Looking towards 2025

Chico said:
Upgrading SS isn’t going to be as easy. Teams don’t let go of good shortstops and they’re usually overpriced come free agency.

A guy like Perdomo makes the most sense if the Dbacks are good with Lawlar.

Willi Castro makes a lot of sense, as he can play OF as well, since we’d have Arcia still as the backup.

Bo Bichette would be a good get if made available and at only 26 be an extension candidate. I’m just not sure they’d commit big bucks to a SS that wasn’t a plus defender.

Carlos Correa’s contract without the vesting years is around 4/133 which isn’t that bad, but still too much

I doubt we go after Kim with Boras attached

Willy Adames seems like the obvious choice if we have the money, but we’ve yet to play in the retail free agent market and he’ll probably be overpaid.

If none of these guys are traded Kim and Adames are going to bank.

I see another year of Arcia ahead
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We've signed Boras guys before. And Kim is a defensive specialist that just had shoulder surgery. He isn't getting a big pay day. Hell probably end up taking a short term deal with a relatively high AAV and maybe an opt out.

JP Crawford could easily be available too.
 
I dont see what the big deal with Crawford is. Taking a quick look at his numbers he isnt much better than Arcia.
 
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Hudson2 said:
I dont see what the big deal with Crawford is. Taking a quick look at his numbers he isnt better than Arcia.
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He's substantially better. You have to factor in where he plays. He's got a better track record. Career OBP is .338. And he's only 24.
 
Carp said:
He's substantially better. You have to factor in where he plays. He's got a better track record. Career OBP is .338. And he's only 24.
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Didnt realize he was that young. I see he hit .202 this year. He had a good OBP though. Not much power.
 
cajunrevenge said:
Dansby finished the year with 4 WAR. Had a solid 120 RC in the second half. No one even interested in a reunion if the Cubs offered to eat some salary? Still playing out of this world defense at one of the most important defensive positions. Only 30 years old. He's pretty much the exact same player he was when he left. I dont know if or how much the Cubs might eat but I dont think it would be much after his second half rebound. I think its a risky move but we have always been a team that valued defense up the middle. Arcia is a good defender and Swanson is a great defender in his prime. I think Arcia might perform better in a limited role where he doesnt play every day. He always seems to start off hot then fade off. Sometimes off a cliff. Cubs might want out of the contract to pursue other big name free agents. We probably waited too late on that though. Probably a lot more willing at the trade deadline.
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Isn't his lady a Chicago native?
 
GD man Dansby living the dream. I dont blame him if he didnt want to leave Chicago. Cubs probably ****ed themselves out of 50 million. If he would accept to go anywhere I would guess Atlanta would be it though. I think his strong second half took him out of salary dump territory anyways. I think a deal for Bellinger is more likely. He is overpaid but wouldnt be drastically overpaid if he was playing CF. Cubs have Peter Crow-Armstrong in CF now and a **** load of outfielders and OF prospects about to hit the majors. Bellinger is a good bet to be a 115 RC hitter with a chance to get back to 140 RC. I think he is ideal for us because he can play all 3 OF positions and 1B. We could roll with Soler and Laureano as well and we are really well covered for injury at 5 positions. 3 OF positions, 1B, and DH. Bellinger isnt a platoon lefty and he is likely to opt out after 2025 unless he has a really bad year. He made comments like he isnt used to being on a losing team when the Cubs were out of the race. I think he might welcome a move to a contender. He is also a low K guy. I think we need to mix some of those in with out high K sluggers. If we do take Bellinger back on a salary dump I might ask for lefty Luke Little in return to give us more options for the pen. His slider is death to lefties so he could be the third lefty in the pen right now but I think when he refines his command a little more he will be a more well rounded reliever. He has a lot of option years left and not much service time and we need that flexibility in the pen with so many on guaranteed contracts.
 
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Carp said:
He's basically a defensive specialist at this point. Why not just sign Kim?
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He's a league average hitter with elite defense. Thats a big upgrade from one of the worst hitting full time starters and a good defender. Arcia had a 72 RC. Dansby 99. I know fangraphs defensive WAR aint the most reliable but Dansby doubled up Arcia in defensive WAR. And we are talking defense at one of if not the most important defensive position in the game. CF/SS/C are the top 3 most important defensive positions no question about it. Everyones order of those 3 might change but defense is very important. Especially for what is now a pitching first team.

