Here's the latest on the Cubs from CSN Chicago's Patrick Mooney…
- Jeff Samardzija and the Cubs are still far apart on a contract extension, "though there’s mutual respect on both sides and hope they can eventually find common ground." Samardzija's name has surfaced in several trade rumors this offseason but Mooney reports that the Cubs now plan to keep the righty until closer to the July 31 trade deadline. This would theoretically improve the quality of trade offers, such as how the Cubs scored a nice package of prospects from the Rangers last summer in exchange for Matt Garza.
- The Cubs are prepared to give Masahiro Tanaka a nine-figure contract, a source tells Mooney. The Cubs have long been considered a major suitor for the Japanese right-hander, with one MLB source telling Mooney's CSN colleague David Kaplan last month that the Cubs wouldn't be outbid for Tanaka's services. That said, Mooney hears from several baseball officials that the bidding will get "silly" and another team will offer Tanaka a longer-term and more expensive deal.
- If they can't sign Tanaka, the Cubs aren't interested in pursuing Ervin Santana, Ubaldo Jimenez or Garza. The Cubs would have to surrender their second-round draft pick and corresponding draft pool money as compensation for signing either Santana or Jimenez.
- Santana "is the kind of buy-high pitcher the Cubs are trying to avoid now," Mooney writes. The Cubs did explore trading for Santana last winter when the righty was coming off a tough season with the Angels, and Santana ended up reviving his career with a good 2013 campaign with the Royals.
I cannot believe Jimenez rejected the qualifying offer. Given his erratic numbers, I feel like it would have made way more sense to take 1 year/$14.1MM when his ceiling, even without the draft pick compensation attached, couldn’t have been more than 2/$25MM or 3/$40MM.
His combined pay over the last 4 seasons is $14MM- LESS than a 1 year deal on the QO.
Question: Had he taken the QO what would his status have been next year? Also, why don’t some players just take the QO year to year?
Jimenez will get a 4 year deal thanks to the shortage of quality SP this offseason.
He might get 4 years. But only if the annual value is real low. Like 8 mil a year.
just my speculation.
Are you sure it’s your speculation?
Are you saying it’s YOUR speculation?
don’t be surprised when he pull in more than 50M
Seems like the QO is only accepted when a guy has been injured all year or been awful and thanks his lucky stars that there’s a QO. Otherwise they seek the possible multi-year offer every time. I thought the Lohse situation last year might effect some change on this, but since he ultimately received a multi-year out of it, nothing has changed. Now I’m thinking the player realizes they may have to wait longer to receive it, into February/March, but seemingly some team always ponies up.
A QO has never been accepted.
You are correct but some people should have taken the offer
That hasn’t been proven true yet. Until Cruz, Drew, and Morales sign, we can’t be sure.
I didn’t think it made sense for him to turn it down. He had a really good year, and could probably get a bit of security. $40M is a lot of money, even if it is a lower aav.
A player who is good enough to get a QO is also a player who is good enough to get the longer-term financial security of a multi-year deal. These guys like Ubaldo and Stephen Drew will get their contracts, just like Lohse did last year. As we get closer to spring training, there are teams that realize that they need more talent, that their off-season plans aren’t likely to work out for some reason. Then they bite the bullet and sign a free agent to fill that need.
Ubaldo will get a four-year deal at good money. He’s notoriously hot and cold, but when he’s hot, he’s an ace. He’s actually the only one of the FA starters other than Tanaka who has that possibility. Arroyo will win a dozen games with an ERA just over four. Garza is going to win a dozen games with an ERA just under four. Santana is either going to stink or pitch like a No. 2. Ubaldo is either going to stink or be great.
ok
Will Santana pitch in the Japanese Leagues in 2014? His pitching history with the Angels— one good season—-one bad season—-good season—bad season. Well he had a good 2013 season with KC. If history does repeat itself, will E Santana follow with a bad season?
i am expected it
Why not an every other year contract?
I wanted the Cubs to get him last season. Sigh…
Is it slightly interesting that there’s something about Garza the Cubs don’t want back? Just the price tag for him? They’re willing to pay more for Tanaka. Garza’s not a good fall-back for them? Something they know/feel about him, otherwise there’s no draft pick compensation tied to him that they’re worried about.
Probably more about his age than anything else. The cubs are looking to put together a young controllable team to compete for a championship in about 2 years. Garza would be 32 when they are ready to compete vs 27 for Tanaka.
Head-case persona, injury history, calling out Cub fans on Twitter, the new FO wanting to rid the organization of all things Hendry.
I would be surprised if the Cubs landed him.
I would be surprised if the Cubs landed him.
Not including Tanaka, I’d say Garza is the most valuable to sign. He’s just 30 and he is not connected to draft pick comp. I would imagine that he gets an avg. Annual of 12-15 over 4 years and he will turn out to be a pretty good investment. I would rather have him over Santana or Jimenez.
15 is the low end of what he’s demanding. Makes it very hard for that to be a good investment.
I don’t think he’ll get what he wants. He is a #2 starter who’s had injuries and put up an ERA of around 4 last season. I think he signs a 4 year contract worth around $52mm in early February with the Yanks (if the someone else gets tanaka) or Arizona (if new York gets tanaka)
Between Santana, Jiminez, and Garza, one of them is bound to be disappointed but I don’t think it’ll be Garza. He’s in a much better position than the other two since he’s not tied to compensation.
Unfortunately, building through FA is seldom a good investment by the definition of how it works: you pay a guy more than anybody else thinks he’s worth. As such, as soon as he signs he immediately has negative trade value of a sort.
If a team’s max offer for a guy is $10 million, they’re saying they don’t want him for more than that. If he signs elsewhere for $12 million, he immediately has a -$2 million value to the team that didn’t think he was worth more than $10 million.
The big-market teams obviously have a huge advantage here, as they don’t have to be “right” every time they dip their toe in the pool; they can afford a certain amount of non-productive money.
I think Tanaka signs with the Dodgers or Cubs. Garza to Arizona, Santana to NYY, Ubaldo to Baltimore.
Wouldnt be surprised to see Samardzija ultimately end up in Arizona as well.
I feel if the cubs sign tanka then samardzija will get an extension to the team
That is exactly what needs to happen. Shark is a good player, and if the Cubs get a rebuild boost from Tanaka they need to hold onto every key piece.
Arizona seems to be running low on bullets that they’re willing to deal.
If Tanaka gets to pick where he goes essentially why would he pick the Cubs? They can’t say what the contract off will be to him until they except the bid right?
No, tanaka gets to negotiate with any team that has the highest bidder. He may CHOOSE to sign somewhere simply because they offer more money.
Is that how it was with diceK also? Or is this part of the new deal.
This is a change as part of the new deal. Dice-K, Darvish, etc all were subject to their team accepting the highest bid. The highest bid aspect is still in play, but since the max bid is so low, most teams will be at least bidding and discussing with any top tier foreign players that are posted.
I would like to see the Cubs sign Garza, but that is just so we could troll the Rangers. Theo goes and robs their farm system and then we sign back the player that we got them for? Classic.