Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Five free agents who would fit the Cubs’ group of position players

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Five free agents who would fit the Cubs’ group of position players · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Network's Cubs podcast. I'm
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at The Athletic. Patrick, last episode
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: we talked pitching. One of the names we mentioned, Freddy Peralta,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: pitched brilliantly in the playoffs last night.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I don't know what day it is.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: So Tuesday night against for the Rays. He clearly figured
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: some things out in Tampa Bay with the guidance of
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: that coaching staff and would make a lot of sense
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: for the Cubs if they're looking for stuff. And then
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: someone that may be looking to prove something after a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: down season today, we're going to talk about position players. Uh,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: let's start it off with catching. Uh, we talked a
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: little bit about some of the guys they may bring back.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And one name is Carson Kelly. Uh, I think my,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: my guess is, uh, the familiarity, the productivity, uh, it,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: That makes him an enticing candidate to return. I think
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the realistic scenario here is that they keep a catcher,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: add a catcher to go along with Miguel Amaya. It's
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: not just handing the job to Amaya and Owen Ayers.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: It makes sense to bring in some veteran, whether it's
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: keeping Carson Kelly or going in a different direction. but
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: catching does seem like we need to talk about that.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And that's an area that the Cubs are going to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: address this winter.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Big position of need.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: And also I think it speaks to the overall quality
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: of this reagent class that we're going to be spending
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: time on the Cubs trying to retain some of.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Their own free agents.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: Like the external options are not all that attractive and
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: especially the In relation to Kelly, a guy who made
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: a great impression both on the field, behind the scenes,
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: working with the staff, working with pitchers, being kind of
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: a leader by example, a voice of reason.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: All of those things.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: He's at that point in his career where I think
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: he's played well enough to probably get a multi-year deal,
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: but not he's not one of those players that's going
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: to command a super long-term deal by any means so
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: translating that I'm sure the Cubs would like to do
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: a one-year deal and he'll be seeking you know three
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: and maybe there's a way to do it for two
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: there are a couple other catchers out there you can
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: get into them in the second it just seems like
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: though that The nature of supply and demand means that
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: Kelly's going to have some nice options, and if you
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: want an offense first catcher, that's probably going to go
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: far beyond the Cubs' comfort zone, considering all of the
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: pitching needs that they have this offseason.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Ryan Jeffers is a free agent. I
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: think he's probably going to get the most money.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: I believe he was.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: it was his age 29 season that he just played
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Tyler Stevenson.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Also a.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Free agent, same age as Jeffers or around the same
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: age as Jeffers. The offense hasn't been as good as
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Jeffers has recently. But I would look at him as
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: more an offense first. I don't like it. I don't
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: have numbers on him defensively. I don't think of him
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: as a great defensive catcher. Maybe I'm, Maybe I'm wrong
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: on that, but Jeffers is definitely someone I'd look at
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: as going to get a pretty solid contract. I'm not
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: sure if the Cubs are looking to spend that type
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: of money. You go pure defense, it's probably not going
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to break the bank. Austin Hedges makes a lot of
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: sense if that's a direction they want to go. It's
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: worked really well for Cleveland in the sense that they've
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: just focused strictly on defense with their catching and it's
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: worked out well. I mean, Patrick Bailey, they've, they've helped
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a ton offensively and he, and he's gotten an average
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: above average in the post season. But, uh, uh, and
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Austin Hedges was actually average this year.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Am I right?
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Like I'm looking at his numbers. He was average offensively
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: this year, which I'm shocked to see. Uh, he's not,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I don't think he's, no, he's never had an average
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: season in his, in his career. Uh, so maybe he'll
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: be a little bit more expensive, but I don't think
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: he's young. Let me look at his age.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: He's 33. So, I mean, Those are guys that you probably.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Want to keep on your radar just in one sense.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: I don't think Tyler– if I'm remembering correctly, Tyler Stevenson
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: isn't a great defender. It's going to have to be
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: someone that can definitely play the position well. Like you said,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: like you mentioned, like you could go offense first. I
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: don't think they're looking to go offense first. Just like average,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: slightly above average on offense. You don't want a complete
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: zero unless there's a philosophical shift with that.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's been a low key strength of this team.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: I felt like we were in a cycle there. We
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: were writing a lot about how bad the Cubs production
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: was and you stalking all these different executives at the
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: GM meetings.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Be like, Hey, you're going to trade a catcher. You
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: want to try to catch her? How about trading catchers
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: at the Cubs?
