Working off of this article by Tony Andracki<\/a>, I\u2019m giving you a chance to vote for which Cubs players that you would like to see given long-term deals.<\/p>\nThe first two choices are the corner outfielders, Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki, both of whom can be free agents after this year. Both of them are very good players. I think if either one of them would sign a one-year deal, the Cubs should do it right now. The problem with extending either or both of them is that the Cubs are already pretty much locked in at third, second and short to the point where the Cubs have to consider trading second-year player Matt Shaw for lack of playing time. Were the Cubs to sign either Happ or Suzuki to an extension, that even more limits playing time for position players coming up through the Cubs system. It also locks the Cubs into an aging starting lineup. The Cubs have Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara, Kane Kepley, Ethan Conrad and Josiah Hartshorn at different levels of the system. I don\u2019t think you can count on any of them being as good as Happ or Suzuki, but it\u2019s certainly possible that one or more of them will be.<\/p>\n
Michael Busch is a tough one because, as Andracki notes, he\u2019s a Scott Boras client and Boras usually, but not always, advises players to hit the free agent market. Busch is also an unusual case in that he didn\u2019t exhaust his rookie eligibility until he was 26 and can\u2019t become a free agent until after the 2029 season. So while you can make a case that Busch is the best hitter on the Cubs, you can also say that the Cubs have him locked up over his best years and that there\u2019s no current rush to extend him.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
The other three candidates are pitchers with a few years of control left. One is Justin Steele. You all know that Steele missed almost all of last season with elbow surgery and probably still won\u2019t rejoin the team until around Memorial Day. Steele\u2019s injury might make him more eager to sign an extension. On the other hand, the Cubs might want to shy away from locking him up until they know that he has successfully bounced back from surgery. Steele can become a free agent after the 2027 season, so the Cubs will have to make a decision on him soon, but not now.<\/p>\n
Cade Horton was a big bright spot in the Cubs rotation in his rookie season last year. He finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting and he certainly looked great in his first start this year. But Horton can\u2019t become a free agent until after the 2031 season and he\u2019s got an iffy injury history dating back to his college days at Oklahoma. Do the Cubs want to make a big commitment to Horton without knowing whether his arm can withstand the strain of 160 to 180 innings a year?<\/p>\n
Finally there\u2019s new Cub Edward Cabrera, who becomes a free agent after the 2028 season. Cabrera was simply outstanding in his Cubs debut and he\u2019s been a popular pick to emerge into stardom this season. In such a case, it might be wise to lock up Cabrera now before his price goes way up.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Cabrera has a shaky injury history as well and has only been able to throw more than 100 innings once in his career. His career-high is only 137 innings, which came last year. Signing Cabrera to a long term extension is taking a big gamble that his arm holds up.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
So now it\u2019s time to vote. If we\u2019ve done this correctly, you should be able to vote for more than one candidate.<\/p>\n
Thank you for stopping by tonight. A special thanks goes out to everyone who voted and commented this past week. We hope you enjoyed yourself and will be back soon. Get home safely. Stay dry. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Wednesday night here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,735,138,24,4245,161,4914,36,393,56,716,2000,37,4,33,35,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-658070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cade-horton","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-edward-cabrera","15":"tag-ian-happ","16":"tag-justin-steele","17":"tag-los-angeles-angels","18":"tag-matt-shaw","19":"tag-matthew-boyd","20":"tag-michael-busch","21":"tag-mlb","22":"tag-nico-hoerner","23":"tag-pete-crow-armstrong","24":"tag-seiya-suzuki"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116333209498774300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658070","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=658070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}