Chicago Cubs Offseason To-Do List with Patrick Mooney

Chicago Cubs Offseason To-Do List with Patrick Mooney

[Music] The Cubs turn off seasonason to-do list. Patrick Mooney joining us right now and you can read all of his articles about the Cubs and the Athletic and listen to Patrick along with Sahad Dave Chararma on North Side Territory. Patrick, great to see you again and let’s do what we do. Offseason to-do list for the Cubs lay out your three and then we’ll ask you follow-ups. Sounds good. Obviously, besides getting AJ to sing the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field next year, the top priority. Yes, he would do it. That should be number one. Yeah. Uh letting Show Managa test the market uh is clearly a sign that they want to do things differently. Their pitching staff got a little exposed by the second round of the playoffs. It was not good enough to keep advancing. Uh the other part of that is the rest of the pitching staff. bullpen has to be almost completely rebuilt. Uh that is what the Cubs like to do though. They don’t like putting making huge investments in the back end of the game. They like taking chances. They feel really good about their ability to identify talent. They have a excellent manager and and Craig Councel in terms of putting those guys in positions to succeed. And obviously they have, you know, gold glove defenders all over the field to uh help those guys out. And then the final thing, finding ways to replace Kyle Tucker. Our assumption is that he is likely going somewhere else. The Cubs are going to monitor this, they’re going to stay in touch. Uh but if Kyle Tucker gets what we thought was possible at the beginning of the season, a decade long commitment, a contract that begins with whatever three or four, that’s just not really how the Cubs operate. So, I would look for them to kind of internally replace him, then find different ways to kind of cobble together that type of production. All right, Patrick, we’re going to start at the top. Upgrade the rotation. They had Chota. They should get Steel back, right? Tyion is there. Kate Horton was a really nice rookie season, especially after the first game of his career. I called and Craig Councel didn’t want him to face the top of the Mets order at the start, which I never figured out. Then this they came up and the bases were loaded. he had to get out of it. So, but I mean, and then Tyion’s a nice piece. They have pieces. What I don’t understand is why let test the free agent market. He’s been good for him. He’s he he likes Chicago. The fans love him there. And and then it and before we get into the bullpen, because I’m going to hit on this now. Will they spend the money that they need to really upgrade that rotation? We’ll start with Shota and that they did not want to make a three-year commitment right now. Uh I believe it also would have given Shota a no trade clause. Uh he was just sort of a little lost at the end of this year. I mean them not using him in an elimination game in Milwaukee kind of told you everything you needed to know about what they thought of him in that moment. I still think, you know, the qualifying offer is a possibility. Um, I also think like Sha’s overall body of work is outstanding and this is something that if you mention to Cubs officials, they’ll probably like cringe or roll their eyes. I still think Shota brought something in terms of charisma, in terms of entertainment value, just the way he competed, uh, the joy he showed on the mound that there are intangible things that, you know, he can bring. Uh but ultimately it’s whatever the the model told the Cubs, right, of they see a guy in his early 30s creeping toward his mid30s. They love keeping their options open and they’re going to have there’s a good class of free agent pitchers out there and I think they’d rather just sort of maintain flexibility rather than committing to Shota right this second. And I would think that Shoda isn’t pleased when an option is not picked up. It’s not going to help you pause because the team is telling him, “We don’t think you’re worth this. Perhaps you’re worth less than this.” That’s usually a tough tell. So, I want to ask you this because we had a good debate the other day, AJ Kratz, me about his 2025 season and what you would do. You watched every pitch, right? We watch a lot, but we don’t get every single pitch of Shotaag. What did you see this year versus 2024? Did the league adjust? Did the stuff get worse? We see the peripherals like the home runs up and strikeouts down a lot. So, did the Cubs make the right call in your mind to not give him that type of contract? And you have to assume at that point that he is gone. Yeah, I think part of this was the concerns that the baseball industry had when he was leaving Japan started to pop up. And that’s what you’re alluding to, Scott, of of the home runs of if he loses a little bit of oomph on that fast ball, if he gets a little predictable. I think from Shota’s side, they can say that he had a, you know, a lower half injury that may have disrupted his rhythm. didn’t quite get all the way back there. And and this was just really his first time dealing with this at the major league level that he had been so good at staying ahead of hitters that he kept winning that cat and mouse game. It just caught up to him at the absolute worst time. Like if he had that bad month in April, maybe the Cubs would have picked that up, that that three-year commitment. Because I do think we go through this all the time of teams say, “Man, you