Bruce Levine shares updates from Winter Meetings, talks Cubs’ interest in Tatsuya Imai & Zac Gallen

Bruce Levine shares updates from Winter Meetings, talks Cubs’ interest in Tatsuya Imai & Zac Gallen

Always a delight to talk to our guy Bruce Levine. He is at the owner’s meetings and he joins us now on the Aturo tire hotline. Aturo, your hometown tire aturo.com. Bruce, good morning. How are you? Good morning. Uh, a slight correction. It’s actually the winter meetings. Oh, the winter meetings. Well, okay. Right. But this is where the Did you bring a talisman, Bruce? Do you have like a lucky coin or I don’t know. Did someone give you a shamrock? What do you need to make sure the White Socks get this first overall draft pick today? Uh I I think uh just you know Jerry Crouch used to carry those two coins with him. Right. Right. They have those. Yes. So I hope they’ve been bequeafd to the White Socks and his friend Jerry Rinsdorf so they can get that. Yeah. the the uh the draft order is picked today and the White Socks have a chance to uh be there after being 10th last year even though having the worst record in major league history. That’s how the draft lottery works. Very strange and we can spend a whole show talking about that, but I think it would be very exciting right now. Bruce, yesterday Jed Hoyer spoke about what the Cubs intend to do this off season. sounded like they would be in on a lot of the starting pitching market and I think Zack Gallon had a very interesting weekend got a kick out of your report on Marquee that Zack Gallon who was a subject of a lot of speculation Bob Nightingale said they were close on Saturday about a contract while Zack Gallon was getting married so that was quite the shock. Where are we in terms of the Cubs and the market and the free agent pitchers they might sign? Yeah, I think Gallon had a more important contract to sign on Saturday with his wife going forward than he did uh with the Cubs or anybody else um moving forward on that. Well, I mean, he is still someone that’s primarily uh a subject for the Cubs without a question. And again, it’s with with Gallon, it’s not a velocity guy. He he’s more of a uh a touch and feel guy. He has some velocity, but he’s more of a uh Greg Maddox type pitcher. You know, touch, feel. Uh the the good news is, you know, when I asked Jed Hoyer yesterday, do you reach out to the players on the team and other players that have played for you when it’s free agent time and you try to find out a what type of individual you’re dealing with? These guys played with him before and b um you know, is he somebody that you feel is going to fit in with us here in Chicago? and and he had he had that guy in in Kelly the catcher who uh you know came up with the gallon in the St. Louis organization. They had a great history together. So with that in mind, you know, those are the subtle little things that uh GMs and uh front offices look for when they’re trying to put together teams and add free agents or make trades here. So Gallon is is certainly still a fit here for the Cubs. Um you know, I get it. I understand the need for pitching and we know they’re going to go that route. I’m just wondering um what is their plan with getting another hitter or how do they look at the possibility of of adding more in terms of uh of offense in C in uh Casey? Do you trust or not? I mean, uh, they have these young play I mean, you know, we’ve heard we’ve had Casey, you know, with with all due respect, jam down our throats, right, for the last couple years. And he had a really good year at Triple A, uh, two years ago and last year came up, you know, marginally showed okay until he hit the wall and literally and, you know, had a concussion, couldn’t play anymore. But, you know, I I think at some point you have to you have to call BS whether or not these young guys are true major league players in the future and you’re going to take a chance on them or you’re you’re just uh you know, they’re just numbers and names for fans to dream on that aren’t realistic prospects. So, we went through it with uh Pete Crow Armstrong. You went through it with Shaw last year. You did it with uh with with Michael Bush after being traded over from the Dodgers. So uh why not Casey this year? Why not Bosteros? Bisteros was hitting fourth in big games at the end of the year for the Cubs. A 21-year-old guy who really doesn’t have a position. He’s kind of a catcher that’s developing in that area. But one thing that Craig Council saw is that the guy’s he can hit and he can hit with power. So, you’re going to at some point you’re going to have to turn it over to them. Uh they’re thinking why spend $30 million on an outfielder if you have something right there in your organization. Bruce Jed made a vehemently defended Matt Shaw and what he means to the Cubs. At the same time, there have been reports that they have been interested in maybe Au Heneo Suarez and to a greater degree maybe Alex Bregman. Both those guys play third base. What do you think the latest is with their thoughts on third base? Well, I still think they were interested in Bregman, but uh you know, he did talking to us reporters here at the winter meetings, he did go out of his way to say, you know, we’ve heard reports about third baseman and and he went out of his way to tell us how they think Shaw is really on his way to being a top major league player and