What have the Cubs been up to at the Winter Meetings?

What have the Cubs been up to at the Winter Meetings?

[Music] Welcome into North Side Territory File Territory Network’s Cubs podcast. I’m Sahade Chararma with my partner Patrick. We are your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic. Patrick, we are out in Orlando for the winter meetings and there have been a few signings. Obviously, a couple, you know, massive deals with the Kyle Schwarber signing, uh, at his age, his, uh, you know, lack of a position really, but he’s getting a massive $150 million deal that’s it’s, uh, well-earned and someone that you and I both have a ton of respect for, a ton of love for, easy to easy guy to root for, and and just, you know, good for fans, good for media, good for teammates, like a great dude all around. uh definitely uh worth that deal. And then the Edwin Diaz deal, that’s their monster biggest contract for a reliever uh AAV-wise. Uh I guess it’s not shocking to see that, but the Dodgers just keep churning out these massive contracts. Uh surely to the frustration of many non-Dodger fans, but that’s that’s kind of the reality of of of baseball right now. But other than that, uh the rest of the league doesn’t seem that interested in in uh you know, making a ton of movement. Obviously, the Blue Jays have been super active. Uh there’s just not not a lot of aggressive action and and the Cubs are right there. Uh they’re they’re they’re clearly being talked about. They’re clearly interested. How interested? It it’s hard to tell. How how aggressive do they want to be? That’s that’s kind of, you know, what we’re hearing. It’s like, yeah, the Cubs are interested in these guys. Yeah, the Cubs would like to make a move. The Cubs are talking trade. The Cubs are interested in free agents. Getting to that finish line seems to be uh a little harder than uh than than you than fans would like, I think. Yeah. I don’t know if it’s aggressive or maybe a little passive aggressive. Uh it has been hard to track. Um there are some obvious needs on this team and we’ve outlined that before, but it you just in talking to people, we’ve both heard this of like, you know, they’re on free agents, their interest in trades, uh maybe another proven hitter, an accomplished starting pitcher, you know, looking at a higher range of bullpen guys. But to this point, and we’re recording on Wednesday morning, uh, nothing’s gotten to the finish line, and I think most people, except for us, are planning on flying home, uh, Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday night after the rule five draft. And so, uh, we were kind of going into this taken by how people were talking about the Cubs, how they were engaging different parts of the market. they had a little bit of money to spend, maybe not as much as everyone would like, uh, but that, you know, they could be players here, a team to watch. And Jed Hoyer, when kind of, you know, presented with that idea, you know, kind of went back to we’re not going to force deals just to force deals. He did not say which inning of the off seasonason this is, but he still was kind of referring to it in more of a a kickoff stage than uh you know any sort of urgency. Uh you know we’ll we’ll see if they do something before Cubs convention. I would imagine yes. Uh but you these winter meetings are also different from when we first started covering it like they cut a day off the schedule. Um, and to your point, it’s not like everyone in base else baseball is going crazy and the Cubs are sitting on the sidelines. Like there’s been a lot of I guess patience and fiscal restraint shown thus far across the league. Yeah, even previous big spenders. Look, the Dodgers are the Dodgers and I I think they they’ve kind of established themselves as in this league uh in a league of their own. They they don’t they don’t follow the same rules. They don’t live in the same reality as the rest of baseball. Um, and I think we just kind of have to put them in in a separate category. Uh, the Mets aren’t, you know, acting like the Mets normally do. Uh, David Sterns is a very, you know, he he when he was in Milwaukee, like he he learned, you know, different habits and he was really good at what he uh did in Milwaukee. I don’t think he wants to behave completely like the Dodgers all the time. Obviously, he has a different set of rules that he can work with in in New York, but it it seems like the Mets are even being a little bit more fiscally responsible than than they had in previous offseasons. Uh it so I mean, who are these teams that are going to act while the the Yankees? Didn’t we hear Hal Steinbrer say like the Yankees aren’t as profitable as you think? Like everyone’s talking about these things. Okay, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Uh so the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Cubs, these teams that you’d you you’d like to see be incredibly aggressive with their spending just aren’t. Whether that’s uh the way front offices work right now, whether that’s the, you know, reality of them all accepting that accepting the reality of, you know, a lockout happening a year from now. uh and and not not wanting to spend in a fashion that uh you know may be outdated in a year, right? It may not it may not fit into whatever financial reality the league is in a year from now or a year and a half from now whenever we have a new CBA. So there are reasons for this. I think fans just, you know, want want action. They want to see their team improve. Uh it’s not as it’s clearly not as simple as that. Uh one one funny tidbit I heard and the person was being serious when when I talked to them, they’re like he’s like I think a lot of teams just they don’t want to