Cubs REKAP Podcast (S3 – EP37) – Are the Cubs the new Settlers in town?

Cubs REKAP Podcast (S3 – EP37) – Are the Cubs the new Settlers in town?

Welcome into the latest edition of our Cubs recap podcast. A presentation of our recap YouTube channel and available audio only everywhere you get your favorite podcast with my guy. He’s my sparring partner, but he’s my friend. He usually comes up on the short end of the battles. He’s Gordon Whittenmeer. I’m David Kaplan. Hi, Gdub. Happy birthday, Cab. Thanks, kid. How about that? 40 years old. That’s why I didn’t respond to your shot there. 40 years old today. Cannot believe it. Our podcast, as always, is brought to you by the great people at sinus and snoring md.com. My wife Mindy one morning said, “Okay, I’m done. I cannot sleep next to you if you’re gonna snore like a freight train. You have got to go get that taken care of. We have a good friend John. His daughter works for Sonic and Snoring MD. So I called, she said, “Cap, we’ll get you in here to see the doctor. It’s a piece of cake process.” I went, he said, “Absolutely. I can take care of that and it will be very brief. It will be painless. It will be easy.” Guess what? Mindy, you snuggle right up next to me because I don’t snore anymore. Take that snoring. So, Sinus and Snoringmd.com. All right, Gordon. The Chicago Cubs are taking over the role as settlers from Arurus and Mark Eversley of the Bulls. I am furious that they are paying $22 million for Shoda Imanaga who nice man loves being a cub is the epitome of mediocrity. And if you’re trying to truly win, you don’t give him $22 million. Of course, we’re talking about the qualifiing offer. 13 players got qualifying offers, free agents, and four a record number accepted, including Shota. uh 22.025 million I think. Uh so once again cap birthday uh aside you’re wrong. You’re dead wrong on this. Look I think this best thing that could have happened for him. The reason that the that the Cubs turned down their end of the mutual option which was 57 almost 58 million for three years three years is because of the the three-year commitment on that deal. Um the player option was 15 for one year. They would have loved it if he’d have taken that a one-year deal, 15, right? You know, right in the middle of a starting uh pitcher salary range, that that’s fine. But on a one-year deal, even though it’s 22 million, on a one-year deal now, they’ve got that much more pitching depth. And by the way, you know, you’ve been ripping this guy ever since I’m not ripping him. He’s a nice man. I just think he’s mediocre. in the biggest game of the season, game five, Milwaukee Brewers. They literally said, “No, we can’t pitch him.” And so they didn’t let him on the mound. They couldn’t start a guy that they’re paying 22 million for in the biggest game of the season. He was on full rest. Nope. You’re not good enough. This guy, I think if they knew he was going to accept it, they wouldn’t have given him the qualifying off. That may or may not be true, but I think this is again the best thing that could have happened for them because it means they’ve got this guy as part of their pitching depth. Now they can go out and concentrate on one big starting pitcher arm and get the bullpin in shape and it it solves some of your problems going into the off season. Look, he didn’t just forget to pitch. You you you remember what he did in his first year in the big leagues when he came in went 15 and I got the numbers right here. 15 and three 291 devastating splitter. Now he comes back the next year. He actually started the season well. He pitched he had a 315 erra on September 2nd uh and what nine and five nine and six or something like that. And this is despite the fact that he was hurt part of the season and he just didn’t finish strong. Look, his velocity is still good. There’s he doesn’t he doesn’t rely on overpowering you. The the splitter is still there. I think he’s a good candidate for a bounceback. Now, is he going to be what he was as a rookie? Maybe not. Probably not. That’s pretty high bar. Is he going to be something in between? And and by the way, his final numbers weren’t that bad. Nine and eight, 373. You couldn’t pitch him in game five because you didn’t think he was good enough. That ends it. Look, I don’t know what all went into that in terms of where they thought his health was, where they thought his stamina level was, but I’m sure there was there were a lot of discussions on that. I think you’re okay whether he becomes a front end playoff starter for you or not. I think it’s a good thing that they got him back in the fold in the rotation given where we think they might otherwise go. seeking multiple pitchers. Gordon, let me ask you a question. When these guys before they pick up the qualifying offer or accept it, do you think their agents sniff around with other teams and ask what they could get? Oh, without a doubt. Okay. 100%. Nobody out there was willing to give that dude a two-year deal at significant money. They went, “Nah, we probably wouldn’t play in that end of the pool.” Oh, but we’ll take you for $22 million. We don’t know what he was looking at, but I can tell you from the looks of things and from talking to people, the impending labor talks and the expiration of the CBA, which is at the end of the 26 season, which could result in games being