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: And they were trying to exhaust all these different possibilities
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: and they wound up in a really good place with
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: Maya and Kelly to be guys who really treated it
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: as a true partnership and handled all the responsibilities of
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: the job very well. It's all-encompassing, and they responded extremely well.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: And we said this last week, if you have to
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: almost rebuild your entire pitching staff or just huge patches
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: of it, you want steady hands everywhere. behind the plate.
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: And that is what Kelly and Amaya did. And even
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: if let's say Kelly does get that two year deal
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: and maybe you don't love the terms of the second one, um,
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: we know how much he wants to be here, how
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: much he enjoyed the Wrigleyville experience. He has, you know,
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: kind of some family roots in the Chicago area, um,
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: going to play off two years in a row, uh,
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: as a cub, uh, really, uh, adding to the culture
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: within the clubhouse. Uh, I think all of those things
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: will come into play here. And I would imagine the
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: cups are going to be in on Kelly kind of
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: until the end. That doesn't mean he's back, but I
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: would imagine he's high on this priority list.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Uh, another guy that could return makes sense for returning, uh,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of talk about, and you know, we've
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: talked about this. Will the Cubs just go into next
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: season with Pedro Ramirez and Matt Shaw as their outfielders?
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: that those two will be getting a ton of playing time.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I just don't think they're going to go in there
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: and just say, you guys are starting 150 games each
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: at left and right field. I think there's a huge
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: difference in that, like saying like, We'd like them to
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: get a ton of at-bats, and they're going to be
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: getting a lot of playing time in right and left
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: field is different than handing them starting jobs. I think
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: what we may see is some part-time playing in left
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: and right field, kind of mixing and matching. If someone
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: emerges as an everyday guy, sure. But bring back Tyrone Taylor,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: who would also be able to back up in center
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: field for Pete Crow Armstrong.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: I think it makes a lot of sense.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Uh, he may be looking for an everyday job since
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: he did do really well against, uh, against righties too. Uh,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: he was significantly better against lefties, but, uh, I believe
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: he was about average against righties.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: So maybe he wants a regular job.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: He could also come into the season thinking he has
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a regular job and, and, you know, playing backup center
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: field and everyday left field. And, uh, Sean Ramirez are
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: kind of sharing right field and DH or something like that.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So I think he makes sense in a lot of
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: different ways.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they need.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: Way more coverage in the outfield because obviously if Dansby
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: hurts his oblique again, or if Alex Bregman gets hit
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: by a pitch or foul ball, whatever it is that
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: you need, Pedro Ramirez on the infield, I thought, it
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: was pretty clear what Craig council thought of Pedro Ramirez
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: and where he fell on the depth chart. I, ahead
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: of Matt Shaw, I think that was pretty clear. Um,
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: and so you need insurance policies and multiple positions.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Those guys can give it to you.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: I definitely think there's value there and maybe they get
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: to 450, 500 bats. You just don't know exactly which
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: positions those will come kind of going back to the
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: beginning of, uh, Joe Maddon's time in Chicago, as he
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: was able to rearrange those things.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: But Taylor is a Craig Council.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: I don't know if favorite is too strong a word,
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: but definitely reassuring.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Respected by Craig Council.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: He wanted a player like that to shift some of
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: the responsibilities off of Ian Happ's plate.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: I'm with you. I think Taylor, given the.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: State of this free agent market, I think Taylor will
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: try to see where he can maximize his playing time.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: But the way council described it was, this is a
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: no panic player. That is a high compliment from the manager.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: And I think they could probably put together a pretty
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: compelling case of like why.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: You fit here and how you would be used next season.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It, I think it makes a lot of sense
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: for multiple different reasons. Let's take a quick break and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about getting outfield help.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Hey, everybody.
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• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Patrick, the Cubs are probably going to need some left-handed
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: help in the outfield. So bringing back Tyrone Taylor does
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: make sense. Uh, but in all likelihood, in this situation,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: we're assuming Ian Happ moves on, doesn't really want to
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: be a part-time player. Um, they need someone that's left-handed
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: that can play regularly in the outfield. Like you said,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: you know, Pedro Ramirez may be needed in the infield
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and maybe he's more valuable as someone filling in, in
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the infield and in the part-time outfielder. Uh, One name
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: that I just picked out looking for left fielders, someone
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: that may not break the bank, but can, when I
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: say maybe not left fielders, I mean left-handed bats.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: He does play left field a lot. Not well.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: You'd be sacrificing defense. Again, it's left field. You can
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: probably get away with that.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: But J.J.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Bleday makes some sense. It depends on the type of profile,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I guess, you're looking for. Tyrone Taylor, right-handed, obviously he's
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: going to make a lot more contact. His power was
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: way up this past season. I'm not sure if that's
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: like a new reality for him. Like age 32, suddenly
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: coming into a ton more power. Maybe that comes down.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: JJ Bladay's more power. You expect power, uh, crushes, uh,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: shouldn't say crushes does really well against righties. He's a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: productive bat, uh, against righties, uh, you'd want him to
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: be a part-time player. I think that would be his
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: best role. Maybe there's more in there.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: He's 29, 30, around there.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: But I think he's gotten enough chances to kind of say, like, hey,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: let's put him on a winning team in a part-time role.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I think it could be a good move in the
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: sense that it won't be something where you need to
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: just completely overspend to get a guy coming off a
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: crazy great year or something like that.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, wait, you're muted.