do the press conferences at the winter meetings and they’ll just they’ll they’ll get to the finish line on Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Friday. So, and I mean, and you know, a lot of times we’ve seen that the deals get done, I want to say the Danby Swanson deal was done Saturday after the winter meetings. Kyle Tucker did not Jed Hoyer did stay an extra night last uh uh last year, last winter meetings because he didn’t want to get the Tucker deal done while in the air. And it I don’t remember the exact date, but it was after the winter meetings that it got done. Uh so a lot of this you’d like to you’d like to think they get the groundwork done at like they set uh like the discussions or get some ideas at the GM meetings and then spend that month laying the groundwork for deals and then now is when they finalize the deals. I think that’s I mean there have been winter meetings past where that was what happened right where we’ve had like these flurry of moves. Uh this has not been that type of winter meetings. It’s there’s been some moves, but just it’s the deal like the deal everyone expected to get done at the winter meetings was Kyle Schwarber. That happened and now we’re kind of just waiting and and seeing what happens. Uh I do believe that the trade market is is what people are waiting to move as well. And that takes that’s just a process that can take longer to get going. But I do believe that’s active behind the scenes. Yeah, I think that period just before the holidays as well of players wanting to know where they’re going and having some of these matters settled and what we’re talking about could become outdated uh if something the dam breaks uh or whatever. I think as we’ve been walking the lobbies here and checking in with uh colleagues and sources and uh the whole gamut of people who show up at the winter meetings. I think we’ve we’ve both just been kind of like our heads have been spinning a little bit of just like just how people describe the Cubs of, you know, they’re in kind of stealth mode. They’re on a lot of different players exploring a lot of different ideas. uh you know, trade market, free agents. We’ll get into some of the names like later, but um they’ve been a little all over the place. And I don’t I’m not saying that they’re disorganized, but just that like it’s been kind of hard to harder than normal to kind of keep track and get a sense of, you know, what they really want to do. It’s like, yeah, we got interested in that guy or oh yeah, we’ve talked to them or yeah, we’re staying in touch. It’s just been a lot of that and like to this point it hasn’t really emerged of what their like like true priority is and that’s just kind of how this front office has evolved right of it’s less like obsessed with like kind of one player or you know a singular talent that it’s this whole like model driven we just want to do good deals and like that’s that’s harder to kind of pin down because they’re always talking they they’re all of course they have, you know, preliminary interests or a degree of interest or, you know, kind of a a level of inquiry, whatever the the phrasing is, but eventually they’re going to have to pin some of these things down. And it’s important to remember that the deals that get done first, especially before the winter meetings, are the ones that, you know, the players are like a player isn’t going to sign a deal unless they’re really happy with that offer. Above market rate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, these are the, you know, massive deals that get done early and then for the most part, the prices will start to go down and like you said, like they get to the holidays and and some players just want to know where they’re going to be and that’s you you may get a deal around there. I I it’s looking like maybe not. Uh if it AAV wise, uh Phil Meton steel looks pretty good. Uh I I want to say Sarroka has more for one if you’re just looking at AAV it’s 7.25 correct and that like SROA made more for one year and then there was there was another deal that was signed yesterday which would be Tuesday that it was a one-year deal but still more than what Maton is making per year. it they were hoping that that would look like a deal as as uh uh names went off the board and it it is looking like it at least with his track record. Uh that’s that’s a bit of a deal for them. Uh we’ve spent a lot of time thinking pitching pitching pitching and and the Cubs are, you know, the Cubs, it sounds like they’re they’re not just focused on pitching, which makes sense. uh you lose Kyle Tucker, uh you you have to at least check in on on bats. Uh we talked about Alex Bregman, I believe, last podcast. Uh that’s not off the table. And I don’t think people should just rule that out, but I think a big part of what we’ve come away from, uh whether it’s Craig Townel, Carter Hawkins, Jed Hoyer, each one of them had nothing but praise for Matt Shaw. Uh, and I think when you talk about model driven uh, analysis, uh, it’s going to be hard to not love the guy with five years of control that had a really good second half, showed a, uh, really impressive glove at a at an impressive at a at a tough position in third base. U, obviously they’re they’re going to be high on this guy in the future. This is a for an office that values youth and you saw what Pete Cro Armstrong’s impact was, Michael Bush’s impact. They’re hoping for the same from Shaw. Yeah, I thought it was the Shaw became a storyline here uh because of the Bregman interest, because of their interest in the trade market. And I don’t think their votes of confidence in Shaw prevents them from doing anything else, but it’s just that they could not have been more clear in terms