5:08pm: The two sides have agreed to a deal, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Kipnis, a Beverly Hills Sports Council client, will earn $1MM if he makes the club. He can boost that base salary via performance bonuses.
3:30pm: The Cubs are “zeroing in” on free-agent second baseman Jason Kipnis, tweets ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. Jordan Bastian of MLB.com adds that the two sides are working to finish up a minor league deal and non-roster invite to Spring Training. Kipnis still has to take a physical before any deal is complete, however.
Kipnis, 32, was once a star-caliber second baseman with the Indians, who signed him to a $52.5MM extension back in 2014. He was excellent both in 2013 and 2015, making a pair of All-Star teams and garnering MVP votes in each of those seasons. On the whole, from the time he debuted through the completion of the 2016 season, Kipnis batted a combined .272/.345/.423 while averaging 17 homers, 38 doubles and 25 steals per 162 games played.
However, over the pat three seasons, Kipnis simply hasn’t hit much, combining for just a .236/.305/.403 slash (86 OPS+) in 1485 plate appearances. His decline eliminated any surprise over the Indians’ decision to pay a $2.5MM buyout on what once looked to be a reasonable $16.5MM club option for the 2020 season.
The Cubs’ second base mix is muddled, at best. Nico Hoerner hit .282 in 82 plate appearances late in the year but managed only a .305 on-base percentage. He’s also yet to play a game in Triple-A. Former first-round pick Ian Happ has yet to establish himself in the Majors, and late-blooming David Bote has been more of a utility player than an everyday option at Wrigley. The versatile Daniel Descalso flopped in his first year with Chicago, posting an alarming .173/.271/.250 slash in 194 plate appearances. Non-roster options include Hernan Perez, Carlos Asuaje and Corban Joseph. The Chicago-born Kipnis, however, figures to have a very legitimate chance of cracking the roster and suiting up to play his home games at Wrigley Field — just 19 miles from the high school he attended.
service time for nico held down
Only a matter of time before he brings a lawsuit
my wife call my suit a lawsute cus evary time i weer it im going too court. lol jus joshin u.
You are annoying.
Hasn’t his time already started?
Nico’s service time has started bytbif he’s not on the major league roster, it pauses.
Stop it! Nico was rushed to the bigs last year because of injuries. He’s never seen AAA yet. He truly needs seasoning.
I agree. He was solid for the cubs. When you get 3 rbi a triple and a single in your ML debut he’s gonna be something special. His first career HR was at Wrigley on the.first pitch dead center. 435+ ft. He’ll be the every day 2B soon enough. Build around Baez and Hoerner.
Nah, they need a LH 2B to spell Hoerner, also good vet to help take under his wing
Sweet home Chicago!
Why?
Sounds like he wants to take a year off. This is one way to do it.
Kipnis jinxed the Indians. I remember when they were up 3-1 vs the Cubs, a reporter asked him post game if he could feel the championship. He replied, “A little bit.” And we all know what happened after that. With that comment, he might as well as asked Dusty Baker for the game ball.
He also said how much he hated playing the Cubs because he grew up a huge Cubs fan as a kid living pretty close to Wrigley Field. If it’s down to a minor league deal at his disposal, he’s not only picking a team in need of a second baseman, but one he would like to play for.
Ha, he jinxed them? Are you twelve years old? Grow up, dude. That loss was clearly the result of some type of hex or gypsy curse..
CK – just having fun, big guy. Chill.
Sorry, the reply was meant to be tongue in cheek and light hearted! .. My bad, it is tough for that tone to come through in writing.
It’s called The Curse of Rocky Colavito.
Cleveland’s rotation which was 2 1/2 pitchers once the 2016 WS came around just ran out of gas and couldn’t close the deal. Don’t believe in jinxes or curses.
Washed up.
I love it. My thinking is that the minor league deal is a formality while they work on freeing up a bit of cash for big league pay.
I
If the Cubs are going on in a lottery ticket 2B, I liked the Scooter Bennett idea better, as he’s younger and was good more recently.
Cybs don’t necessarily wantna younger option. They are looking for a bridge to give the job to Hoerner. That may be a half year or 1 season.
Just when you thought Theo was done dumpster divin’, he comes back out in full scuba gear for this one!
Just when you thought chitown311 was done making stupid repetitive comments he comes back out with his dunce cap
So predictable. So Cub obsessed, can’t really blame him though, I would be too if I grew up cheering for that irrelevant, poverty franchise on the south side.
Hey I resent that statement lol
You’re on every white sox post bryzzo…..
Are there White Sox posts?!? Like most MLB fans, media, players…. vendors, I couldn’t possibly care less about the Northwest Indiana White Sox. Jerry shoulda followed through with his threat to move them to TB so they’d could stop begging for the crumbs that the Cubs leave behind.