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: I think, um, we're looking at this from a purely
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: kind of free agent perspective, but I think it's probably
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: important to note too, that.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: Maybe there are trades out there. Um, like if you're
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: in midway through.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: This episode and being like, really, this is the list,
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: like part, part-time players, like who knows if they traded, uh,
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: and brought in pitching just as a hypothetical example. Maybe
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: some of these position players look differently, but in the moment,
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: I think it is all about these role players, a
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: Milwaukee-style system. What the Padres did well, I think that
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: was a big difference we saw.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: In talking to people around the Padres, just having a.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: Roster that just fit together better in part with these
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: situational players. I think Michael Conforto did a great job
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: for the Cubs. I just don't know how much of
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: a raise he'll be expecting or how much more opportunities
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: might be out there for him elsewhere. To me, it
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: felt kind of like a perfect storm type of year,
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: and I think bringing him back to expect that all
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: over again, I mean, maybe it's possible. He certainly seemed
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: to enjoy his teammates' success the experience, all of those things.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: So I guess I wouldn't rule that out.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: But I don't think you can kind of just run
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: back the entire position player group and just subtract Seah.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: So that's kind of why we're looking at these role
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: players here.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I think one name that you should look at, look,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I don't think the Cubs are going to spend on him.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: He's going to be $ 30, 000. I believe soon, uh, no 31, uh,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Jake Bowers just had a monster season for the Brewers.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I knew he was good.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I don't think I realized it fully that he had
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: a one 43 way to run square to plus. I mean, that's, uh,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: breakout season for Jake Bowers, uh, solid power above average power, uh,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: just kind of does everything well gets on base a ton. Uh,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: he's not a great defender obviously, but, uh, I think
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: he's solid at first base.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: He's a lefty.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: So he's not gonna like, you can't really platoon him
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: with Michael Bush, but you can, you know, it would
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: be like DH and corner out like, you know, average
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: to below average defense in the corner outfield spots, uh,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I think could make sense. I, I just want to
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: mention him because I think the reason I want to
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: mention Jake Bowers is because of this. Uh, I'm not
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: sure if he's a perfect fit because he's probably going
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: to cost so much coming off the great season. This
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: reminds me of when the Cubs signed Brandon Morrow and
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: like the message after.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: That, after, you know, he was really good.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: Good call, good call.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: You know, like it's like they need to.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Look for the year before. They need to look for
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the next Jake Bowers, right? Someone that's going to hit left-handed.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: that's going to play. He played a full season. Like
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Jake Bowers was a regular, but not even like, they
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: don't even need that fully. They just need someone that
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: isn't going to break the bank that, uh, can crush righties, uh, that,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: you know, that fits in, can play different positions, can
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: handle DH corner outfield spots, maybe platoon a little bit, uh, uh,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: at another position like first base. But again, a lefty
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: isn't going to platoon with Michael Bush. But I think
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Bowers is a good representation of the type of player.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Nobody had him having that type of season. Milwaukee seems
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to maximize these guys really well. The Cubs aren't terrible
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: at it with position players. The Cubs aren't bad at that.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: They're pretty good at it. In fact, they had a
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: great bench this year, especially after they traded for Tyrone Taylor.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe a full season of Ian Happ and
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Tyrone Taylor platooning would have been, you know, would feel
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: a lot. I don't think people would complain as much
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: about like they have too many everyday players.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: They do. They did platoon.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Well, I thought they did mix and match. Well, now
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a different mix. So how do
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you make that happen? Who is the like Jake Bowers type?
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Who's this lefty that can come off the bench or,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: or platoon with, a Tyrone Taylor type, whatever it is
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: with Matt Shaw, whatever in left field. I think, I
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: think you need to look for that. Maybe it's JJ Bladet,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: like I mentioned before, but, or maybe it's someone that we're,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: that is off our radar.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's a small trade and you don't even notice.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Cause I think that's how they acquired Jake Bowers too.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: The Brewers are probably like a, a trade that nobody
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: noticed with the Yankees. They traded with the Yankees and
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it wasn't like this trade that we were
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: all breaking down at the time.