lost off the schedule in 27, if not a lengthy uh shutdown, is impacting some of the behavior of not only teams in terms of long-term offers, but also player behavior. behavior and so I think we saw that look more more guys took the qualifying offer than ever had before and it’s only four but usually you give these offers to guys you think are going to go test themselves in free agency well four of the 13 most ever turn it down in and not a shock by the way the the previous high was three and that was in this time of year in 2015 going in the 2016 season one year out of a CBA that year. The idea of uncertainty as you look forward influences those decisions, too. Like if you like what if he could go get a three-year deal? What if he could go get a three-year deal worth 12 to 15 million a year? And now you look at that deal and you say, “Well, what happens if there’s a shutdown in 27 and I lose that year on the deal?” Well, now it’s a two-year deal worth whatever. It’s a two plus deal worth whatever. If I can get 22 up front in guaranteed money for for 26, then whatever happens on the back end, whether I get a two-year deal after that or whatever deal after that, that’s added to the 22 in terms of, you know, whatever you want to get. You can add that and call it a threeear whatever, adding the 22 or four year, whatever. So, it it makes sense that they would accept it. If you don’t like the fact that he’s there or if you think this is a mistake on their part, then then then yes, they were foolish for giving him the offer because they because they should have seen the possibility if not likelihood of this happening. Uh if especially if they didn’t value him that high. Multiple people, including our great friend Jesse Rogers, said he’s not taking the qualifying offer, kid. Well, I heard I heard of people out there saying nobody was going to take the qualifying offer, which made no sense to me. For instance, I think I think Sha is one example of how Woodruff Woodruff Woodruff’s coming off an injury, right? So, he took the money. Of course, he took it. Of course, he took it. And uh but Shoda and Trent Gisham to me are two guys who took the offer who uh could have been influenced by the the the labor uncertainty for for different reasons because in in Trent Gisham’s case, he’s a guy that hit 30 something home runs this year. Never come close to that before and but he’s always had the gold glove defense as a center fielder and he can play all three spots. So, he’s got value, but for that much money to beat the qualifying offer, how many teams are going to pay him based on the one year he had as opposed to like you don’t there’s no way you pay him big money for for the offensive years he had leading up to last year. And he played for the Yankees with the short right field porch. So, he the Yankees have a he’s valuable to the Yankees. He’s very valuable to the Yankee. I’m sure they don’t have a problem. I mean, in in my mind, if I’m the Yankees, I say Gisham back on a one-year deal, $22 million. Sure, he fits for us and it’s only a one-year deal. Him testing the market, I don’t imagine there’s a huge appetite out there for him being able to beat that with the possibility that he could lose 2027 money on that deal with a shutdown. Yeah. I my simple point is I don’t have a problem paying a pitcher $22 million but I don’t pay $22 million for I don’t know a Buick. I don’t Oh, here we go again with the I’m being honest. Why do you have such a problem with the Buick? I mean what’s wrong with a Buick? Okay, they run well. They’ve got, you know, good good consumer what do you call that? The consumer reports on those things. I’m not paying $22 million for a Lincoln Aviator. You want to get me the big Navigator? Okay, I’m in. You want to get me the souped up Yukon Denali in the Chevy Silverado EV? In my mind, I’m in. You You’re getting too caught up in the oneyear a AAV the oneyear 22 million. Okay, but it’s a one-year deal. It doesn’t matter if it’s a one-mon deal. He’s not good enough. It always matters if it’s a one-year deal compared to a long-term commitment. Well, why didn’t Jed sign me for 22 million? It’s only a one-year deal. What the hell? Look, I’m sure in their calculations, this was part of it, too. I’ll give give you an example. Last year, last year at this time, one guy didn’t take one guy took the qualifying offer. That was Nick Martinez of the Reds, who everybody said at the outset, well, why why would you even offer him? He’s not going to get that. Why would you offer him the qualifying offer, which was 21 million last year, and the for the Reds, the the way they said it going in was, well, it’s it’s it’s really a no-brainer because if he goes to free agency, we get the we get the comp pick, and if he takes it, it’s a one-year deal. And and even though it’s an overpay on a one-year deal, they know his value to that team. And it played out. He was a valuable part of a team that made the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2013. Let me ask you a question. Do you think the Philadelphia Phillies would sign show in free agency? I do not. Do you think the New York Yankees would? I do not. The Los Angeles Dodgers. Those are the teams I’m trying to freaking beat. And a team No, you’re not. No, you’re not. You’re the Chicago freaking Cubs. You’re not trying to beat any of those big