Chicago Cubs in position for MAJOR SPLASH this offseason

Matt and Sam discuss whether or not the Cubs will make a big signing (Tatsuya Imai or Alex Bregman) OR a medium signing (Zac Gallen or Kazuma Okamoto) among other moves. Plus: Cubs make a bench addition by signing 1B/DH/OF Tyler Austin.

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42 comments

  4. Dude if jed dont get impact player jed needs to b fired on the Spot u cant avoid every contract for good players completely in just shop in bargin bin

  7. 🤔But, players that hit well against the Cubs, since the Cubs' pitchers pitch to contact, I would like to know if they can hit against real elite pitching!!🙄

  8. Ricketts is a cheap owner so I seriously doubt they wont sign any experience good players. Im tired of the number 3 of 4 starters pitchers , and losing a superstar player and dont replace him . I wont go to games and give Ricketts my money to pocket it

  9. JED HOYER PHILOSOPHY – wait to see if someone falls through the cracks. 4th best offer on everyone. never actually goes and gets his guy, because he doesn't have a "guy" – he has computers with algorithms that ultimately undervalue what every good free agent will actually take (insert Andrew Friedman quote here). Jed Hoyer and his lapdog Carter Hawkins are an embarassment to the city of Chicago, and a disgrace to the game of baseball.

  13. Hoyer is the great procrastinator. This guy waits and waits and waits and waits and he waits until someone comes along and takes the player that his team has been rumored to be in on and then he says well we really liked them unfortunately we were outbid. give me a break.

  14. I'm sorry but Ballesteros is so overrated… he can't play any position. Cubs should trade either Casey or Ballesteros for a STRONG 2026. No excuses, the division is wide open if Cubs get a legit bat and a legit starter

  15. I'd be thrilled if they went and got Imai , Fairbanks, and get a Ryne Stanek and I think you're a better team than last year. Even with losing Tucker.

    Horton, Imai, Boyd, Shot, Jamo with Steel coming back

    Pen: Fairbanks, Palencia, Maton, Milner,Thielbar, Stanek, Rea, and Assad

    Lineup:
    Hoerner
    Happ
    Suzuki
    Busch
    PCA
    Swanson
    Moises
    Kelly
    Shaw

  16. I am so tired of hearing Jed Hoyer and the Cubs are IN on a player and then weeks go by a month goes by another couple weeks go by and that player finally gets signed by another team. If you’re interested in someone and you say you’re IN on them then for the love of God get the player signed. This is the Chicago Cubs OK we’re not the penny pinching Tampa Rays. We’re the Chicago flipping Cubs get a deal done. I’m sick of this. It’s almost the new year and the Cubs have done absolutely nothing worth talking about..

  21. Of course the Cubs could make a big move. But they won’t. Because they’re not that interested in truly winning, and they know a lot of cub fans are suckers.

  23. The best splash would be if Ricketts sells the team and Jed goes bye bye with him. If they trade Nico, the team will totally suck, especially if they waste money on Bregman.

  27. Every starting pitcher had health issues except Boyd, and we were worried about his innings. Same in 2026. Maybe it would be nice to get a pitcher like Gallen that can pile up innings.

  32. I am not 100% sure about any big splash, but they will spend to the limit of tax for sure, that would be 75m spending this off season!
    They started with 164m, now at 200m with the Shota QO and bullpen additions.
    Again, I said before the off season starts, there are more big FAs than teams willing to pay! So you will get a lot of FAs with good prices if you wait!
    I am fine with them waiting !
    I also said long before that Tucker market is very limited! No team is pushing hard to sign him. The only one so far was Jays pushing for Cease and thats the only one!
    Diaz, Alonso, etc all got fair value, not teams pushing the price higher!!
    That’s my feel of the free agent market so far!

