Chicago Cubs TARGETING Michael King | Projected offseason plan

Chicago Cubs TARGETING Michael King | Projected offseason plan

The Cubs need to get better this off season and I reveal my plan on how to do just that. Go Cubs. You are Locked on Cubs. Your daily Chicago Cubs podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. You are Locked On Cubs, part of the Locked On Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network, we are your team every day. I’m Matt Cozy. I’m a lifelong fan, taking my passion into a discussion with you on all things Cubs. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app today. MLB media writes updates later in the show. And up until then, I lay out my projected plan for the Cubs this off season, all via free agency, and it starts with starting pitcher Michael King. The Cubs have about $51 million to the first luxury tax threshold, and I will lay out plans on how they could spend those dollars. this after Shota Imanaga accepted the qualifying offer on Tuesday. I’ll preface all this by saying I don’t see the Cubs going 100 plus million on a starting pitcher. So that takes them out on CE Valdez Suarez and Amay. I do see the Cubs being active on King. I see them being active on on Zack Gallon and they should be active in the trade market. There was eight eight pictures we laid out last episode on potential trade options. And for the purpose of this episode, I avoided trades because really because of trade packages. Uh but they they they could very well go go that route for sure. And uh if they do, maybe we get a nice surprise and they get a starting position player via free agency. But for right now, I have the Cubs signing Michael King to a three-year, $75 million deal. King made only 15 starts in 25 due to two separate injuries throughout the year, posting a 344 ERA in 73 innings. In 2024, King finished seventh in the Sai Young with a 295 ERA in 30 starts, his first full season as a starter. Before that, he pitched mostly out of the bullpen with the Yankees before being included as a centerpiece of the Juan Stoodto trade two off seasons ago. If he didn’t get injured this past season that he might have been the second best starter on the market next to his Padres’s teammate Cease. Uh but he’s he’s really shown well. Uh a lot of upside and a really diverse pitch mix, really really solid four pitch mix, three quarters arm slot. I think he fits the Cubs well uh because of that. Uh he average fast ball of 94, but his stuff’s so good. He balances himself out. He he’s difficult to face. He has been difficult to face and he misses bats and that’s really the key right now to adding to this Cubs rotation. Vo is one way to do that. It’s not like he throws 89 or 90. He’s averaging 94 on his VO, but it’s it’s really about missing bats and that’s exactly what what Michael King does. The other reason I think he’s a fit is because due to his injury last year and uh only getting the 15 starts, he’ll unlikely get to that nine figure mark. If he gets a 100 plus million, that would be a that would be a significant surprise, I think, if if a team uh went that far with him. And so a reason I think the Cubs are a fit as well is because it’s going to be, you know, that that eight eight figure number. The Athletic projects 75 uh million. So did uh ESPN and so that’s what I went with. Um, there was even a couple other projections, Fan Graphs, MLB trade rumors that had a little bit less of an AAV per season, but but most of the projections were 3 to four years AAV between 20 and 25. Uh, and so that’s that’s seems right, you know, that sounds right to me. And even despite this injury history, it’s a good reminder the Cubs aren’t afraid of that. You know, they don’t shy away from pitchers who have this type of history. In fact, people that have been brought in with a history of injury have uh not only survived, but they’ve they’ve thrived. The Cubs drafted Kade Horton uh who who barely had any innings to his name because of Tommy John’s surgery uh in college and because he played a position in college as well. Uh they signed Matthew Boyd almost a year ago now and Boyd flourished with with this team. He was the locked on Cubs pitcher of the year in fact. And there are other examples as well. And I I’m really starting to think this is their guy in in King again. They could make a trade. They they they should be talking to the Twins about Joe Ryan. Maybe they are even talking to them about Pablo Lopez. They should be talking to the Marlins about Edward Cabrera and Sandy Contra. Uh is McKenzie Gore available as the Nationals have a new GM? We brought up even four other names the other day. Chris Bouubich, Kodi Sanga, Mitch Keller. Who was the other name we brought up? I’m