If the Giants were reportedly willing to give up Josuar Gonzalez for a second baseman with a 106 wRC+ projection who hasn't played 2B much in the majors, have I got the player for them (with twice the team control!)

It’s a good thing the Cubs have so many players participating in the WBC so fans can actually watch their players in March

The 2026 ZiPS projections for the Chicago Cubs are now up on @fangraphs.com. blogs.fangraphs.com/2026-zips-pr...

Kyle Tucker is an excellent baseball player and fixes the Dodgers' biggest weakness, while being one of the less pleasant to watch great players I've seen

Probably wishful thinking, but with the Red Sox signing a starter and having a franchise record luxury tax payroll, I wonder if they might look more for a pre-arb bat than a later-arb bat like Donovan or Paredes (or Hoerner). Wonder if a framework built around Early for Shaw makes some sense…

Tentatively, vs. R: 1B Busch 3B Bregman LF Happ RF Suzuki CF Crow-Armstrong 2B Hoerner DH Ballesteros C Kelly SS Swanson (Wouldn’t be surprised if PCA and Ballesteros swap) Vs. L: 2B Hoerner 3B Bregman LF Happ RF Suzuki 1B Busch/Austin C Kelly CF Crow-Armstrong DH Austin/Shaw SS Swanson

A little surprised that we got a Passan tweet that mentioned two possibilities of moves (and not a done deal) and neither has happened yet.

Maybe the most surprising thing about the Bregman deal is that the Cubs finally were willing to include deferrals again

Might not age well, but hey, about time

Some great discussion from Jordan and Lance on Cabrera’s arsenal here. Can’t wait to see what the Cubs do with it

The Cubs seem high on Ballesteros’ ability to immediately hit, their lack of other SP prospects besides Wiggins, and the likely growing pains always pointed to Owen Caissie being the best prospect traded for a starter. The Marlins just had success with a similar skill set in Kyle Stowers as well.

Pitch movement (horizontal) leaderboard strikes again

Edward Cubrera

I didn’t love Imai’s profile as a pitcher, so I’m not too upset the Cubs missed out on him. The issue for the Cubs, though, is that if they don’t like giving out long-term (5+ year) deals for SP (which often include deferrals, the alternatives are often short-term, high-AAV deals…

Projections are more useful than last year's numbers, but here are the average 2025 ERA, xERA, FIP, and xFIP of the four relievers the Cubs have signed to MLB deals this offseason, weighted by total batters faced: ERA: 3.11 xERA: 3.09 FIP: 3.35 xFIP: 3.83

The most important items on the Cubs’ offseason todo list remain unchecked, but in the meantime I think the Webb, Thielbar, Milner, Austin, and Maton additions are all quite solid

Tatsuya Imai has plenty of upside, but if his market gets down to the level where the Cubs are the highest bidder, it would seem that teams don’t expect him to be a TOR starter right away. At some point it becomes a risk worth taking, but worth keeping in mind if he’s a team’s “ceiling” acquisition

Feels like Willson Contreras has become a pretty underrated first baseman. And I like what Bloom has been doing in STL.

Seems pretty clear that after passing on Keller at 2/22 (and to a lesser extent Weaver at the same number) the Cubs are out on high leverage relievers (Fairbanks, mostly), at least until they address their needs at SP/3B. The timing and budget constraints hurt them here, since they can’t let…

There’s obviously more to it than this, but Caleb Thielbar was one of the best relievers by xERA last year. This is relievers with > 40 IP.

But have they considered: Edward Cubrera

Just delaying the inevitable until Gray and Pallante sign one year deals with the Cubs

I still think the Cubs get outbid on Ryan Helsley, but he has the kind of fastball that they love

Feels like a lot of what determines the Cubs’ potential second starting pitcher addition is which teams like Owen Caissie the most. Pirates (Ashcraft, Oviedo)? Marlins (Cabrera, Snelling)? Royals (Bubic)? Rays (Baz, Rasmussen)? Angels, even?

If Shane Bieber and Jack Flaherty are hurt or just enjoying their current teams, that's one thing, but if they think they couldn't beat their current 1 year deals on the open market the Cubs surely won't be offering Shōta Imanaga the qualifying offer.

Where’s Aaron Ashby when you need him?

That double (117.3 MPH) was the hardest-hit ball of Seiya Suzuki's career. His previous hardest was this home run against the Reds in May (116.2 MPH) sporty-clips.mlb.com/YVkyVmVfWGw0...

I never expected Michael Busch to be this good

With the Brewers set to use Aaron Ashby as an opener, I wouldn't be against the Cubs' having Turner lead off. Because the Cubs are the away team, he could take 1 PA without needing to play the field. You're locking yourself in to a Koenig/Busch or Koenig/PCA matchup later but it could be worth it.

Somehow, the Cubs have the second highest wRC+ in the playoffs

Cubs relievers in the Wild Card series against the Padres (Game 2 includes opener Kittredge instead of bulk guy Imanaga) 14.2 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 11 K

The Cubs and Padres bullpens each allowed 2 runs this series

Does the Trajekt machine go up to 104? Asking for 9 friends

See, Jed did trade for a playoff starter!

For better or worse, one more time

Lots of talk about how good the Padres bullpen is (it’s very good). The Cubs’ pen has quietly been right there Cubs’ rank in stats for pitchers on the active roster as relievers: ERA: 1st (Padres: 6th) xERA: 3rd (Padres: 2nd) FIP: 3rd (Padres: 2nd) xFIP: 3rd (Padres: 2nd) K-BB%: 3rd (Padres: 2nd)…

You can't let Colin Rea exceed his career high in strikeouts by 2 against you in a playoff race, those are the rules

@mikepetriello.bsky.social Not sure where to direct this, but it seems like Porter Hodge has thrown a third pitch in his last few outings which is getting called as an 86-88 MPH fastball. Just in case the pitch classification gods have not noticed yet!

Kittredge with the Cubs: 3.06 ERA, 1.75 xERA, 2.41 FIP, 1.81 xFIP, 36.4% K%, 4.5% BB%

After two very impressive games, Nico Hoerner is up to a 111 wRC+, and he’ll be averaging more than 4 wins per season. Still feels like he’s underrated.

Baseball is funny because you play 162 games and then your season can depend on whether or not Drew Pomeranz can get Ramón Laureano out.

@mikepetriello.bsky.social Not sure if you’re still doing defense threads, but any idea why OAA and DRS have such a big discrepancy with Matt Shaw? I feel like a lot of his better plays are related to his hands (tricky hops) and his mislays or more range-based which might explain it but anecdotal

2. September performance and being hot going into the playoffs don’t tell you more than regular season record blogs.fangraphs.com/the-cardinal...

Drew Pomeranz and Caleb Thielbar were both feeling it tonight

Ah, well

Kyle Hendricks is still showing up at the top of good leaderboards

Some reminders as we go into September/the playoffs: 1. There is no one way teams play or one stat that predicts which teams do well in the playoffs

Here’s a “fun” fact: Seiya Suzuki leads the league in barrels hit for outs this year at 25 (41% of his barrels). That’s five more than the next hitters. Michael Busch and Dansby Swanson are both top 15 in “barrel-outs” this year as well. The Cubs as a team lead the league in barrel-outs by 3.

Woodruff now has the most innings pitched with a 100% LOB rate since at least 2016.

Tragic. Now that the team has lost a game, every Brewers fan in the greater Milwaukee area has to make and deliver a free burger for George Webb employees next Wednesday between the hours of 2:00 and 6:00 PM