Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Justin Steele’s season is over

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Justin Steele’s season is over · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. Patrick, the Cubs
0:14
Speaker 1: took two of three from the Dodgers in La. If
0:17
Speaker 1: that was the only news of the weekend, it'd be
0:19
Speaker 1: a great weekend.
0:21
Speaker 2: But news broke.
0:23
Speaker 1: We kind of felt nothing like there wasn't gonna be
0:26
Speaker 1: good news after what we heard on Friday and Sunday
0:31
Speaker 1: confirmed that Justin Steele is out for the season. Why
0:36
Speaker 1: you're out there, why don't you share the details about
0:40
Speaker 1: what Craig Council shared with you guys, any other information
0:42
Speaker 1: you may have gathered, and where the Cubs are going
0:45
Speaker 1: from here?
0:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, Justin Steele will be out for the season. His
0:52
Speaker 3: current timeline is a bit unclear. They will have a
0:55
Speaker 3: better sense after Friday surgery. This procedure, Council said, right
1:07
Speaker 3: trying to how to phrase this. Council was a little
1:09
Speaker 3: bit unclear on whether this is technically a second Tommy
1:12
Speaker 3: John surgery. I think there is kind of Once they
1:16
Speaker 3: kind of get in there, they'll be can make a
1:20
Speaker 3: better determination. But clearly a major surgery career altering for Steel,
1:29
Speaker 3: just because He's someone who's in his prime right now,
1:34
Speaker 3: not career ending by any means, with the way that
1:37
Speaker 3: technology and our understanding of pitching has evolved over the years,
1:42
Speaker 3: but really just a tough blow for him and the
1:46
Speaker 3: team as well. And I think in terms of a
1:49
Speaker 3: timeline because you were there, what was it last Wednesday
1:54
Speaker 3: at Wrigley Field, and it was hey, minimum stay you know, like,
1:58
Speaker 3: you know this happened last year. Well Comes pitching coach
2:01
Speaker 3: Tommy Hottevey indicated that the MRI showed changes from last
2:07
Speaker 3: year and that was something that they did not know
2:10
Speaker 3: at Wrigley Field at the time. And so essentially what
2:16
Speaker 3: hot Tovey said is, you know, when you when a
2:18
Speaker 3: player has a Tommy John already in his medical file
2:24
Speaker 3: and has had elbow forearm issues throughout the years, you
2:28
Speaker 3: go back to twenty twenty three last September, and even
2:33
Speaker 3: though those were not you know, did not rise to
2:36
Speaker 3: the level of this, it was just what council called
2:38
Speaker 3: the deteriorating situation. And so in the player's mind, you
2:45
Speaker 3: kind of know this is going to happen, that at
2:48
Speaker 3: some point the left elbow is just going to break
2:53
Speaker 3: down and then just becomes kind of a matter of when,
2:57
Speaker 3: not if, And this, for Steel gives him a little
3:03
Speaker 3: bit more control and peace of mind, uh over this
3:09
Speaker 3: and that it had just become something that had to
3:12
Speaker 3: be addressed.
3:15
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:16
Speaker 1: I was talking to some some people around the game
3:19
Speaker 1: and they they kind of feel like, you know, you
3:22
Speaker 1: get to six seven years after a Tommy John and
3:25
Speaker 1: and you're you're kind of racing against time anyways, like this,
3:30
Speaker 1: like this isn't like Tommy John. Surgery is not like
3:33
Speaker 1: a permanent fix. Like the more information we have, the
3:37
Speaker 1: more we're learning that you have a Tommy John, you
3:40
Speaker 1: have a certain amount of time that you could use
3:43
Speaker 1: that ligament or whatever however you want to describe it,
3:47
Speaker 1: it's you know it it isn't a permanent fix. It
3:50
Speaker 1: is it's a great you know, great bit of medical
3:54
Speaker 1: technology or advancement. Uh as far as uh long elongating
4:01
Speaker 1: pitchers careers, right like this was this ended careers. This
4:04
Speaker 1: type of injury ended careers forty years ago. It's completely
4:08
Speaker 1: changed the way we look at baseball. But it's not permanent.
