The Cubs pulled off an enormous deal final week, buying outfielder Kyle Tucker from the Cubs in change for third baseman Isaac Paredes, right-hander Hayden Wesneski and prospect Cam Smith. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer spoke to members of the media at this time (together with Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune, Bruce Levine of 670 The Rating and Maddie Lee of the Chicago Solar-Occasions), addressing Tucker and the membership’s nook infield choices.
Whereas Tucker is a giant improve for the 2025 crew, he’s set to be a free agent after that. Meaning he doesn’t at the moment present the Cubs any worth past the upcoming season, other than the additional draft decide they’d obtain if he rejects a qualifying provide at season’s finish after which indicators elsewhere.
The Cubs may all the time change that future by signing Tucker to an extension, one thing that Hoyer touched upon a bit. “I don’t know what the long run holds,” he mentioned. “However clearly Chicago sells itself rather well. And so, I’m excited to carry him in for this yr, and we’ll see the place it goes past that. However clearly this was the type of participant that we lacked.”
It’s honest to imagine that the Cubs would like to have Tucker past simply the one yr. They clearly worth the participant extremely, based mostly on the sturdy bundle of expertise they gave up only for that one season, plus the aforementioned QO compensation. Tucker himself additionally spoke at this time (per Levine) and mentioned he’s open to having talks earlier than he hits the open market.
Whereas it’s good that Tucker is open to having talks, agreeing on a value level could be a problem. Tucker has been one of many higher gamers in baseball lately and is slated to hit free company forward of his age-29 season. To get a very good participant to signal an extension simply earlier than hitting free company forward of his thirtieth birthday isn’t low cost, as proven in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. Some current examples embrace $365MM for Mookie Betts, $341MM for Francisco Lindor and $313.5MM for Rafael Devers.
It’s a considerably related state of affairs to the one which simply performed out between Juan Soto and the Yankees. He was acquired from the Padres with one yr remaining earlier than hitting free company, mentioned he was open to contract talks at any time, however finally turned a free agent and signed a mega take care of the Mets.
With the Cubs, it’s arguably even much less prone to get performed. Tucker’s incomes energy isn’t as excessive as Soto’s however the Cubs have by no means given out offers even to that Betts/Lindor/Devers degree. Jason Heyward’s $184MM deal remains to be the biggest in franchise historical past, although it’s virtually a decade previous at this level. Since Hoyer took over, the membership’s largest deal has been $177MM for Dansby Swanson, the one time he’s gone larger than $85MM. Maybe they’re prepared to interrupt that sample for Tucker, who they clearly like, however it could possible require them to successfully double the Heyward/Swanson offers.
Hoyer additionally addressed the third base state of affairs at Wrigley, as buying and selling Paredes created a gap there. It has been anticipated that the membership can be prepared to present prospect Matt Shaw to take that spot. Hoyer appears to be open to that coming to cross, saying that Shaw would get a “lengthy look”, although he wouldn’t simply name it a performed deal. “He has to earn that job,” Hoyer mentioned. “I’m not going to present him that on a convention name in the course of December.”
That’s a good place to take. Although Shaw has carried out very effectively within the minors, even the most effective prospects can battle when first known as as much as the majors, so nothing may be taken without any consideration. Chosen thirteenth general final summer season, Shaw has slashed .303/.384/.522 to date in 159 minor league video games throughout totally different ranges. That features a line of .298/.395/.534 in 35 Triple-A video games to complete his 2024 season, so there’s undoubtedly an argument for him cracking the majors to start out 2025.
However since there’s no assure he’ll hit the bottom working, the Cubs might want to have backup plans. The Cubs had six gamers spend at the least 85 innings at third this yr, however Miles Mastrobuoni is the one one of many six left on the roster. As talked about, Paredes was within the Tucker deal. The Cubs traded Christopher Morel to the Rays with the intention to purchase Paredes within the first place. Nick Madrigal and Patrick Knowledge had been non-tendered at season’s finish. David Bote was outrighted off the roster in August.
Infielder Gage Workman was simply grabbed from the Tigers within the Rule 5 draft, so he has a roster spot for now, however he doesn’t have any main league nor any Triple-A expertise. Ben Cowles and Luis Vázquez are different multi-positional infielders at the moment on the 40-man. Maybe the Cubs will have a look at including to that group by signing a veteran utility man, whether or not that’s to a modest main league deal or a minor league pact.
One factor that’s apparently not into account is shifting Michael Busch throughout the diamond. The membership had an outfield logjam however Cody Bellinger can play first, so it was theoretically potential for them to open that spot for Bellinger by shifting Busch to the recent nook, a place the place he has 99 1/3 innings of main league expertise. However Busch acquired sturdy grades for his first base protection this yr and Hoyer recommended their focus can be protecting him there. Bellinger was traded to the Yankees after Hoyer’s feedback this afternoon.
Unrelated to Hoyer’s feedback, there was one other Cubs tidbit of word this week. Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic report that the membership has thought of the opportunity of stretching out right-hander Nate Pearson as a starter.
There’s some benefit to the plan however it could be troublesome to tug off. Pearson was a beginning pitching prospect of word with the Blue Jays earlier than accidents pushed him right into a reduction position. As not too long ago as July, he expressed an curiosity in returning to a rotation position, shortly earlier than he was traded to the Cubs.
Bullpen-to-rotation conversions have been all the fashion these days. Some current success tales have included Michael King, Seth Lugo, Reynaldo López, Garrett Crochet and others. It doesn’t all the time work, with the A.J. Puk experiment one try that didn’t pan out, however golf equipment appear to be heat to the concept. The Mets have signed Clay Holmes with a plan of stretching him out subsequent yr and there have been some reviews suggesting Jeff Hoffman may get a rotation gig subsequent yr as effectively.
With Pearson, it’s powerful to see a path subsequent yr. The Cubs have already got Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad within the rotation, with reported curiosity in Jesús Luzardo of the Marlins as effectively. Additionally they have Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown, Cade Horton and different potential starters round, so all these guys won’t depart lots of room for Pearson to get massive league begins. As such, Mooney and Sharma admit that Pearson is most probably to stay in a reduction position subsequent yr.
