Landing Alex Bregman is easily one of the biggest highlights of the Cubs\u2019 offseason. The move clearly shifts the balance of power, but it didn\u2019t come cheaply. At $35 million per year over five seasons, Chicago is pushing right up against the CBT threshold.<\/p>\n
And with all the buzz surrounding Bregman\u2019s arrival, the obvious follow-up question is: what comes next? According to MLB insider Peter Appel, adding Bregman could ultimately force the Cubs\u2019 hand. To avoid crossing the CBT line, Chicago may have to trade one of its veteran players. A move that could ease the financial pressure, but also runs the risk of disrupting the team\u2019s roster balance.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI know Ricketts is seeing that $800,000 and $20,000 salary, with plenty of years of control, and saying he doesn\u2019t want to trade him. I want to trade the guy who\u2019s making 12 million dollars this year and is a free agent next year. Nico Hoerner\u2026 I\u2019m also double worried that they\u2019re not only going to trade him, but they\u2019re gonna trade him for Prospect, so they can recoup some of what they gave away in the Edward Cabrera trade, and they don\u2019t have to take on any more money,\u201d Appel shared via X.<\/p>\n
Well, Hoerner has been with the Cubs for seven seasons and was a major piece of the lineup last year, hitting .297 with 178 hits and 61 RBIs. Matt Shaw, on the other hand, batted .226 with 13 HRs in his rookie MLB season. So moving on from him now would be a real gamble. Hoerner is also a two-time Gold Glove winner and is entering the final year of his contract, which has naturally led people to wonderwhether<\/a> the Cubs might try to cash in on his expiring deal to bring back longer-term assets<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you remember, last season, Hoerner handled second base while Shaw settled in as the everyday third baseman. With Bregman now locked in as the Cubs\u2019 third baseman, and still a strong defender with an impact bat, Shaw is the odd man out at that position in the short term. That said, it\u2019s hard to imagine the Cubs trading Shaw so early in his career. He\u2019s also logged time at second base, which opens up another path.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Now, if Shaw shifts over to second, that\u2019s where Hoerner\u2019s name starts popping up in trade rumors.<\/p>\n Moreover, the Cubs\u2019 CBT threshold for 2026 is $244 million, and they are currently just shy of $243 million, putting them close to the first luxury tax threshold. So, moving Hoerner would clear roughly $35 million from the Cubs\u2019 books, all but guaranteeing they stay under the CBT threshold. From a financial standpoint, it makes sense.<\/p>\n But dealing away established veterans in favor of prospects could hurt the team\u2019s on-field production, even with Bregman in the fold.<\/p>\n The Cubs might join the Yankees for a trade<\/p>\n If the Cubs do decide to move Hoerner, getting prospects back would be the priority, and that\u2019s where the Yankees could make a lot of sense. New York has several intriguing young names, from Spencer Jones to Carlos Lagrange and Elmer Rodriguez, and a deal like that could give the Cubs\u2019 farm system a real boost.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n For the Yankees, Hoerner could help soften the blow of missing out on Cody Bellinger. Hoerner is an elite defender, a real speed threat, and one of the toughest outs in baseball. Notably, his 7.6 percent strikeout rate ranked in the 99th percentile league-wide, making him exactly the kind of hitter contact-first fans love to point to.<\/p>\n And when you zoom out, the overall value is comparable: Hoerner posted a 4.9 WAR last season, the same mark Bellinger reached, according to FanGraphs.<\/p>\n So, all of that makes a Hoerner trade feel like a potential win-win.<\/p>\n The Cubs improve their long-term outlook with high-end prospects, and the Yankees land a reliable, well-rounded player. The trade-off, of course, is that Chicago would lose the advantage of having both Hoerner and Bregman anchoring the infield at the same time.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The post Cubs $35M Infielder Faces Trade Threat Due to Tom Ricketts\u2019 CBT Reluctance After Alex Bregman\u2019s Hefty Deal<\/a> appeared first on EssentiallySports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Landing Alex Bregman is easily one of the biggest highlights of the Cubs\u2019 offseason. The move clearly shifts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[72,5,138,24,4245,1365,52,161,4914,716,4,33,6550,738,142],"class_list":["post-516090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-alex-bregman","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-cubs","tag-edward-cabrera","tag-matt-shaw","tag-mlb","tag-nico-hoerner","tag-tom-ricketts","tag-wrigley-field","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115879654422785752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}