4:12
Speaker 1: And I think that's kind of it sucks for Justin Steele,
4:17
Speaker 1: Like I really feel like, you know, he had settled
4:21
Speaker 1: into becoming like this. I mean I wrote it in
4:23
Speaker 1: the spring, like he become like this super consistent guy,
4:27
Speaker 1: and those first three starts were not indicative of who
4:30
Speaker 1: he was who he is, and I think that last
4:32
Speaker 1: start it was like, ah, here's.
4:34
Speaker 2: That justin Steel.
4:35
Speaker 4: We all know.
4:36
Speaker 2: So it's a it's a bummer.
4:38
Speaker 1: It's a you know, for him, for the team you mentioned,
4:42
Speaker 1: like it sucks for him financially, like he was about
4:45
Speaker 1: to you know, like whether it was an extension with
4:49
Speaker 1: the Cubs what he's he was multiple years away from
4:53
Speaker 1: free agency. That's the thing, so maybe so he can
4:55
Speaker 1: rebuild his value, that's the one You get this done
4:58
Speaker 1: now that it is a benefit to him in a sense,
5:01
Speaker 1: like get this done now, go back out there, prove
5:04
Speaker 1: you're healthy once again. It's almost like, you know, like
5:08
Speaker 1: like any like any other startup we've seeing this. You
5:10
Speaker 1: do this like a couple of years before free agency.
5:13
Speaker 1: It's much better than hitting free agency right before right
5:16
Speaker 1: as this is happening, right, So it's.
5:19
Speaker 2: Not ideal, not good for him.
5:20
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, I'm just talking about like you
5:23
Speaker 1: have to consider that for the guy, like his future
5:26
Speaker 1: finances are impacted by this.
5:29
Speaker 3: And also like if say they did sort of a rest, recovery, treatment,
5:36
Speaker 3: strengthening plan to get him back out on the mound
5:39
Speaker 3: at some point the season, what if that doesn't work,
5:43
Speaker 3: and then you're talking about essentially missing two whole seasons
5:47
Speaker 3: rather than kind of getting it done in a more
5:51
Speaker 3: orderly way now. And what Tommy hot Devey explained to
5:57
Speaker 3: us was that certain pictures feel well, for all pictures,
6:04
Speaker 3: what they do is unnatural, right, Like it's just you know,
6:07
Speaker 3: a strenuous, demanding profession, and that some pictures feel the
6:14
Speaker 3: brunt of that force more on their shoulder, and others,
6:18
Speaker 3: like Steel, feel it more in the elbow and that's
6:23
Speaker 3: where it accumulates, that's where the flare ups happen. And
6:29
Speaker 3: for Steel, that was just his That's just the way
6:33
Speaker 3: his throwing motion went over and over and over the years.
6:39
Speaker 3: And I think one of the kind of lasting image
6:44
Speaker 3: will be you know Tommy Hottave as you know some
6:47
Speaker 3: of his excellent at explaining things. He's a very clear communicator,
6:54
Speaker 3: he's a very progressive pitching coach. And as he met
7:01
Speaker 3: with a small group of reporters off the visiting dugout
7:04
Speaker 3: at Dodger Stadium, this little kind of corridor area that
7:09
Speaker 3: leads to the tunnel. I mean, he became emotional talking
7:13
Speaker 3: about Steele like he was on sort of on the
7:17
Speaker 3: verge of tears, just as he kept talking about Steele
7:21
Speaker 3: just because of the relationship he's built with him over
7:23
Speaker 3: the years, and he's overseen every stage of his development
7:27
Speaker 3: at the major league level. That's a lot of time
7:30
Speaker 3: not just during the season, but during the off season
7:34
Speaker 3: kind of monitoring his programs and coming up with a
7:38
Speaker 3: game plan, and that Steel is a pretty likable guy
7:42
Speaker 3: in there. You know, he's pretty great competitor on the mound,
7:46
Speaker 3: you know, very laid back off the field, and for
7:51
Speaker 3: how to be to see a guy grow from this,
7:55
Speaker 3: you know kind of I mean, he was a prospect,
7:58
Speaker 3: but not like a huge name on those lists to
8:02
Speaker 3: you know, making his debut as a lefty reliever and
8:05
Speaker 3: then getting a shot in the rotation after the twenty
8:09
Speaker 3: twenty one sell off at the trade deadline to just
8:13
Speaker 3: kind of someone who kept getting better and better gradually
8:17
Speaker 3: and really figured out, you know, who he is as
8:19
Speaker 3: a pitcher too. Even though you know, how do you
8:24
Speaker 3: had to have known, you know, something like this was
8:26
Speaker 3: going to happen because all pictures get injured at some point,
8:28
Speaker 3: but it really it hit him hard in a way
8:31
Speaker 3: that I was kind of surprised because there has been
8:35
Speaker 3: a few days for them to absorb this news. But
8:37
Speaker 3: the more he talked about it, he became very emotional,
8:40
Speaker 3: got choked up.
8:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, But I
8:44
Speaker 1: feel like the Cubs haven't had like a major Tommy John,
8:48
Speaker 1: like a Tommy John Er like out for the year
8:51
Speaker 1: type situation for one of their starters in a little while,
8:54
Speaker 1: like one of their key guys. I know, like Yen
8:56
Speaker 1: c al Monte and some relievers here and there, but like.
8:59
Speaker 3: A tad as a reliever.
9:00
Speaker 1: But yeah, right right, like a starter just hasn't had
9:04
Speaker 1: that happen. I guess advert is the most recent for
9:06
Speaker 1: like a key guy undergoing major surgery. I have a
9:12
Speaker 1: one thing I wanted to clarify, and then and then
9:14
Speaker 1: we h and then I wanted to touch on options
9:18
Speaker 1: and how the Cubs handle this.
9:19
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Speaker 1: Patrick, you said, the timeline is unclear, and that's because
10:26
Speaker 1: we don't know exactly what the what the procedure will
10:29
Speaker 1: be right.
10:30
Speaker 2: It could be Tommy John.
10:31
Speaker 1: It could be like the bracing of the ligament or
10:34
Speaker 1: whatever they talk about, or maybe something completely different that
10:37
Speaker 1: I'm unaware. That's what I gathered from reading all the
10:40
Speaker 1: different articles from all the different reporters you and everyone
10:45
Speaker 1: else wrote. But is that something that like, is that
10:49
Speaker 1: something from your understanding that we won't know until they
10:53
Speaker 1: go in and like start the process and like this
10:56
Speaker 1: is what we can do?
10:57
Speaker 2: Or is was that clarified?
10:58
Speaker 3: You know, that's kind of what council indicated that it
11:03
Speaker 3: was a it has to address the flexor tendon and
11:11
Speaker 3: the UCL so is this kind of like elbow slash
11:17
Speaker 3: forearm procedure. It'll be doctor Keith Meister, who's well, there's
11:25
Speaker 3: a very small group of you know, surgeons who do this,
11:28
Speaker 3: and he's been a long time affiliated with the Texas
11:33
Speaker 3: Rangers and has done a lot of work over the
11:37
Speaker 3: years with players throughout baseball. And I think, you know,
11:43
Speaker 3: something that we've learned over the years is that there
11:47
Speaker 3: is like an art to this, sometimes even more than science.
11:52
Speaker 3: Like when you're reading those MRIs, there can be some
11:57
Speaker 3: grey areas like those surgeons, uh, you know, there are
12:04
Speaker 3: some you know kind of judgment calls and professional expertise
12:08
Speaker 3: that comes into into play there, and that I think
12:16
Speaker 3: my biggest takeaway. It was just like, you know, this
12:19
Speaker 3: was gonna blow at some point, and like they were
12:23
Speaker 3: gonna have to get this addressed in a major way
12:27
Speaker 3: and that will happen uh Friday. And then you know,
12:35
Speaker 3: the Cubs, like most teams, are always sort of guarded
12:38
Speaker 3: with these things. And that's why, you know, we were
12:42
Speaker 3: asking Counsel these questions like, so is this a Tommy
12:45
Speaker 3: John surgery or not? And he said essentially maybe we'll
12:51
Speaker 3: see so not. I'm not trying to be coy here.
12:57
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to pretend to be a doctor, but
13:01
Speaker 3: you know, clearly this is something that's gonna sideline Justin
13:04
Speaker 3: Steele for a really long time. Though, how to be
13:11
Speaker 3: was very optimistic that, you know, saying that he believes
13:16
Speaker 3: Steele can come back and be a dominant starter again.
13:19
Speaker 3: And I think you've seen you know, I mean jameson Tyne,
13:23
Speaker 3: I believe he has had two Tommy John surgeries.
13:28
Speaker 2: Makes sense, Yeah, I.