spenders. And that’s part of the problem. And this is why I’m saying it’s the best thing that could have happened for him because they’re not spending that kind of money on anybody. They’re not going to go out and commit a multi-year deal of 25 plus million to to some pitcher that’s going to land you the guy the kind of guy that not only the sign, but that they have. The kind of guy that not only the Dodgers would sign, but that they have. So, this is why it’s a good thing for the Cubs, even if maybe Jed wanted it or didn’t want it. Even if even if Tom doesn’t want to spend the money and even if you piss all over it, it’s they have another arm now, another lefty arm who has done it, who is not a stiff, who hasn’t forgotten how to pitch, and has a really good shot at a bounceback year. He might be a key to them making the playoffs again. He He also might give up more home runs than any left-hander in the last decade. So, all that guy does is give up home runs. I I have faith that on a one-year contract, he’s likely to be productive and and maybe he will and maybe he won’t. And if we get to the playoffs again and they can’t do you have faith that they’re going to go out and be big players at the deep end of the pool in free agency, I think they’re going to sign a guy like Dylan CE and that’ll be 60 million. If they go get Dylan CE, which is a great idea, go get him. Go compete for him. then they don’t have to go get the second tier guy now. They don’t have to go get that other guy now. They can go concentrate on the bullpen at that point. Yeah, I don’t like it. I’m on the record, Jed. If I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to admit it. I do not like it. You know what? You guys thought we got to get the draft pick. Yeah, you signed a mediocre arm who in game five, you by your own admission, Cubs, said, “Nope, not good enough. Can’t start them. Can’t pitch them. Let me Oh, let’s give him 22 million. Let me ask something, Cap. Awful. In the spirit of your birthday. What would What would your ideal gift from the Cubs be going into 2026? What would you like to see the Cubs do as we sit here on your birthday? Your ideal birthday gift from the Cubs? Uh, I would love to see Famber Valdez here. I don’t think that’ll happen. And he is a little older. I got to see how many years he’s going to get. Or Emi, the kid from Japan. That would be a really nice birthday gift. Dylan CE absolutely would be in play for me without a doubt. And then I’ve got concerns about their offense. Like Tucker wasn’t great the second half. No doubt about it. But you better be right that Owen Jed that Owen Casey’s a player. You better be right that Bayister Steros can hit at the major league level or you better start trading those guys away before people figure out they’re not fair. I think you’ve got a reasonable shot at getting a a good starting pitcher in here. I’m I I don’t know about the I disagree with you on the lineup. I don’t think they should put heavy resources into that if they’re going to limit themselves anyway, which why not sign Alex Bregman because you need pitching more than you need Alex. I’ll sign them both. It’s a freaking ATM machine over there. Are we gonna go down this road again? Oh, well, it is your birthday. You You take You go ask for whatever you want. You know, I want Alex Bregman. A third. You sound like my kid years ago writing a list of Santa Claus. A lot of a lot of that ain’t going to happen, too. Dad, I would like a Lamborghini. Yeah, that’s not going to happen unless it’s a model that you’re going to build. All right, we move on from Shota Imanaga to that everyday lineup. So, they’re going to have their catching will be Amaya and Carson Kelly. Cool. All right. First base will be Michael Bush. I’m cool. Second base will be Nico Horner. I’m cool. Nice combo. Dansby at short. What do you do at third base if it was you? I I leave the guy there and uh give give him a shot. Better be right. Give him a shot. Well, okay. But this is where we were last year, right? And it was and they tried to sign Bregman last year, which is when you should have. Mhm. And uh maybe they should have got that done. But now they were a little light in the wallet. So, but so now Shaw has uh what I don’t know how many bats he wound up with this year because I know he got sent down, but uh he had some good stretches. He’s got a lot. This is the year that if he’s going to establish himself, it’s reasonable to expect that. If you think that he is a big league ball player, it’s reasonable to expect. I like him. I actually think he establishes himself. So, you give him that opportunity. You don’t you don’t pull the rug out from under him now. Are you last year is the year when you would have wanted to make sure you bring in a veteran. Last year was the year you had to make the playoffs in 2025 and you had to spend enough to to fill the roster in in place fill the gaps in the roster that you had. And so I would I was a lot more um on on on that train then than I am now. How about a closer? Edwin Diaz sounds good. Ryan Hley’s out there. Like I know the philosophy of Theo and Jed Carter Hawkins, Mr. 2032 guy. Those guys don’t like signing long-term deals for closers. Well, guess what? Unless you have an internal option that you can tell me that dude can lock down the ninth, you’re going to have to. Yeah. Well, this