Righty Brandon Kintzler will exercise a player option to remain with the Cubs, according to Jesse Rogers of ESPNChicago.com (via Twitter). That had been the expected outcome for the veteran reliever.
Kintzler’s contract, signed last winter with the Nationals and traded to the Cubs at the 2018 trade deadline, included successive option clauses. The club first had a shot at a $10MM option. If that was declined — as it was, by the Chicago organization — then Kintzler got a chance to take a guaranteed $5MM salary rather than returning to free agency.
Given his struggles down the stretch, it’s no surprise that Kintzler elected to keep the money in hand. In 18 frames over 25 appearances, he coughed up 14 earned runs on 27 hits while managing just a dozen strikeouts against nine walks.
That’s not to say that there isn’t any hope of a rebound. After emerging as a late-inning presence with the Twins, Kintzler had been productive with the Nats. In his 68 2/3 frames in D.C., between the trade deadlines of the 2017 and 2018 campaigns, he worked to a 3.54 ERA. In spite of consistently marginal strikeout numbers, Kintzler’s heavy sinker has typically produced excellent groundball numbers and allowed him to avoid the long ball.
Hope for the Cub’s sake that he does rebound, b/c if he doesn’t, that’s a huge bullpen spot that the cubs will need if they want to get to post season
Ugh. Guy was hot garbage the entire time he was with the Cubs. Hoping for a rebound, otherwise he’s a waste.
This guy has done a pretty good job of finding a way of bouncing back. Heck he was almost out of baseball until he got a chance in the independent league, then carved out a decent career starting with the Brewers picking him up
Lovw these hybrid team / player options.
$10M team option or $5M player option? Yeah, was overpaid maybe by 5M, but what a nice compromise. Wish more clubs did these contract structures’, believe more hitters get them and not “fake options”, like Mutual options.
This is bad for Chicago though.
$5M? Life-changing money for us regular people, but pennies to clubs, especially ones spend like Cubs. They’ll survive.
5 million dollars could be the difference between adding a guy at the deadline or staying under the luxury tax.
So could 1 Mill, so could 100K. Little early to be worrying about that not to mention it’s an ownership decision to go over if they need, if there’s a guy who will help the club get to playoffs and push them further but ownership doesn’t do it bc of 5 Mill over luxury then their foolish
Not paying him 5 million likely means signing someone else for 3-4 if they want a veteran reliever, and 1-2 million won’t effect their luxury tax decisions at app
They’re either going to blow past it for an impact player or largely stand pat… And if they decide to spend it doesn’t really matter if you go over by 1 million or 30, because over is over.
They aren’t staying under the luxury tax threshold, friend. You should just go ahead and accept that now.
true, but its not so much the money as it is the spot. Thinking the bullpen will look like this if they carry a 7 man pen:
Morrow – have to use sparingly, especially after last season
Edward, jr – has great potential, but regressed last year
Cishek – good
Strop – good
Chavez – hopefully
Montgomery -only lefty, if not in rotation
Kintzler
I would have preferred another lefty (wilson perhaps), especially if Kintzler is dead weight
since Maddon was manager the cubs have used an 8-man pen and I dont believe kintzler is guaranteed a spot. he will likely go into ST competing for a spot and if he doesn’t they can cut or trade him. likely eating some of the money
if they go with an 8 man pen, who does that leave for the bench?
backup catcher TBD, Zobrist, Happ, LaStella? What becomes of Bote I wonder….
Wouldn’t mind taking a shot on him as long as Chicago sent a decent prospect with him.
a decent prospect has more than $5 million in surplus value… why would the Cubs trade anything of value here?
5 million extra dollars gives more room for in-season additions and luxury tax room. And it all depends on the prospect. There’s lots of instances of guys having their salary dumped for around that amount with prospects.
The Cubs will not be able to stay under the luxury tax threshold this year. That’s why it was so important last year to stay under it bc the penalties increase the longer you are over.
Such as…
Bum
The Cubs now need trade him. He single handedly cost them game 163. Which should have never happened
Not going to hold any offensive player responsible for their putrid plate appearances?
It’s the horrible bats too. But he’s the one that gave up the winning run. Like I said the Cubs should have never played game 163. They should have won the NL central by 7-10 games.
Non-closer releivers on 1 year deals have no trade value
Just the most sought after player at the trade deadline.