13:30
Speaker 3: Mean Jacob de Gram has come back, Walker Bueller, I believe,
13:38
Speaker 3: you know. It's just it's what Counsel said this is
13:41
Speaker 3: like the life cycle of a major league pitcher, Like
13:44
Speaker 3: you just stack up these all these innings year after year,
13:49
Speaker 3: Like at a certain point you have to pay the price.
13:52
Speaker 3: And that's what these pitchers sign up for. I mean,
13:56
Speaker 3: Justin Steele has chosen his career. He's very uh good
14:00
Speaker 3: at it. He's had a very good run, and now
14:03
Speaker 3: it's time to kind of just reboot and see where
14:08
Speaker 3: it goes.
14:09
Speaker 1: Right and so like as far as the team goes, Look,
14:14
Speaker 1: you're not going to match exactly what Justin Steele not
14:17
Speaker 1: probably not with one picture. You're not going to match
14:20
Speaker 1: exactly what you expected to get from Steel this year,
14:23
Speaker 1: or at least a certainty, right like that he provided
14:26
Speaker 1: a certain level of certainty. It's gonna be really hard
14:30
Speaker 1: to get that. I said it when we recorded our
14:33
Speaker 1: last episode. Ben Brown can't repeat what he did against
14:37
Speaker 1: the Padre and he went out there and looked like
14:40
Speaker 1: a different picture, like just just a great outing against
14:43
Speaker 1: a great lineup. All the props in the world to
14:47
Speaker 1: Ben Brown for I mean, I didn't doubt him in
14:50
Speaker 1: the sense that I knew he wouldn't carry He's not
14:52
Speaker 1: the type of guy that carries a bad outing over.
14:54
Speaker 1: He seems very level headed and not the type to
14:57
Speaker 1: overthink things. But it was nice to see him go
15:02
Speaker 1: out there and do that. I think that's important for
15:04
Speaker 1: the Cubs. Colin Ray, Uh, that was just a great outing.
15:09
Speaker 1: I know he didn't go that deep into the game,
15:11
Speaker 1: but he was hitting ninety six. I was just looking
15:15
Speaker 1: at the numbers. He had the most swings and misses
15:18
Speaker 1: of the of any of more than Tyler Glass Now
15:21
Speaker 1: he had nine swings and misses. That's not a huge number,
15:26
Speaker 1: but Glass Now wasn't missing bats yesterday last night, and
15:30
Speaker 1: Colin Ray was.
15:31
Speaker 2: Colin Ray looked pretty good.
15:34
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you can expect those types of
15:36
Speaker 1: outings from Ben Brown and Colin Ray every single time out.
15:39
Speaker 1: This is gonna take kind of a collective effort, right,
15:41
Speaker 1: this is gonna we're gonna need the Cubs are gonna
15:44
Speaker 1: need Matthew Boyd to look like he's looked maybe not
15:47
Speaker 1: that perfect, but you know, he's looked really good. And
15:50
Speaker 1: if he's that type of picture consistently, Jamison ty one
15:53
Speaker 1: missing more bats showed him anaga being showed him managah.
15:58
Speaker 1: You know, Jordan Wicks had three innings of relief on
16:03
Speaker 1: Sunday in the at Iowa or with Iowa. He looked
16:07
Speaker 1: really good in those three innings. Those are probably the
16:10
Speaker 1: primary names for now, right barring a trade, which probably
16:14
Speaker 1: won't happen for a couple of months. Uh, and then
16:18
Speaker 1: beyond that, it's like the you know, the the depth
16:21
Speaker 1: guy is Chris Fluxen and the high upside prospect is
16:24
Speaker 1: Kate Horton. I'm not sure neither of them are on
16:26
Speaker 1: the forty man. So it's those three. It's it's really
16:29
Speaker 1: Ray and Wix right now, I think, unless unless there's
16:32
Speaker 1: a surprise that that I've missed or you're hearing something
16:35
Speaker 1: out there.
16:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's start with Kate Horton, because I asked counsel
16:40
Speaker 3: about that on Sunday at Dodger Stadium, because it that
16:44
Speaker 3: feels like the name that people are intrigued by, right,
16:47
Speaker 3: and so councils put it this way of Kate Horton
16:53
Speaker 3: needs to pitch, He needs to be on a mound.