  33. NO, I DO NOT see it happening with Tom who has a definite history of being cheap. Cubs only looking at cheap players who will get you 87 win per year. I will believe it when I see it!✌

  34. I feel conflict here if you rate Ballesteros so high, why we have to pay so high price for a veteran hitter, when we already have a top 5 offense last season WITH all the struggles from Tucker PCA??
    Even with the worst month of August, Cubs still scored #5 runs in 2nd half!
    That’s why I totally agree with Jed to spend most money on pitching !
    The mere rumors about Cubs checking in on Bregman and Alonso, shows Jed really knows what he is doing. Even he knows the offense is good, he is still trying to build more depth and experience and more sure things if he can! NOT overpay to achieve that though!

  37. Not really any realistic big moves left. Imai is a may be a good MLB pitcher. If he was a sure thing pitcher, everyone would be after him. Hes an Imanaga not a Yamamoto. Its not going to be a large bidding war. There's only a few teams considering giving him a contract. He'll get a contract with all sorts of outs a few years in. Hes not going to get the treatment of the best few Japanese players that came over. Im pretty sure we'll get him, because hes a cheaper alternative to the proven pitchers on the market. Kyle Tucker is the last big deal on the market. We're not even talking to him. We'll shop in the middle tier market and get whatever is cheapest. Watching the Cubs last year especially in the playoffs, they looked like a good defensive team. Their hitting was just league average and a few below even that. They had a few mid tier pitchers. Its hard to watch teams with less money like the Bluejays truly go for it, while we try to be the Brewers. I dont understand the wanting to be like the Brewers I see all over baseball now. They win an easy division every year while the Cubs and Cardinals have been rebuilding and then get bounced in the playoffs fairly easily every year. Their not a championship team. I hope we dont turn into one of those joke teams that makes the playoffs every year with no real chance of winning anything. Did it feel to you guys that we had a chance to win it all, when the playoffs started or did it feel like, id like to at least get past the Brewers. The moves im hearing talked about that are realistic will get us back to where we were last year, but not a serious threat to win a championship. I dont understand the not wanting to have any contracts past this year. Even if there's a 2 years of no baseball because of a strike, tge teams don't pay the players during that time. There's a absolute zero chance that even if there's a salary cap installed, that it'll be lower than the current luxury tax threshold. I dont understand the benefits to not having players on contract when baseball resumes. Im disappointed because their not trying to make a run during their competitive window. Then they'll sign a Bregman and Amai and sell it as going for it. I dont think Bregman is more valuable than Tucker and doesn't improve defense either. Its just a cheaper alternative to the player we had last year. Amai may be pretty good, we'll see. But i dont feel his addition improves our playoff rotation that much. We really needed a couple top end arms. We just dint have 3 or 4 studs to make a run at a championship. Even the starters we had tgat were good enough to pitch in tge playoffs, were our of the game in 3 or 4 innings. But the team offense is where I felt we looked way overmatched in the playoffs. We dont have guys who hit good pitching. Every playoff game where tge other team scored a couple runs, it felt luke it was over. We dont have 2 or 3 top hitters to tide through the playoffs. Out team was perfect for a Schwarber this year. We already have so many defensive forst players, that we could easily absorb a Schwarber. If the would have signed him and a Bregman, then signing only Amai, starts yo look like a real competitor. But as we sit with so many top guys off the board and is completely out on Tucker, I dont see us beginning next season, better than last years team. Hard part is, im afraid their gonna be projected worse than last year. Were just out of top of the market acquisitions amd we only dabble in the middle market. Counting on this many unproven young players to become top tier players is naive in my opinion.

  39. Paying these insanely high SP prices on the trade market, with player Assets that FAR outvalue the price of just paying for players is stupid… Caissie/Wiggins/Brown/Triantos combined have about 150+Million in potential future value as a floor & ceiling of 250+Million.

    Caissie – 6 years(MLB ready)100M
    Wiggins- 6 years(almostMLB)100M
    Triantos – 6 years(MLB ready)25M
    Brown – 5 years(MLB ready) 25M

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