I’m I’m forgetting who that was. Um Oh, it’s Pablo Lopez. Yeah. So, those are the eight those are the eight total names. And you know, I I think they should be active in that market and then they could swing and and get a position player of of like some ilk and not the one that, you know, I’m going to project later in the show. Uh even though the one I’m projecting I think would be a nice bench addition. Um but when Steel returns, here’s the rotation and it’s six bonafide dudes. Steel, King, Boyd, Horton, Tyion, and Managa. That’s a top 10 rotation in baseball. Plus, you have Ray behind them, and you have Assad, Brown, and Wix behind him. Uh, depending on if if th that trio is still with the organization uh by opening day. So King at 3 years for 75 that takes the Cubs payroll space from 51 million to the first luxury tax threshold to 26 million and I reveal the rest of my projected plans next. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. He keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. The Chicago Bulls opened at 33 and a half wins prior to the first game a few weeks ago. They’re now at 41 a half after their 7 and6 start. and the Bears as we continue some local flavor here. Uh minus 2 1/2 favorite over the Steelers this Sunday. Uh minus 44 over under points 44 and a half. We’ll see if the Bears can improve to 8 and3 right now. FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Thank you for making Locked On Cubs your first listen of the day. Thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. rest of the moves for the Cubs with 26 million now available to the first luxury tax threshold. This is the off season when the Cubs finally get Kenley Jansen. I’m calling it right now. It’s been floated before. Uh veteran presence, possible mentor, a good pitcher. Uh one of the best closers in the history of the sport. He’s fourth all time in saves. Uh he’s only three away from being third all time and uh he’s 37 years old, right-handed reliever, Hall of Fame career. I h I have him at one year for 9 million. I get the 9 million from uh really I was thinking through the Andrew Kitridge lens, you know, how could they spend the 9 million? They declined on him uh in the bullpen specifically. And I I think Kenley Jansen uh could could be that guy. The Athletic projects him 1 for 10, so I bumped that down a little bit. Uh Jansen did have his lowest strikeout rate of his career in 2025, but he also had his lowest whip since 2017. So, uh that’s encouraging. He finished with a 259 erra. Played for the Angels last year. In the second half, an entire half of baseball last year. Opponents hit 090 against Jansen. 090. That’s really impressive. Uh, so could could he be the guy that, you know, where he would slot in? High leverage. High leverage immediately. It I don’t think they’re going to go out of the gate with an assigned closer. And even if it is Palencia, okay, Jansen’s the, you know, seventh or eighth inning guy depending on matchups. Speaking of matchups, you got you figure the Cubs will sign a lefty uh to add to their bullpen. And I think it’s going to be a familiar name. I think they bring back either Caleb Theelbar or Drew Pomerance. If they somehow manage to bring back both, uh that would be that would be good, you know, to have some familiar flavor in there. Um it both very cool stories. this past year, them and Brad Keller, uh, being veteran pitchers that really found their footing with the Cubs and and excelled in in a major way. Um, three of the biggest stories, individual stories of the the whole year. Uh, Theelbar finished with a 264 RA in 67 games. In 57 games, Pomerance finished with a 217. Drew Pomerance didn’t allow a run through his first 23 and a3 innings. He had a zero erra and literally it was the fourth of July. Um eventually he did give up a few runs but I have either fieldb bar or pomerance one year 5 million and to really entice them because I’m sure there’s going to be multiple suitors. Maybe you go two for 10 or two for nine. uh if they want a little more security on the years. Um Theelbar will be 39 this year. Pomerance will be 37. Uh boy, do these guys really perform. And next guy I have here uh to possibly sign as I go over my projected plan. So I had Kenley Jansen one for nine, Caleb Theelbar or Drew Pomerance one for five. Next guy I also put at 1 for5 and that’s a position player Rob Ref Snider. Ref Snider is a right-handed hitting outfielder, career OPS of 826 against lefties. And in 2025 he hit 302 with an on base of 399 against lefties. Uh played with the Red Sox last year. He’s been with them uh the last several years. And I think that would be a a really nice addition. And uh you know, these names I’m not exactly pulling out of a hat. I