentioned these free agents before, the King gallon Ami.
19:09
Speaker 3: That seems to be what they're looking at. Maybe there's
19:13
Speaker 3: another name we've missed, but that seems to be the focus.
19:19
Speaker 3: There is that trademarket that they've explored last summer and
19:24
Speaker 3: didn't come away with any real, real impactful pitching. And
19:30
Speaker 3: then the bullpen. I mean you wrote about this the
19:32
Speaker 3: other day of like a closer type and this has
19:37
Speaker 3: sort of summed up a lot of this offseason. They've
19:39
Speaker 3: been sort of circling a lot of these names, I'm
19:43
Speaker 3: assuming not Ds and the Dodgers, but whether there's begone,
19:50
Speaker 3: we went back the Reds, Fairbanks, they've sort of been
19:55
Speaker 3: around Hellsley. They checked in. We didn't get in a
20:01
Speaker 3: great sense of Devin Williams, like maybe cursory and not seriously.
20:09
Speaker 3: So there's still some names out there. And I Jed
20:13
Speaker 3: certainly did not rule out the idea of adding sort
20:17
Speaker 3: of a save getter to use a to borrow a
20:20
Speaker 3: Craig Council term.
20:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I thought council, you know, council.
20:25
Speaker 1: When he brought up it was unprompted, if I'm remembering correctly,
20:29
Speaker 1: It just like, well, we have to add to the bullpen.
20:32
Speaker 1: He basically don't have a bull been like it's like
20:36
Speaker 1: there's two guys that that he could trust, really and frankly,
20:41
Speaker 1: like if you saw if you watch Porter Hodge in
20:43
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, you thought you could trust him in
20:45
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, and that didn't happen. So all the
20:48
Speaker 1: respect for the work Daniel Palentci had put in and
20:51
Speaker 1: the pitching performances he delivered this past season, I wouldn't
20:56
Speaker 1: say he's a guarantee It. Council even said, like we
21:01
Speaker 1: you know, they were wrong going into the season about
21:03
Speaker 1: who was going to be the key who were going
21:05
Speaker 1: to be the key contributors to the bullpen. It's really
21:08
Speaker 1: hard to to to get that right. So you take
21:12
Speaker 1: a you'd like one more like a guy that you
21:16
Speaker 1: feel brings some stability, and then it's going to be
21:18
Speaker 1: a lot of bites at the apple, like they're they're
21:21
Speaker 1: going to spread this around it and it's going to
21:24
Speaker 1: be players. And I probably say this once every other episode, uh,
21:29
Speaker 1: and and bring it up a lot during the season. Uh,
21:33
Speaker 1: we just don't know what you're going to get from
21:34
Speaker 1: a bullpen.
21:35
Speaker 2: Uh.
21:36
Speaker 1: It's really hard to predict that these are the most
21:38
Speaker 1: volatile like players and maybe all of sports. Uh, it's
21:44
Speaker 1: just they're going to have to figure it out and
21:47
Speaker 1: and hope that they hit and and they they've been
21:51
Speaker 1: pretty good in the past. Uh, it hasn't been perfect,
21:54
Speaker 1: and there have been some seasons where it's stung them.
21:57
Speaker 1: So I think that's why we're seeing is signing like Maydan,
22:00
Speaker 1: and we'll probably see one more solid veteran added, but
22:06
Speaker 1: the rest is going to be spread out and and
22:08
Speaker 1: you know that there's interest in bringing back some of
22:11
Speaker 1: the guys that they had, but you know that's not
22:14
Speaker 1: even a guarantee as far as their performance next year.
22:17
Speaker 2: So well, we'll see how they handle that.
22:20
Speaker 1: I do think it's a it's going an incredibly important
22:24
Speaker 1: part of the of the team, but it's just it's
22:27
Speaker 1: not going to be spending record amounts of money to
22:30
Speaker 1: go gett An Edwin Diaz or or break the bank
22:33
Speaker 1: to get Devin Williams.
22:34
Speaker 2: Right, they just weren't that. Those aren't the types.
22:36
Speaker 1: Of moves they make there, even if they're spent treating
22:41
Speaker 1: it a little differently than years past.
22:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, we don't know exactly.
22:48
Speaker 3: What the budget is, but I'm curious to see how they
22:53
Speaker 3: can you add under the current parameters, like an everyday
22:59
Speaker 3: type play, proven hitter, a you know, number two or
23:04
Speaker 3: number three type starter and like a lateening leverage reliever
23:11
Speaker 3: with with a track record like fitting all three of
23:14
Speaker 3: those things in. I don't know, we'll see they're like.
23:20
Speaker 3: I guess kind of time will tell. I guess they don't.
23:24
Speaker 3: It's not all money either. There are different ways via
23:28
Speaker 3: trade to maybe accomplish that. But I think that just
23:32
Speaker 3: shows why we've been kind of you know, talking in
23:35
Speaker 3: circles a little bit after being in this like Winter
23:38
Speaker 3: meetings bubble of you know, there's just a lot, a
23:43
Speaker 3: lot of different ways this could go. And you it's
23:50
Speaker 3: also important to remember too of where they're coming from versus
23:54
Speaker 3: these last couple of years of building or being stuck.
23:58
Speaker 4: In that eighty three win territory.
24:01
Speaker 3: Uh that they they now have, they have a they
24:04
Speaker 3: have a nice club, they have a pretty solid foundation,
24:06
Speaker 3: but you know, those are three pretty big items still
24:11
Speaker 3: to go here. When you're talking about you know, maybe
24:16
Speaker 3: Bregman or some hit or that's not quite thinking of yet.
24:22
Speaker 4: Uh, you know one of those starters.
24:23
Speaker 3: Who could you know, really perform in a playoff game,
24:26
Speaker 3: and a guy who could close out a playoff game
24:28
Speaker 3: like those are you know, not those players are you
24:31
Speaker 3: know somewhat.
24:32
Speaker 1: Rare exactly yeah, well, yeah, they don't come by cheap.
24:39
Speaker 1: We'll see if we get more clarity, uh one more,
24:43
Speaker 1: I mean there's not people like you said, people are
24:45
Speaker 1: starting to leave uh and and head out of Orlando here.
24:50
Speaker 1: But hopefully there's a little more clarity by the end
24:53
Speaker 1: of the week. Maybe there's a move or two. You know,
24:57
Speaker 1: who knows if they get one done by the end
24:59
Speaker 1: of this week. But there should be some action before
25:02
Speaker 1: the holidays, you would hope. But it certainly has slowed
25:05
Speaker 1: down a little bit and we'll see what the rest
25:07
Speaker 1: of the week holds holds for us. Thanks so much
25:10
Speaker 1: for listening everyone. This is north Side Territory. Make sure
25:12
Speaker 1: to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and
25:16
Speaker 1: subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and Iron top of
25:18
Speaker 1: all things Cubs. We'll be back with another episode this
25:21
Speaker 1: week and hopefully some action from the Cubs.
25:23
Speaker 2: Thanks everyone, Take care,