is again, it goes back to, you know, now that you got show, you can concentrate on go get that one with Dylan CE or somebody else. Go get that one starter that you put up near near the front with those other guys that you like up toward the front and then you go to the bullpen. I’m not worried about the lineup at this point. You didn’t have enough pitching to get it done. Pitching is what’s going to matter going forward in 26. You have to have more pitching. And right now what if you can get that starter then it should the rest of the offseason it should be all about the bullpen. And does that mean you go out and and try to get that that closer that slam dunk closer? I just start getting arms. I just start getting as many real arms as I can. There’s a lot of guys out there that have pitched at the back end of bullpens have some closer experience. Maybe weren’t maybe aren’t Edwin Diaz. You’re not going to get Edwin Diaz by the way. Why? because he’s going to cost too much by the time you spend your money on your starter and he’s and he might cost too much. I’m talking about I’m talking about the cash that Jed’s going to have in his hand. I’m not talking about what they can afford. You know that we’ve been down this road before. They ought to commit way more than they do. But they don’t and so so this is what I don’t understand is you’re just not going to get it. But you have a chance to go get some real arms in the bullpen. Maybe some guys with some experience. I would love and I hope Tom comes back in here. He’s always been great with us. generous with his time. If he’s in here sitting right over there, which he did last winter, if he’s here, I absolutely going to ask him, how can you sit and what would you say to your critics like me who ask, how could you sit in the first row right by the on deck circle for the Chicago National League Ball Club, the team that you’re the chairman of that your family owns, look around in the playoffs, hear your own players go, “This is the coolest environment I’ve ever played in. this is the best Wrigley’s ever been other than the World Series here and go, “Wow, this is incredible.” And you’re up there high-fiving people and you’re loving every second of it as your team is battling, beating the Brewers twice, taking out the Padres’s and not want to push more chips in. I don’t want to hear we invest whatever we make, we just want to break even. I don’t want to hear that. I want to hear you say, “You know what? last year really opened my eyes to how special it is to win again. And I have dispatched Jadu within reason. I’m not expecting show Otani here to go out and do what we’ve got to do to give us the best possible chance to win the World Series. That’s what I want to freaking hear. You’re preaching to the choir if you’re talking to me because I’ve said that for years that they should be doing that. I think and the Cubs are sitting in a position to do it. I know they don’t think like this. I know they’ve never thought like this. We’ve got this CBA coming up. The Cubs are one of the big teams that would love a salary cap and and they have a soft one now and they hide behind it. I think they’re the kind of team they’re the they’re perfectly positioned in my mind as a team that has a foundation. They’ve got a defensive foundation. They’ve got uh uh some foundational guys in the starting rotation and Justin Steel coming back is is perfect example. Jackson Wiggins Jackson Wiggins coming up. This is a team that just came off a an exciting October almost got to the the CS and you can I think you’re positioned if you want shoot right past that luxury tax threshold because everything’s changing. Well, everything there’s a chance that there could be some dramatic changes in the CBA after 2026. We don’t know what they are. We know what owners want. Owners want some form of a a stronger salary cap. Um, and who knows what else comes with that, but you’re in position now where you’ve got these pieces in place. Go big on multiple players. Go get your Bregman. Go get your Diaz. Go get your Valdez and your CE. Go really big. the way the Dodgers have, the way the Mets have in recent years. And it obviously will you won’t have an empty seat all year long. Uh you’ll have people watching that crappy network years at Marquee Network. Wow. and and and then but you’ll increase your chances to win big time. But not only that, you’ll come out on the other side of whatever the new rules in the CBA are and you could wind up in a disproportionate position of advantage by using those resources because whatever the new rules are, nobody’s going to get penalized for playing by Yeah. They’re not gonna, hey, Dodgers, you got to trade six guys. They’re not gonna do that. If the new salary cap is 250 million and you’re sitting at 300, you’re going to get to sit at 300 for as long as those those are on the books. And they’re not going to say you can’t get new players. That there will be some some latitude for that. So, I think they’re in position to do that. And Lord knows they have the money. Lord knows they absolutely do. All right. You had the GM meetings. Those are over. We have the winter meetings coming up. You’ll be there, right? Oh, yeah. In Orlando. Oh, yeah. All right. I’m looking forward to see if you expect any type of movement in free agency prior to the winter