16:57
Speaker 3: He has does not have the body of work the
17:02
Speaker 3: foundation needed to just kind of throw him into a
17:06
Speaker 3: major league rotation tomorrow. However, if he keeps doing that,
17:13
Speaker 3: if he continues along this path, council sort of expects
17:19
Speaker 3: him to be up this summer, like he used that
17:23
Speaker 3: phrasing of this summer, and Council is not a big
17:26
Speaker 3: timeline guy. He's not a big you know, he's not
17:31
Speaker 3: one to sort of overhyph prospects. But for him to
17:35
Speaker 3: say that part of the calculus too is like they
17:40
Speaker 3: just know more injuries are gonna come, Like that's just
17:41
Speaker 3: how it works. But I was kind of working backwards
17:46
Speaker 3: from Porton, but in right now, like you said, Colin Ray,
17:51
Speaker 3: he was. He was kind of like, I don't know
17:53
Speaker 3: where that ninety six came from. He's like, well take it,
17:58
Speaker 3: Javier Asa.
18:00
Speaker 2: Oh I forgot about a sod.
18:01
Speaker 1: Yeah.
18:01
Speaker 3: I believe his schedule is Tuesday Sunday starting with Iowa.
18:10
Speaker 3: He could maybe use one more triple a start. As
18:13
Speaker 3: Council pointed out, they have roughly four more off days
18:18
Speaker 3: in April. That does give them a little bit of
18:21
Speaker 3: wiggle room. Wicks is sort of more depth, at least
18:28
Speaker 3: that's the way they talk about Wicks to me, I mean,
18:31
Speaker 3: maybe I'm reading too much into it, but like sure,
18:34
Speaker 3: like if he just keeps going out and making pitches
18:37
Speaker 3: and getting outs, like he will get a shot, you know,
18:39
Speaker 3: he's a first round pick. He has had good moments
18:43
Speaker 3: in the majors, but I think, you know, piecing it
18:46
Speaker 3: together with Ray and Assad is their preference. And yeah,
18:52
Speaker 3: I mean Ben Brown was talking about how it was
18:55
Speaker 3: just a huge confidence boost for him. I mean going
18:57
Speaker 3: up against the lineup of you know, hall of fame
19:00
Speaker 3: and caliber talents, sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium and really
19:05
Speaker 3: shutting them down, which I think showed his ability to
19:10
Speaker 3: work with hot DEVI you know, and the catchers and
19:13
Speaker 3: kind of make make adjustments, which is very impressive. And
19:16
Speaker 3: I mean Matthew Boyd. I think he's held the opponent
19:21
Speaker 3: scoreless in like sixteen of seventeen innings thus far, and
19:24
Speaker 3: he's matched up against Eduardo Rodriguez, Nick Pavetta and Yamamoto.
19:35
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, So like, give me a team a
19:38
Speaker 3: chance to win every time out as far, I think
19:42
Speaker 3: with him, we just have to see him stay healthy. Yep,
19:46
Speaker 3: that has for a full season. That has not happened
19:48
Speaker 3: since twenty nineteen. But like his skills, his experience, his
19:56
Speaker 3: off the charts niceness, it's a pleasant human being you
20:01
Speaker 3: will ever encounter. All those things that just a really
20:05
Speaker 3: stabilizing presence.
20:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, how is it possible.
20:09
Speaker 1: It's it's not possible in any normal world to lose
20:14
Speaker 1: Kyle Hendrix in your rotation and somehow get a person
20:17
Speaker 1: that's equally maybe nicer, possibly nicer, which I.
20:21
Speaker 2: Didn't think was possible.
20:22
Speaker 1: Uh, just kind of That's that's the most remarkable thing
20:26
Speaker 1: about Matthew Boyd. They found someone nicer than Kyle Hendrix,
20:29
Speaker 1: which is I thought an impossible task, and that.
20:33
Speaker 3: Is his reputation around the game. That's not just us
20:35
Speaker 3: being like, oh, like, Matthew Boyd's nice. I was like, no, Like,
20:38
Speaker 3: he's built a very strong reputation around the game as
20:41
Speaker 3: a very good teammate, someone with a very positive outlook,
20:48
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, these are the times when
20:54
Speaker 3: you want to see that. And Boyd had a very
20:58
Speaker 3: good answer of you know, at that point, they didn't
21:00
Speaker 3: know exactly how long you know, Steve would be out,
21:03
Speaker 3: and you know, they hadn't announced what his course of
21:07
Speaker 3: action would be. But he said, look, Justin Steel's one
21:09
Speaker 3: of one. You can't replace him, but we have a
21:12
Speaker 3: lot of depth, we have a lot of experience, and
21:15
Speaker 3: you know, the championship caliber clubs, guys step up and
21:19
Speaker 3: that's what we plan to do. So that is how
21:21
Speaker 3: the Cubs are looking at it. The next man up mentality.
