- The Cubs are very interested in free agent lefty Aroldis Chapman. The Cubs do have competition for the 21 year old lefty though. The Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, and Cardinals all have interest. Many say that Chapman will want a contract in the 40-60 million dollar range. I do not see the Cubs going that high.
- Bradley may have more suitors than we all thought. According to Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports.com "You would be shocked at the level of interest." The Cubs remain confident that they can trade Bradley without assuming the vast majority of the 21 million remaining on this contract in the next two years. In fact Tom Ricketts has set a limit on how much money the Cubs will include in a deal, one source said to Ken. The Cubs can take back a contract but pay only a fixed amount of cash. Tom has got this one right! No need to trade him for a bag of balls or release him especially since Jaramillo is on the north side. He could in fact fix Bradley's swing, but probably not his attitude. I am still in favor of Bradley being traded.
- MLBTR.COM has their annual "Offseason Outlook" for the Cubs so go check it out. He has the Cubs committed to 124.2 million before raises to Hill, Baker, Theriot, etc... Cotts, Heilman, and Fontenot are non-tender candidates. I only consider Cotts a non-tender, the rest can be trade bait.
I really disagree with Tim on the Bradley situation. There are clubhouse issues along with chemistry issues that are beyond repair. That ship has sailed. I like his idea of signing Billy Wagner and think it is wise to sign Grabow but think he is under estimating the payroll flexibility this offseason. The Cubs will have money to spend.
- Good article by Bruce Levine on Jaramillo. I really like this guy!
Til Next Time.....
2 comments:
Who the heck is this Chapman? Why do we always have to have interest in these garbage players? Maybe we can make a call and see if Hideki Irabu is still available. By the way... Bradley will stay. The Cubs are the KINGS of creating smokescreens. They are building the fact that teams are interested so that someone will get stupid and try to be interested too. Bradley will stay...Jim is a joke.
Ricketts set a limit, that makes me think Bradley is now untradeable.
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