can never have enough pitching and then they get to the trade deadline and it’s like, wow, those prices are way too expensive to go get a controllable starting pitcher. That just didn’t make sense.” And then in October, your pitching gets exposed. But then there’s a whole new crop of free agents. And then, you know, the front offices, their imaginations start working. And then usually by like day three of the GMating, some crazy pitching deal kind of uh goes across our uh Twitter screen. So I’m really interested to see like where this market goes, not just for SHO, but for the Cubs. Maybe it is a pitcher who’s coming over from Japan. I mean, they’ve been invested heavily uh in that market to establish relationships. They have good contacts there. I think Shota kind of falls into that bucket of talented but kind of flawed pitchers. I mean, there’s a lot of maybe there’s like a dozen guys like that who who have been excellent at times, uh, but who are coming off of down moments and then I’ll see, you know, whether they can guess right this time. Is it time to move like they moved with Tucker but in the rotation? Do you see the Cubs saying, you know what, Terk Scuba wouldn’t cost us that much to move from Detroit to Chicago? Do you see them making a big splash to upgrade their rotation? They’re definitely going to check back on the pitching market. I don’t see Jed Hoyer and Scott Harris are longtime friends. They work together very closely. They see the game in similar terms. I have a hard time seeing them lining up for a deal. But last summer, I mean, the Cubs were asked about Mackenzie Gore, Joe Ryan, the Marlins pitchers. I think they’re almost certainly going to circle back uh in those directions. You know, some of those teams have undergone changes, whether it was, you know, the Nationals having a new leader of baseball operations, the Twins no longer being up for sale. Uh I think kind of what worked against Shota here was the Cubs have a decent amount of pitching depth now. I mean, we went through some of those names at the top of this segment. Uh, but I think to Eric’s point of like, yeah, this is a chance to go go for upside, whatever that is, however you think you can get it, you know, now is the time to at least see rather than locking in three years of showed up. Okay. Well, then let’s go to your next point, the bullpen. They already came out and said they’re not going to spend money on any of the top bullpen arms. So, they’re just hoping and Valencia and some of these other guys can just come through for them and then at the midway point they’ll make trades and see what happens. Are they bargain shopping again? And by the way, this is still the Cubs. They still make a ton of money and they do not spend like a big market team. So, please, if you are listening, Rickettts family, spend your money on players, please. This is coming from a White Sox fan. Uh, I would say the Cubs are completely open-minded in terms of hunting for good deals. So, they are not going to give a reliever like a four-year deal around Thanksgiving. That’s just not how they operate. They do not think that is a good way to spend their resources, which are ample, but maybe not commensurate with uh the Wrigleyville machine that you see AJ every time you come in uh for a national TV game. So, look, I think you Devin Williams could make sense. There’s a good connection there with Craig Council. I think having an established closer, yeah, that if he’s looking for a bounceback type deal, a nice platform to go try and save 50 games for playoff contender, sure. But like, you know, giving a a reliever like a 60 hundred million dollar deal, that’s that’s just not how they operate. And and this is an area where I do think they get a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. like Drew Pomerance was sitting on his couch last year thinking he was done in the game and he wound up uh being a huge part of their bullpen. Caleb Thebar was not a name that really uh animated people last offseason. He became extremely valuable. Brad Keller a minor league deal. Uh he’s probably going to get paid pretty well this year. I don’t think the Cubs would rule bringing any of those guys out, but they’re just going to have a limit. They’re going to have a a strategy and a philosophy that they’re not going to waver from very much. Just mediocre moves that turn out to be really neat, Patrick. Right. Right. I mean, yeah. I mean, so they’re not going to rebuild the bullpen. They’re just gonna they’re gonna throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks. And this is why they spent. This is why ownership said, “You know what? We will spend on Craig.” And I’m sure that was probably one of the big selling points. Look at what Craig’s done with the DFA bullpen up north. Well, you know what else that DFA bullpen had? They had four starters that went into the seventh inning. They had a closer closer of the year, reliever of the year four straight years between her and Devin Williams. like they they basically had to find Craig Council up there had to find two innings. He had to find two innings and he’s like, “Oh, he’s a masterpiece.” Anyway, so if we’re not going to spend money, we’re going to go to AJ’s favorite movie and we’re going to go in the aggregate. How are we going to replace Kyle Tucker? Because you don’t replace Kyle Tucker. The only way you get Kyle Tucker is because you gave up Esoch Parades, you gave up Cam Smith, and you got a aircraft carrier for your team. Most teams that do this, besides the