21:26
Speaker 1: A couple things I just wanted to touch on. Since
21:29
Speaker 1: the Cubs took two or three from the Dodgers, I
21:31
Speaker 1: think fans are excited about that, and rightfully so. Just
21:34
Speaker 1: a great Dodgers team. Ryan Presley looked a lot better
21:38
Speaker 1: and is like, probably that's the best we've seen him. Right,
21:41
Speaker 1: He hit ninety five, he was missing bats. Finally, he
21:47
Speaker 1: was getting ahead of hitters. I think that's the key,
21:49
Speaker 1: Like get ahead of hitters, guys will chase here and stuff.
21:52
Speaker 1: You have nasty breaking balls, you have to get strike
21:54
Speaker 1: one in there. You have to get into a one
21:56
Speaker 1: to two count something like that, and then it'll lead
21:58
Speaker 1: to good things.
22:00
Speaker 2: The offense, you know, it was like I.
22:02
Speaker 1: Said on Saturday, I need I'd like to, like, let's
22:05
Speaker 1: see what they do because they're facing some really good pitching.
22:07
Speaker 1: And obviously, you know, Michael Bush looks great. PCA finally
22:13
Speaker 1: had a big game. That has to be huge for
22:15
Speaker 1: his confidence. Just in general, the offense looked very good. Uh,
22:20
Speaker 1: not a ton of runs on Sunday, and that's okay.
22:23
Speaker 1: He kind of relied on the homer. Uh snuck another
22:26
Speaker 1: run in there, but couldn't get that extra run when
22:29
Speaker 1: PCA had the leadoff triple.
22:31
Speaker 2: You know these things are gonna happen.
22:33
Speaker 1: But but I think Saturday was obviously a massive game,
22:37
Speaker 1: and and uh, just eking one out on Sunday, I
22:41
Speaker 1: feel like it's important. And one other thing I thought
22:43
Speaker 1: was interesting. I don't know what it means. We'll see
22:46
Speaker 1: what it means. Ethan Robert Roberts got a high leverage spot.
22:50
Speaker 1: I did not expect that so quickly. Uh, he did
22:54
Speaker 1: fine in it, and uh, I was you know, I think,
22:58
Speaker 1: you know, that's interesting to see counts will trust those
23:00
Speaker 1: guys trust him. But it's kind of clear we're starting
23:03
Speaker 1: to see like rolls kind of develop right, it's it's
23:06
Speaker 1: Merriweather to Hodge, to to Pressley, h Keller kind of
23:12
Speaker 1: can be used wherever in different situations. And like, I
23:16
Speaker 1: want to see what this Ethan Roberts thing is. I
23:18
Speaker 1: don't know what that is, but I think that's interesting.
23:21
Speaker 3: A council certainly knows. I think he he's he said,
23:25
Speaker 3: you know, Roberts, I think maybe struck out Corey seeger
23:28
Speaker 3: uh Texas series. And then there was another another big
23:33
Speaker 3: app bad that council had, you know, on immediate recall.
23:37
Speaker 3: H So yeah, you're you see some organization out of
23:42
Speaker 3: the bullpen. This lineup, I mean, pretty impressive to win
23:47
Speaker 3: a series when the Dodgers start Yamamoto, Sazaki and Glass.
23:53
Speaker 3: Now you know this scale. You know, we said it
24:01
Speaker 3: at the time it was going to be, you know,
24:03
Speaker 3: extremely challenging, and you know it was kind of like, oh,
24:07
Speaker 3: if you could just kind of tread water, you know,
24:09
Speaker 3: and take off in May. I think this showed the
24:13
Speaker 3: Cubs can kind of play with anyone. And that's not
24:17
Speaker 3: the same thing as you know, winning ninety five games
24:21
Speaker 3: and going on a long playoff run. But you can
24:24
Speaker 3: see just there's a competence to the Cubs and that's
24:29
Speaker 3: not really glamorous and that's not you know what you know,
24:34
Speaker 3: fans light up about. But you can see, okay, they
24:41
Speaker 3: get these. You acquire the pitching depth in the off
24:44
Speaker 3: season because you know guys are gonna go down, you
24:47
Speaker 3: take you kind of jump out and sign a Matthew
24:51
Speaker 3: Boyd because you have a lot of confidence in what
24:53
Speaker 3: you've seen and how he can work within your system.