that he at the end of the year he felt he was as good a third baseman defensively as there was in the National league. So, you know, that said, the hit tool was supposed to be the thing that was going to carry him into his major league career. We didn’t see a ton of that last year. We saw him uh struggle the beginning of the year, go back to the minors, come back, hit again, and then struggle again at the end of the year. So, living with these young prospects that, you know, they believe in, it’s just a part of it. But, you know, if you add Bregman to the lineup, it it does have a little bit more championship, you know, National League Central Championship ring than saying, “Well, we’re going to continue with Shaw and we’ll see about his player development.” How does the rest of the division look? I mean, it, you know, it’s extraordinary that Milwaukee keeps losing people and it doesn’t seem to matter. I understand they’ve got some still a couple of younger players that are on the way, but I I um at some point that has to hit the wall, doesn’t it? Yeah. And you know, we keep hearing rumors about Freddy Peralta. Yeah. Uh you know, their ace being traded again because he has one year left. He’s going to be a free agent after this year. Milwaukee has done that with numerous star players over the last two or three years. traded them with a year left just to get something out of them and say, “Okay, we’ll make do in our own market. We’ll keep building with the young, you know, players that we get in these trades.” So, um, you know, Peralta is probably the best buy in baseball right now. Uh, an ace maybe, what would you guys call him? Top five, seven pitchers in baseball right now. Top 10 at eight mill$8 million. Mhm. Okay. So, uh again, you know, will Milwaukee move him for two or three guys of quality as they continue their track of building throughout their organization with young guys. Trade rumors surrounding Joyan McKenzie Gore all around MLB as well as the pursuit of Tatsuya, Emi, the guy the Cubs are in on as well from Japan. What’s the latest with those three? Yeah, the EI. Let’s start from the the other end. the EMI the market. No, nobody seems to know for sure if that’s 25 million times four, five, six. You know, Scott Boris is going to he’s the agent. He’s going to be pushing it. He’s going to use the Japanese market the way it’s been over the last few years, exploding with superstars and saying, you know, Ei is the next guy. get in on this 25-year-old guy because uh he’s going to be the next big deal for you. So, it’s a copycat uh league and we know people like to jump on that. He’s gonna get probably a lot of money, more than people think out there. The Cubs have certainly been interested in him uh along with Gallon and but you know asking Hoyer yesterday in our meetings, you know, are are you confused by going trade or free agent to fill that number five spot? Because you know, as you mentioned, David, you know, there’s Gore out there. Uh there’s the two pictures with Florida, you know, with Cabrera being uh the other one. So with with all that in mind, um I think it is a little confusing as to whether you use to you trade players to bring guys in or you use your money to do it. And uh he’s he’s kind of in the middle on that right now. He also told us, you know, don’t be surprised if the moves that we make are a week or two weeks down the line, we really get deals done like we did last year with Tucker early on uh right after the uh uh winter meetings. So, uh he warned us not not to get too excited about the fact that we’re here at the winter meetings and it might happen here. I I read something, maybe it was MLB.com, that said that uh pretty much the market won’t get going until Schwarber is done, that he’s the guy kind of holding it up for teams. That’s possible. I mean, we saw the shocking Pittsburgh Pirates offering them a hundred million dollar deals for four years. Uh, you think there’s any way in the world Schwarber takes money from a team that’s probably three Schwarbers away from being competitive and winning? Probably not. He’s got to bring two guys with him, right, Bruce? Before we let you go, Mets still interested in Luis Robert Jr. I think they are, but you know, don’t ever forget the San Diego Padres’s. They’re the one that was really knocking hard at the door and they were the most disappointed as to how much Gats was asking for Robert uh last year. So, watch AJ Prowler, watch the Padres’s, they still love Luis Robert. And David knows this, Mike. You know, I just have been pushing hard for the White Socks to trade Luis Robert. Not because I don’t like him. I like him a lot. I just don’t like them for where the White Socks are at and where they’re going. It’s just like it’s time for someone else to play center field. It’s time for them to move on from Luis Robert getting hurt once, twice, three times in a season, right? It’s hard to argue with that. It’s bound to happen sooner than later. So, I’m with you. Great stuff, Bruce. Thank you, buddy. Thanks, Bruce. All right, guys. Just have a great day.

On the Mully & Haugh Show, Score baseball insider Bruce Levine shared the latest news and notes live from the Winter Meetings, including what we’ve learned about the Cubs’ interest in right-hander Tatsuya Imai and right-hander Zac Gallen, a pair of free agents.

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