of we’re planning to build around Matt Shaw. And so I think Bregman is was always I don’t want to say a long shot, but just that like the Cubs would have to kind of step outside their comfort zone to bring in Alex Bregman and that maybe they do eventually, but bringing him in does not mean that they’re trading Matt Shaw as like a sequence of next moves. And I mean, Carter Hawkins could not have been more clear, saying no one’s untouchable, but when Matt Shaw has all of those attributes you just listed, Zahv of, you know, a Golgv caliber defender at a position that’s been hard to fill for the Cubs for a very long time. uh good offensive trajectory and and profile, the the cost control nature, the club control, uh time horizon here, all of this in essence makes it extremely hard for the Cubs to envision trading him. I mean, they didn’t trade him when he was struggling last year and they had a first place team and this was a guy that other teams kept asking about apparently according to the Cubs. So, if they didn’t do it then, don’t see them doing it now. Uh, you know, they don’t have a ton of guys after 2026 that they can count on. There’s there’s a few and, you know, maybe they do some more moves here, but, uh, I would not read their vote of confidence in Matt Shaw as saying we’re out on Alex Bregman. It’s just that they have, you know, a lot of a lot of ideas up in the air right now. Uh but that Matt Shaw as an part of the opening day roster if not lineup uh seems seems like a almost a given at this point. So it for players that had at least let’s say 40 games in the second half. Uh it’s Ian Hap in the second half for the Cubs had a 139 way to run grade plus. I bet I bet some fans are surprised. I’m I’m surprised. I don’t I guess I don’t remember the second half as well as I thought I did. Uh but second was Matt Shaw 130 Way to runs great plus 63 games, 205 played appearances. Um and and we know he played really good defense. If you if you’re a fan and you were watching those games, you saw how good he was defensively. He turned a corner in the second half. I look, this is how young players are. Young players are really inconsistent. They they struggle early, especially in their careers. This is not it’s much rarer it feels like for the the the young player to come up, the rookie to come up and immediately hit the ground running. Pete G Armstrong struggled. Uh you know, it it’s pretty much what we expect from a player to to have these struggles and then you hope that they figure it out. It it did seem like Matt Shaw figured something out. I I I don’t think uh I don’t I think we can have two separate conversations about keeping Matt Shaw and and the potential of signing Alex Bregman. I know it seems complicated and it is like the the sequence of events to make it all work would be interesting. I you know that that’s that’s something that I think we’d have to focus on more if it becomes closer to reality. Uh but right now it you know it’s I think it’s what uh front offices say a lot like you just can’t rule out certain situations just because it seems like well how does that work? It’s like when when we have these debates of like well where is that prospect going to play? Like they have too many shorts stops. It’s like these things have a way of working themselves out. if you have an opportunity to get a really impactful player and bring them into your ro onto your roster and and look, Alex Bregman’s multi-dimensional here. Uh they they believe he’s going to age well. They believe he’s a you know, he is a great defender at at a at a good position. Uh he he can hit and then there’s the intangible value that they they love that they want that they they have a strong clubhouse culture. they have someone that can, you know, uh, improve that dynamic that they already value. So, you know, I I think there’s ways for it to work. Uh, it does not I I don’t think we were suggesting that Matt Shaw has to be traded when when we pointed out the potential of Alex Bregman, but uh, I understand where those leaps come from, but that’s not that that just isn’t how this front office is working unless they’re getting an under control player in return. or an impact player in return that like that it just doesn’t seem to make sense to move him right now. And I I think Carter said it best like that’s how that front office thinks. Uh they’re not going to give up uh they they did that deal last year, right? And they’re not going to do it that that’s not the way they that that’s not a yearly occurrence. It’s just not going to be the way they do things. Um, and I understand I think I think Matt Shaw’s really like I he impressed me with his defense and he impressed me with his ability to handle some pretty low lows and and go out there and make adjustments. He’s he’s a tinkerer. It seems like he’s we’re going to see a lot of different batting stances and and mechanical uh adjustments from him. It’s just kind of like there are players like that and there are players like that who thrive because that, you know, that’s how that’s how it works for them. But uh I you know I don’t think we’re going to be seeing them giving away Matt Shaw anytime soon. No, I mean they’ve been we spent understandably a lot of time on on Bregman, but pitching remains the focus and acquiring that pitching, you know, from our understanding would not involve trading Shaw. Um, so then it becomes, look, Jed said he wants at least one sort of established starter to plug into the rotation. We’ve mentioned these free agents before, the King, Gallon, Amay. That seems to be what they’re looking at. Maybe there’s another name we’ve missed, but that seems to be the the focus. there is that trade market that they’ve explored last summer