Orioles and the Cubs, now you make a big move like that because you’re like, “Yeah, I’m going to keep that guy.” Obviously, the Cubs were never going to keep Kyle Tucker. He had a great year. Some fans will say, “H, he tailed off at the end. He’s not worth it.” I would say fooy on that. How do they replace him? Where do they start? You would start with Sea Suzuki playing right field. Uh which isn’t a bad place to start. Uh you would have as sort of a floor or as a worst case scenario, you’d have two young hitters in Moes Basteros and Owen Casey, two left-handed hitters. Uh that would give you some flexibility. And then yeah, like if we’re going to keep ruling out ways that the Cubs are going to spend money, they’re have to spend it somewhere. And so maybe that is an interesting position player elsewhere. Whether it’s circling back to Bregman, whether it’s a hitter out of Japan, like there I think this is how they look at it’s the Craig Council, I’m using the air quotes here, solving for wins. like they have no sort of like core philosophy in terms of like oh we have to get that player or like we are one piece away that that is just not how they look at it and we’ll see if they can replace first half Kyle Tucker. Uh second half Kyle Tucker was you know it was eerie to hear the silence. I don’t think there’s that sort of pressure on ownership or pressure on front office to sign this guy right now to like a 10-year deal. And what the Cubs will do is what they’ve done the last several offseasons is they’ll stay in touch with everyone. They’ll see where the market goes. They’ll react and then you get to spring training and there’s probably going to be several good players still out there and the Cubs will be one of the few teams left in that mix. That’s why we saw it with Bregman. We saw it with them bringing back Cody Bellinger. We saw it several years ago with you Darvish. Like like it or not, that’s just how they run their business. So they’re looking for bargains is what you’re is basically what you’re saying is yeah the Cubs I mean they just you just say that and I understand that. I mean listen again I get it. I mean that’s the way some teams do it. But I’m not defending explaining Wes. Yeah. No, no. I I’m not saying you’re defending it at all, Patrick. What I’m saying, though, is why trade for Tucker if you’re not going to even, you know, try. It’s like the old Red Sox that we always used to make fun of last couple years. Oh, well, we were in on this guy. Oh, well, we were, we tried, fans, right? Oh, we tried, but oh, you know what? at the end of the day, we just don’t have enough money. But come get your $20 beer in the bleachers and we’ll keep doing that and we’ll keep having, you know, so and so sing the seventh inning stretch, Chris Chelios and Eddie Veter every day, right? But here’s the thing for me. The Cubs have the core, I feel like, to make a deep run in the postseason, right? They shouldn’t be losing in the I know they they won the wild card round, so I’ll give them that. You know, they shouldn’t be losing in the DS. Maybe they should be going for it because, you know, I know 2016 is 10 years ago now, but they proved when they go out and spend the money correctly and they get a lackey and they get a Leester and they get a Hayward and they get Dexter Fowler and they get some of these guys, it can put you on the next level and they did that with Swanson. It it’s been proven that it works. So, why are they so resistant to going out and making these move? Right. That’s what that’s what as as a baseball fan, I look at this and I, as you mentioned, when I go in to these games, it’s packed, right? Every bar and restaurant around Regleyville is packed. Every rooftop they own is packed. The hotel they own is packed. The McDonald’s is packed. All everything is packed. And then they’re like, “Oh, we can’t spend.” And I’m like, “Wait, why? Why not?” That’s why I think this bothers me so much. Yeah, for a White Socks guy, I think you absolutely tapped into the frustration of a huge the vast majority of Cubs fans. And you’re right, the lesson in 2016 was not just elite young talent. It was going out and spending for proven veterans and championship caliber players to put you over the top. And if you listen to the Cubs over the years, it seems like a lot of sort of pointing at, you know, Jason Hayward’s contract or, you know, we’re still paying John Lester part of his signing bonus. Like that’s like that seems to be they’re just so afraid of being kind of hampered by long-term contracts in the future. Uh, I will say though, like they’re in a better place to make that argument now of building off a 90-ish win team, uh, that does not have a ton of huge holes versus them making that argument when they were losing 90 games a

Patrick Mooney, Chicago Cubs beat writer for The Athletic and co-host of North Side Territory, joins Foul Territory to break down the Cubs’ offseason to-do list. Mooney details the team’s biggest priorities — from upgrading the rotation and rebuilding the bullpen to figuring out how to replace Kyle Tucker’s production. AJ Pierzynski, Erik Kratz, and Scott Braun debate whether the Cubs will finally spend like a big-market team and if Craig Counsell’s squad is built to make another playoff run.

Subscribe to the podcast!
https://apple.co/3KWKFNo

Follow all our social media channels for more content!
Tweets by FoulTerritoryTV
https://www.instagram.com/foulterritoryshow/

@foulterritory

https://www.facebook.com/FoulTerritoryShow
https://www.twitch.tv/foulterritoryshow