I have heard, you know, I I’ve read these names and and uh you know, I I I know we cite the Athletic all the time, but you know, that’s that’s the sense I get from from them as well. Um at one point, either in an article or a podcast, Sahadv Sharma and Patrick Mooney did mention Ref Snider. Um so, you know, there might be a little momentum there. Uh, I do think they get a right-handed bat that mashes lefties. Um, could could that be Paul Goldmid? Uh, you know, could it be Ref Snider? Could it be someone else? Uh, could that even be a V be via trade? Um, so I do think someone’s going to play that role. Ref. Snider is mostly an an outfielder. Uh, they don’t exactly need that. They have plenty of them. Hap, Pete, Seiya, Casey, Alcantra. So, but I think an added veteran presence there wouldn’t hurt. Uh, so nine for Jansen, five for either Theelbar or Pomerance, five for Ref Snider. That brings you down from 26 million to 7 million left in a hurry there. Uh, I mean, not really in a hurry. You added I just added four players. Um, but I think with 7 million left and adding four players like that and then this is the again this is the free agency version. I think at that point you add your team with that 7 million left through a combo of major and minor league deals probably by fortifying mostly the bullpen and the bench. uh and they would start the season then at 237 or so and and that’s what they need to do. The the trade deadline is too difficult to navigate. You know, get to 240 or even all the way up to the 244. Trade deadline’s too difficult to navigate. The sellers drive high prices. That was confirmed last summer when when the sellers were were really really firm on on their sellers side on on starting pitchers. None of the starting pitchers in the Rumblings that the under control ones at least got moved. Shane Bieber was probably the biggest name that did. That paid off for the Blue Jays, but none of the younger guys got moved. And I would say to open up on March 26 with your best roster has to be the goal if the goal is to get one of the top two seeds in the playoffs because one of the top two seeds in the playoffs that really is the goal to give you the best shot to win the World Series. And so to that point I say, well, how important is stacking wins in those first 100 plus games then? Because the remember the trade deadline happens with only like 55 games left. Right now there are 97 games scheduled before the All-Star break. That should be the priority, those 97. Also, it doesn’t matter how you win out of those 97. Have you watched the NFL this year? Have you watched the Bears? Quality of win doesn’t matter. And it especially shouldn’t if you’re trying to get one of the top two seeds. Just stack as many wins as you can. If they go five and one out of the gate in that sixgame home stand at Wrigley and their run differential is four, who cares anymore? They’re five- one, right? Their goal should be 92 plus wins. That number is based off the win total last year. Can you get 92 plus? Can you get one of the top two seeds? Uh, I’m going to repeat this a lot leading up to opening day of the 2026 season, which is Thursday, March 26th. That opening day game will likely be on Marquee as far as we know, right? And there was big TV news in baseball on on Wednesday. I’ll get you those details next. Shout out to the Everydayers and you can become a Locked On Cubs Everydayer by joining us for every episode throughout the week. Major League Baseball announced three separate TV deals on Wednesday. This was all because ESPN opted out of their deal after this uh 2025 season. Uh however, ESPN is actually a big part of this new deal. So, let’s start with them. ESPN is taking over MLB TV. Uh, one of Sam’s favorite companions, especially in the summertime. And I think for a lot of baseball fans, MLBTV has gotten really popular. Um, and ESPN is going to take that over starting in 26. There’s going to be one year, uh, what would you call that? A grandfathering process. this 2026 year, you will still be able to access MLB TV through the MLB app, but starting in 27, you can’t do that. All needs to be through the ESPN app. Uh, so that means that ESPN has the out ofarket rights for the the whole sport, all 30 teams. And MLB had been running the TV uh side for six teams, Guardians, Padres’s, Twins, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Mariners. And so now ESPN uh takes over those inmarket rights for those six teams. And I’d be curious to to know, you know, what what that branding would be. I would assume they just slap the ESPN name on it. Welcome back to ESPN Guardians or whatever. Um, that’s a big local play for ESPN, for a network that seemingly wants, not seemingly, for a network that that