and and didn’t come away with any real real impactful pitching. Um, and then the bullpen, I mean, you wrote about this the other day of like a closer type and this has sort of summed up a lot of this offseason. They’ve been sort of circling a lot of these names. I’m assuming not not Diaz and and the Dodgers, but uh well, there was Pagan want back the Reds. Uh Fairbanks, they’ve sort of been around. Hell’s they checked in. Um we didn’t get a great sense of Devin Williams like maybe Cursory Cursory and not seriously. So, there’s still some names out there and I mean Jed certainly did not rule out the idea of adding sort of a a save getter to use a to borrow a Craig counsel term. Yeah. And uh I thought council, you know, council when when he brought up I it was unprompted if I’m remembering correctly. It just like well we have to add to the bullpen. He’s like we basically don’t have a bullpen. like it’s like he has two guys that uh that he could trust really and and and frankly like if you saw if you watched Porter Hodgej in 2024, you thought you could trust him in 2025 and that didn’t happen. So all the respect for the the work Daniel Palencia put in and and the pitching performances he he delivered this past season. Uh I wouldn’t say he’s a guarantee. Um, and council even said like we, you know, they were wrong going into the season about who was going to be the key who were going to be the key contributors to the bullpen. It’s really hard to to to get that right. So, it you you take a you’d like one more like guy that you feel brings some stability and then it’s going to be a lot of bites at the apple. Like they’re they’re going to spread this around. It’s it and it’s going to be players and I probably say this once every other episode uh and and bring it up a lot during the season. Uh we just don’t know what you’re going to get from a bullpen. Uh it’s really hard to predict that these are the most volatile like uh players in maybe all of sports. Uh it’s just it they’re going to have to figure it out and and hope that they hit and and they they’ve been pretty good in the past. uh it hasn’t been perfect and there have been some seasons where it’s stung them. So, I think that’s why we’re seeing a signing like Maiton and and we’ll probably see one more uh solid veteran added. Uh but the rest is going to be spread out and and you know there’s interest in in bringing back some of the guys that they had, but you know that’s not even a guarantee uh as far as their performance next year. So, we’ll see how they handle that. Uh, I I do think it’s a it’s going an incredibly important part of the of the team, but it’s just it’s not going to be spending uh record amounts of money to go get an Edwin Diaz or or break the bank to get Devin Williams, right? They just weren’t that those aren’t the types of moves they make there. Uh even if they’re spent treating it a little differently than years past. Yeah, we don’t know exactly, you know, what the budget is. Uh, but I’m curious to see how they can you add under the current parameters like an everyday type player, a proven hitter, a you know, number two or number three type starter and like a late inning leverage reliever with with a track record. Like fitting all three of those things in, I don’t know. We’ll see. like there like I guess kind of time will tell. I guess they don’t it’s not all money either. There are different ways via trade to maybe accomplish that. Uh, but I think that just shows why we’ve been kind of, you know, talking in circles a little bit after being in this like winter meetings bubble of, you know, there’s just a lot a lot of uh different ways this could go. And you you it’s also important to remember too of where they’re coming from versus these last couple years of building or being stuck in that 83 win territory. Uh that they they now they have a they have a nice club. They have a pretty solid foundation. But, you know, those are three pretty big items still to go here when you’re talking about, you know, maybe a Bregman or some hitter we’re that’s not quite thinking of yet. Uh, you know, one of those starters who could, you know, really perform in a playoff game and a guy who could close out a playoff game. Like those are, you know, not those players are, you know, somewhat rare. Exactly. Yeah. Well, and they’re expensive. They’re expensive. Yeah, they don’t come by cheap. Uh, we’ll see if we get more clarity. Uh, one more. I mean, there’s not people, like you said, people are starting to leave uh and and head out of uh Orlando here, but uh hopefully there’s a little more clarity by the end of the week. Maybe there’s a move or two. You know, that who knows if they get one done by the end of this week, but uh there should be some action before the holidays, you would hope. Uh but it certainly has slowed down a little bit and we’ll see what the rest of the week holds uh holds for us. Thanks so much for listening everyone. This is North Side Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs. We’ll be back with another episode this week and hopefully some action from the Cubs. Thanks everyone. Take care. [Music] over here.

Checking in from Orlando, The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney share what they’ve been hearing about the Cubs’ various offseason pursuits. Matt Shaw has been a discussed name at Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings, but the Cubs seem intent on building around him and continuing their youth movement. Where does that leave the Cubs with Alex Bregman and their objective to acquire more pitching? And why has there been a relative lack of activity across the baseball industry? Follow North Side Territory all winter for the latest news and notes.