Three days of Cubs Convention and countless questions to front office personnel, players, the manager and coaches revealed precious few answers to some of the most pressing questions surrounding the team’s roster and direction as they head into the offseason’s final stretch toward spring training.
That certainly won’t make fans any less likely to boo the occasional Ricketts or Marquee Network executive they might encounter in the next few weeks.
But it should at least make this traditionally quiet time of the baseball calendar a more compelling time to see what gets answered in the next three weeks before pitchers and catchers report to spring training (Feb. 11).
Will they trade any core players off the roster – and/or trade for a significant addition to the roster?
This could be a question that lingers through the spring, if not until the July 31 trade deadline, even if they pull off a trade before camp opens. For now, team president Theo Epstein and manager David Ross say they expect trade-rumor leader Kris Bryant to be on the roster on Opening Day – but Epstein also said he hopes to make some moves between now and then.
In other words, it takes two to make a rumor more than a rumor – and significantly more than that to actually get a deal done. So stay tuned.
“It’s going to be a whole different team without him,” All-Star shortstop Javy Baez said of the possibility that Bryant is traded. “We’ll see if that happens, and who’s coming and who’s not. Hopefully, we’ll keep Kris here his entire career. … If [a trade] happens, I don’t know what’s going to be the reaction of the fans and of the players, to be honest.”
Somebody say Javy Baez? Will the 2018 National League MVP runner-up ultimately provide the headline the Cubs’ winter if he can reach agreement with the team on a long-term extension?
This might be the likeliest question to be answered in the near term now that the sides have gotten their $10 million contract for 2020 done (earlier this month). Any extension that starts in 2021 won’t impact this year’s luxury-tax liability and would provide a foundation piece with cost certainty as the Cubs make extended plans for another potential championship window.
“Hopefully, if it happens [it happens] before the season,” Baez said. “If not, there is no pressure. When the right deal comes we’ll be ready for it.”
Why hasn’t Nick Castellanos signed anywhere as a free agent yet – and does that mean he’s waiting for the Cubs to free up payroll space to bring him back after that electrifying two months last summer?
Not necessarily. Despite a lot of mutual admiration and respect, Castellanos isn’t the best fit – maybe for either side – when considering position options, projected numbers vs. expectations created in 2019 and the multi-year price tag.
“We love him,” Epstein said, echoing previous comments. “He exceeded all of our expectations. … But he’s played himself into having a really good market, and we’re not sure we’re going to be able to bring him back. But we’re sure we’d like to have him back.
“I think he’s in a pretty good spot based on everything he’s done in his career and his age [27]. But we’ll see.”
How are the Cubs going to start the 2020 season – literally? Who’s going to take that first at-bat as the leadoff man in Milwaukee on March 27?
Short answer: “That’s a good one. I don’t know,” manager David Ross told a fan Saturday.
Longer answer: The Cubs have used 17 different leadoff hitters in the last three years since Dexter Fowler left as a free agent, including 10 currently on the roster. And Ross said he is spending a lot of his time “looking at that heavily.”
Rookie Nico Hoerner has the “ability and the mindset” to grow into that role someday, player development exec Matt Dorey said Sunday. But for now, Ross calls it a wait-and-see proposition.
“I don’t believe the lack of success in some of the guys we have carries the day for me,” he said. “I haven’t [decided on] anybody that I won’t put up there. But there’s nobody that’s jumped out at me either.”