wants to own sports, but it’s mostly on through a national lens. And so now to have six inmarket rights for for inmarket rights for six baseball teams, it’s something to follow. you know, does ESPN Diamondbacks lead ESPN, you know, who who knows what what teams and it could be any of the four major sports. Um, so yeah, ESPN struck there and they also will have some exclusive uh they’ll still have some exclusive week weekday games uh as well sprinkled throughout the year. Uh that’s be weekdays because uh Sunday Night Baseball is now on NBC. Yeah, NBC is getting Sunday Night Baseball in 2026. All these deals are through 28 by the way, the 2028 season. Uh Sunday Night Baseball will be on Peacock a lot because the NFL and NBA is uh in session on NBC as well. NBC now owns Sunday night. I I would have to double check, but that mean every single Sunday of the year NBC will have either an NFL, NBA or MLB game, right? I mean, that sounds, unless I’m wrong. Uh, so that’s cool for them. So, when the NFL and NBA are going, Sunday Night Baseball will be on Peacock. The Sunday Morning Package that was on Roku is also moving to Peacock. And the third part of this uh news uh today on on Wednesday is that Netflix is getting uh some island island games or island events as they were. Uh Netflix is getting opening day on March 25th. So a day before all the other teams open. Uh that game is going to be between the Yankees and the Giants. Netflix is also getting the home run derby and Netflix is getting the Field of Dreams game which returns this summer in Iowa where the movie uh was filmed. Um what other takeaways did I have here? Oh, a couple other nuggets uh about this. MLB will receive about $750 million through the 2028 season for all three of these deals combined. And all of MLB’s deals, these three, and then there’s the big one with Fox, which host the World Series and Turner Sports, right? You’ve seen the Wildcard, you’ve seen playoffs on TBS, TNT, True TV. Well, now all five of these partners, Fox, Turner, ESPN, Netflix, and NBC, all of these deals now expire at the same exact time, which is after 2028. And if you combine that reality with uh the the tremendous ratings that the World Series and really all postseason did uh last month for the whole month from from the first wildcard game to game seven of the World Series, I mean the World Series ratings were were immensely high. They uh crushed the NBA Finals this past summer. Um and and it seems like baseball is returning to its number two spot across the four major leagues um from from an audience perspective and from the fan consumption of them. And because of the TV deals, because of those ratings, because of the momentum that baseball has, you have to think or you have to convince yourself and to to choose positivity, to choose optimism that those would be big reasons why there there will be baseball in 2027 because these things are just too important. and and really the playoff packages are too important. So to miss the whole year, I I uh I’m out on that. I just don’t see it. I I think at one point I I brought myself to to ponder it at least. Um but there will be baseball in 2027. how many regular season games they play up in the air. Like really up in the air. But the other extreme of playing zero games, I think that’s over. Um but maybe they only play 80 games. But I really think the key is a full playoffs and that’s because of uh because of television. And one last nugget, if you made it this far, I am hearing Boo Shambi is in play to sign with NBC for this new package and to be the Sunday Night Baseball voice for NBC. He’s under contract with the Cubs through uh 26. Alex Cohen was used quite a bit as the number two TV uh playbyplayer for the Cubs and Marquee in 25. So, we we’ll we’ll see how this shakes out. But, Alex Cohen’s around. Um I I think Boog stays with the Cubs and Marquee for this final year of his contract. But, uh maybe he continues to miss time uh like he did uh this past year, whether that’s because of NBC or or or somewhere else. All right. Uh lot on the show right there. Sam will be back Friday and then we’ll both be back uh Monday uh continuing this offseason journey together. I’m Matt Cozy and this is Locked On Cubs, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Go Cubs.

The Cubs prepare for a crucial offseason and Matt unveils his ambitious plan, highlighted by signing Michael King and the strategic hunt for bullpen and bench experience. Will trades shake up the roster or does free agency hold all the answers? Plus: The impact of MLB’s new TV deals with ESPN, NBC, and Netflix.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-cubs/

Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/

#Cubs #ChicagoCubs