Kim is having major shoulder surgery and probably will want to stay on the west coast for shorter travel home to Japan. We would probably need to overpay several million over what any west coast team would pay. The Dodgers will probably pay him 15 million just to be a bench player since they annexed Japan.
 
Hudson2 said:
AA was a little critical about Arcia in his latest interview but no to bad. He will look to upgrade SS and a SP and those outside of a couple of depth pieces. If you get a SS then Arcia is the backup infielder.
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I just have a hard time seeing where the upgrade at SS comes from. I have a hard time getting excited about the thought of signing Adames. I am always weary of players whose career years they hit .250. Looking at you Sean Murphy. But it kind of feels like the best option considering other options likely means trading valuable prospects. I expect Adames to get anywhere from 6/180 to 8/200. 6 years 150 million would actually feel like a win if we got him at that price. My thing is if we sign him for that much how high does he even hit in the batting order. 6th? 7th? Adames also gave the "I want to stay here forver but its not up to me, we will see if they even want me back" statement that I loathe.
 
cajunrevenge said:
He's a league average hitter with elite defense. Thats a big upgrade from one of the worst hitting full time starters and a good defender. Arcia had a 72 RC. Dansby 99. I know fangraphs defensive WAR aint the most reliable but Dansby doubled up Arcia in defensive WAR. And we are talking defense at one of if not the most important defensive position in the game. CF/SS/C are the top 3 most important defensive positions no question about it. Everyones order of those 3 might change but defense is very important. Especially for what is now a pitching first team.

Kim is having major shoulder surgery and probably will want to stay on the west coast for shorter travel home to Japan. We would probably need to overpay several million over what any west coast team would pay. The Dodgers will probably pay him 15 million just to be a bench player since they annexed Japan.
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15 million per year for Kim for 3 or 4 years would still be far more preferable than trading for Bae.

Kim is Korean, not Japanese. And for whatever reason, we seem to have a better relationship with Korean players.

I've listed the best options for SS. Perdomo or Crawford are the best fits for us and should be able to be acquired at fairly reasonable prospect costs. Adames is unlikely, but we likely the have the money to do that if we want.
 
There aren’t a ton of options at SS. Correa would be one but hes over paid and injury prone. I think Bichette rebounds well. He’s only 26 and has been really good the last 3 years before this year. He’s a FA after next year so the Jays will probably trade him this offseason and that would be my main target. I think he’s a really good fit here with the age group we have and the core we have in place hr would sign an extension.
 
Carp said:
We've signed Boras guys before. And Kim is a defensive specialist that just had shoulder surgery. He isn't getting a big pay day. Hell probably end up taking a short term deal with a relatively high AAV and maybe an opt out.

JP Crawford could easily be available too.
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The last Boras player we signed was Michael Bourn in 2012
 
The Braves need a SP and a SS, so naturally AA will make 3 trades to ultimately get a young stud in LF at the cost of 7 mediocre prospects and taking on $30M of dead contracts from other teams. He will then extend that LF for 7 years while he is flying to the press conference.

He will do all of that rather than signing Adames to play SS.
 
Enscheff said:
The Braves need a SP and a SS, so naturally AA will make 3 trades to ultimately get a young stud in LF at the cost of 7 mediocre prospects and taking on $30M of dead contracts from other teams. He will then extend that LF for 7 years while he is flying to the press conference.

He will do all of that rather than signing Adames to play SS.
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I hope kelenic and Murphy taught him some humility this season
 
Enscheff said:
The Braves need a SP and a SS, so naturally AA will make 3 trades to ultimately get a young stud in LF at the cost of 7 mediocre prospects and taking on $30M of dead contracts from other teams. He will then extend that LF for 7 years while he is flying to the press conference.

He will do all of that rather than signing Adames to play SS.
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I could totally see AA trade Murphy to Milwaukee for Bill and the rest of Yelich's contract.
 
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