24:58
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, Miguel Maya like you they've stuck
25:04
Speaker 3: with this guy for a really long time.
25:07
Speaker 4: Uh.
25:08
Speaker 3: He stays ready off the bench when uh, you know,
25:11
Speaker 3: players get injured. Uh, and you know, he comes into
25:14
Speaker 3: the game and comes up with some some huge hits
25:20
Speaker 3: as well as pairing with Carson Kelly, uh to create
25:24
Speaker 3: that catching setup that you had written about for a
25:28
Speaker 3: long time. And the Cubs are you know, kind of
25:31
Speaker 3: at the top, whereas they used to be at the
25:33
Speaker 3: bottom of the league in terms of production from that position.
25:37
Speaker 3: So I mean, as advertised, very good defense. I mean
25:43
Speaker 3: the play as Dansby makes, you know, he makes them
25:46
Speaker 3: look you don't really guess when the ball is hit
25:50
Speaker 3: in his way. You expect him to make the play
25:52
Speaker 3: every single time, and you can't really take that for granted.
25:56
Speaker 3: So like it's a long season. The Andre's look pretty
26:01
Speaker 3: awesome right now too, So like you know, by the
26:04
Speaker 3: end of this West Coast trip, it could look a
26:07
Speaker 3: little bit different. But there are signs of an identity.
26:10
Speaker 3: There's you know, you know, demonstrable confidence in all phases
26:16
Speaker 3: of the games. And you know, like we said, the
26:20
Speaker 3: trade deadline is a long way away, but there's gonna
26:23
Speaker 3: be opportunities to really upgrade the trouble spots that develop
26:28
Speaker 3: over the next couple of months. Yeah.
26:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is a front office. We haven't seen
26:34
Speaker 1: it yet because they haven't been competing. But Jed has
26:37
Speaker 1: that similar mindset as THEO. You you earn the team
26:42
Speaker 1: earns that right to for to force the front office
26:45
Speaker 1: to go by, right, Like THEO kind of had that
26:48
Speaker 1: mentality of like, they've done enough, they've shown me, I
26:51
Speaker 1: have to go do this for them.
26:53
Speaker 2: I have to improve the roster.
26:54
Speaker 1: I have to go get reinforcements because this team has
26:57
Speaker 1: gone out and proven it.
26:58
Speaker 2: Right.
26:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, they continue to win, they continue to play well.
27:01
Speaker 1: Jed Hoyer has a similar mentality where he's gonna want
27:04
Speaker 1: to go be aggressive. He looks at these deadlines as
27:06
Speaker 1: an opportunity anyways, right, either sell or buy, Like you
27:09
Speaker 1: got to make moves. He doesn't like to sit still.
27:12
Speaker 1: He likes deadlines. So I expect it moves.
27:15
Speaker 2: To be made. And the way they're looking right now,
27:17
Speaker 2: it's going to be aggressive buying. Right.
27:20
Speaker 1: So we'll see what it is, what the needs are.
27:23
Speaker 1: You don't know exactly how it plays out, but right now,
27:26
Speaker 1: obviously bullpen and starting pitchers would be the primary focus
27:30
Speaker 1: and there's going to be there going to be arms
27:34
Speaker 1: available of all sorts. We'll see what the Cubs come
27:36
Speaker 1: away with. That's months from now. Right now, they just
27:39
Speaker 1: need to get through April. Like you said, three more
27:41
Speaker 1: against the Padres. Dylan Cees Monday Night. Will will likely
27:46
Speaker 1: be talking soon again after, either during the middle of
27:50
Speaker 1: this Padre series or soon after we'll come at you
27:53
Speaker 1: with more podcasts. Thanks so much for listening everyone. This
27:56
Speaker 1: is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review and subscribe.
27:59
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic
28:03
Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs.
28:05
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening everyone. Take