meetings. Well, one of the things we’re seeing right now is we are seeing some things happen and I think it’s because of the the the labor thing. I talked to a lot of uh GMs at the GM meetings about how they thought that the the impending labor talks might impact the markets. Maybe it drives more people to trades. Maybe the length of length of offers are different. Um even player behavior might be different. Got different answer. Handful of guys said, “Well, it’s really hard to predict that. We’ve had some discussions about it, but we’re status quo.” Others have have suggested some of these maybe some things move faster. Maybe some you know players take maybe some players take some offers uh earlier because or or you know get the money while you can type of thing. So, while it looks like like the industry itself doesn’t seem to know what might come next, I think we’re starting to see some signals, including all these qualifying offers being accepted. Josh Naylor signed right away with Seattle. Now, that that might have been a one-off special case. They made it clear they wanted to bring him back. That was an exciting place for him. Um, but he didn’t even test the market. He wanted to stay there. They gave him a a fair deal and he signed right away. All right, last thing. How would you feel if after the shutdown or heaven forbid they can figure out a way to get a deal done? That’d be amazing. But heaven forbid we’re going to shut the game down. If they said, “We have new rules in place. You cannot sign unless you’re signing with your own team until the start of the winter meetings. You have 15 days. If you do not sign within those 15 days, you can only sign one-year deals. no multi-year contracts beyond 15 days. Guys would get their freaking deals done. It would be great for the fans and it would be exciting. That’s a non-starter. There’s no chance because because they don’t give a about the fans and the excitement that that would bring because it’s not fair to the to the guys doing the job. I mean, look, you should really They do that in the NBA. All the best guys are gone within three days. I’ll tell you what I’ll tell you. NFL, same deal. Yeah. I’ll tell you what would work better. You remember when uh we did have a shutdown um over the course of the off season and into spring training. That was just what four or five years ago. What did we have the day leading up to the night of the deadline when everybody knew there was going to be a lockout? A bunch of signings. Tons of signings. A lot of signings, mult including multi-years got done earlier. So teams that were talking serious interest, those guys didn’t wait. They got it done. I think Marcus Strowman with the Cubs was one of the right before. Then you have the lockout and what happened after that once they got the deal struck then you had this period of time because spring training camps opened right away. So immediately. So now as spring training camps opened, you had about another week period, week to two weeks where you had another flurry. That was exciting. that worked. And what you could have is two signing periods. And it it could be one could be leading up to the winter meetings or what I would suggest is the winter meetings typically end on a Thursday. Make it end of business week. The Friday night at midnight after the winter meetings. Uh that’s the end of the first deadline and then you go quiet until sometime in mid January. And then from that, so there about another month, you you’d have maybe January 15, January 20th to to the opening of spring training. And that’s another one. And then if you you know, and and yeah, I would like to see and in fact, you wouldn’t even have to make it a deadline at that point. At that point, all the other rules can just apply. You can just call that the opening of the next free agent period. And then you could let the timing take care of itself because everybody’s going everybody’s going to use I love the NBA’s July one. By July 3, every guy spoken for. NFL, it’s whatever date in March. Oh, wow. All the good guys are gone within a week. Baseball needs to get in line with that. Yeah. Base and and all these sports are different, right? There’s not as many players in the NBA. There not as many openings. Um that the economic systems in all three sports are different. Uh there’s so many different levels of baseball free agents than than what we’re talking about in the other two sports, but I do think that there I do think that there’s something worth discussing there. Yeah. I think that you could do something different. Gordon, have a great day, man. Congrats to your son who just got married. A thanks, man. New daughter-in-law. Great wedding and really enjoyed it. That’s our guy, Gordon Whitmer. I’m David Kaplan. Hope you have a great rest of your week. We’re all over the Cubbies. Anything happens, we’re here for you on the Cubs Recap podcast. Take that.

Kap and Gordon debate whether #shotaimanaga coming back on a one year deal is a good thing or a bad thing for the Cubs. Are the Cubs the new Settlers in town?

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://bit.ly/rekap-vip

The REKAP® is something I record after every Bears, Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks game and any breaking sports news of note. Get daily REKAP’s & win prizes with “Question of the Day” #TakeThat