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's a great point because if you're
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: a baseball fan who loves the hot stove coverage, like
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: look at this list of free agents and you can
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: understand of like, you're going to have to get creative.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: You're going to have to see kind of around the
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: corner of which players might pop. We know the Cubs
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: are going to pour a ton of money into the
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: pitching side. That's where all the resource, almost all the
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: resources have to go. um and I do think you
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: sometimes run into an issue of like you have to
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: make your case to the free agent too like you
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: could like the player but they have to see what
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: the fit is and I bring that up because Paul
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Goldschmidt was a name the Cubs discussed last year uh
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: they did not make an offer to my knowledge. And,
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: but part of it was, if you bring in Paul Goldschmidt,
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: you have to give him a certain role or a
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: certain level of responsibility. And the Cubs wanted to see
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: what they had in Michael Bush, who is still a
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: very good player. It's hard to find almost like a
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: better value deal or like way to upgrade the given
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: all these other holes on the roster. He's a nice
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: two-way player, did not take that step forward. He did
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: not repeat his 2025 performance. He was one of, if
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: not the most dangerous Cubs hitter during last year's playoffs.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: It was kind of a quiet year for him. He
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: was productive.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: So it just makes me wonder if, you do look
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: for more of a platoon partner. And yes, Goldschmidt is 39,
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: but he's a right-handed hitter who hit 18 home runs
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: in 380 plate appearances with the Yankees last year. He
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: came out and said he's not planning to retire.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: He's a big name.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: His role would be somewhat different limited, but I think
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: that's another way to think about how they could, uh,
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: reconstruct this position player group.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's, it was a weird year for Michael
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Bush as well. He actually did better against lefties than righties,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: but I, you know, like he was so like, he
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: was above average against both. Um, but his power was
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: just way down against righties. Uh, just like incredibly down.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: He slugged three 82 against, uh, Or against, what did
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I say? Lefties against righties. Yeah, I mean, again, like this, like,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: I think Goldschmidt makes sense in the sense that, like,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: you platoon him with Bush and give him some DH
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: at bats. Ty France would be, like, a more expensive
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: version of that, probably, coming off a breakout year, kind
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: of like Jake Bowers, in a sense. Some names that
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: we didn't really bring up, like Randy Rosarena, that's not
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: going to be, like, The Cubs aren't shopping in that
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: area for position players.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: They're just not.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I think like you mentioned, if they make a big trade,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: if they acquire pitching by a trade, maybe then they
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: spend on a bat. But that's why we're not talking
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: about a Seiya Suzuki reunion.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: A Rosarena would be a nice fit, but.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: He's 32 and going to be one of the top bats.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: along with, say, Suzuki in this market. I just don't
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: see the Cubs shopping at the top of the position
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: player market. They do need to add. I don't think
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: this is like just ignore position players. They need to
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: be creative. They need to build that bench again with
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the idea that our bench is playing pretty regularly. I
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: don't think, like I said earlier, they're not going into
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: next season. They shouldn't go into next season saying, 155
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: starts for Matt Shaw, 155 starts for Pedro Ramirez. Those
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: are our corner outfielders. That's incredibly risky. You can go
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: into next season saying, like, 120 starts for those guys.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Even then, I'd like a veteran, Tyrone Taylor, like we mentioned.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: It just makes more sense. Like, bring guys in that
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: have had some sort of experience. Have them, like... These
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: guys do these things well. We have a manager that
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: knows how to maximize that. He's going to play against
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: these types of pitchers, blah, blah, blah. I think those
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: are the types of guys you're looking to bring in.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: These are not break the bank guys. They need to
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: spend a majority of their resources on pitching. And I
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: think that's why. So these names aren't sexy. These names
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: aren't like the biggest names on the market. I think
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: that's the direction they kind of have to go. I
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: just don't think it makes any sense to be going
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: after these really big names offensively. Unless they completely change
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: their spending philosophy, which would be kind of weird right
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: before a lockout and a potential complete change of the
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: financial system.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: So I don't think that's happening.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: And even those position player side names are not relatively
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: large in the grand scheme of things.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: They just aren't.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: And that's why we think Say is going to get
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: paid and why we think Ian Happ is going to
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: wind up with a pretty nice market as an everyday player,
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: a gold glove defender.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: There aren't that many players out there.
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: In general, and this is not a good offseason to
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: be shopping for position players.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: That's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Subscribe to the YouTube channel and subscribe to The Athletic
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and watching, everyone. Take care.