You probably haven’t been on this site all offseason because your team has made zero moves of relevance – which is why you’re not aware of the many “White Sox posts” lately. Hey, while I have you: what’s 2016 + 108? It doesn’t matter – we’ll all be dead by then.
“Wait for it… I hear them.” Says Guest
“Hear who?” Says guest #2
“The keyboard warriors saying “CUBS 2020 WS CHAMPS”.” Says guest
CUBS 2020 WS CHAMPS!!Kipnis was the missing piece.
as an indians fan, i wish jason nothing but the best. he may not have anything left in the tank, or not much, but he always gave his all when he was on the field and played hard. and was selfless moving to the outfield or bench on multiple occasions for other players down the stretch to try and win in the postseason. thanks for the memories, kip! good luck.
Agreed 100%
Well, said. I hope Dirtbag still has some left in the tank. If not, he’s had a pretty good career and has always been a class act.
Steve Adams,
Is it “over the pat” or “over the past”
Kipnis has still been hitting fine vs RHPs. He just shouldn’t be hitting against LHPs anymore.
So with Russell gone and Nico likely starting the season at AAA, who is the backup SS. Surely not Bote or Descalso.
I think Nico could just come up if the need arose, or are you envisioning something of an NBA style load management scenario with Javy?
Yeah, Nico would come up (IF he doesn’t make the team out of ST) to play SS if needed. Unless there’s an injury, Javy won’t be taking too many games off.
So with Russell gone and Nico likely starting the season at AAA, who is the backup SS. Surely not Bote or Descalso.
Hernán Perez right now.
No harm in checking him out in spring training.
If Bryant is traded by the end of the week, you’d think Cubs would try to fill his void. I haven’t seen a move yet that suggested Bryant is expendable
If the trade is to the Yankees for Andujar and other pieces, that would make him expendable.
If the trade is to the Braves for Austin Riley and other pieces, that would make him expendable.
I hope he stays put perosnally.
If Bryant gets traded, it should be for a young starting pitcher as the centerpiece like Max Fried of Atlanta plus some lover level prospects. The Cubs current rotation is arguably the weakest part of the team and it would be nice to see some youth added to that current group. Abbott, Marquez and Alzolay will be interesting to watch as they progress to the ML club in the next year or 2. Maybe Theo’s regime will finally produce a couple of solid starters as Lester and Quintana move on.
they filled his void twice with the delayed service time and ensuing grievance decision
Bryant is going nowhere.
Has anybody checked to see if Epstein’s drunk all the time?
hes watching plane crash aftermath videos again…
with that type of comment i’m surprised you could string more than 3 words together. tell me, are you usually this dumb or did you bang your head against a wall before you commented? maybe i should nofify your parents you’re staying up past your bedtime
Very good signing if finalized. Maybe a fresh start will help him regain some of his form.
Seems dumb….
I think it’s a good signing. We’re not committing much money and maybe Kipnis coming home will rejuvenate him.
Fresh start can sometimes be what the doctor ordered. Stranger things have happened.
I can’t knock a GM who has won 3 World Series titles, but he made a lot of bad signings in his career. Julio Lugo, Rusney Castillo, Carl Crawford, Edwin Jackson, Jason Heyward…
And with the Cubs he also signed Lester and Zobrist, extended Rizzo and stole Arietta from the O’s. There were some pluses.
Right. Strop was also very valuable. And let’s not forget stealing Hendricks. Fowler was essential. Gotta look at the good with the bad. And when all is said and done I think Yu deal might be better than most think.
Must be an election year. Ricketts family spends big money on elections. Cubs are just trinket used for fundraisers and to take money from.
bit of a homecoming. Kipnis grew up in Northbrook – one of the three suburbs where Cub fans who claim they’re from Chicago are actually from.
Most of the southern suburbs claim they are from Chicago. They even go so far as to say they are from the south side. Like dude Tinley Park is not the Southside
Ok, but about 80% of cvbs fans aren’t from the city of Chicago at all.
And yours are? I had no idea they had trailer parks in the city…
That’s a pretty bold number. 80 percent? I don’t know about that. And there are tons of Sox fans all over the surrounding suburbs by midway seeing as it’s so close to the south side. We’re a big area it’s not really an argument over where the fans come from. There’s millions and millions of us
Oh 80% are not huh? You are talking out of your rear end.
No I think he is pretty much Dead on. I would say that there’s a whole big bunch of cubs fans out there the other Cubs fans because growing up they had WGN on there TV. WGN is channel 5 on my TV and has been channel 5 on the TV for the past ever since my town got a cable franchise. I’m from the backwoods of Kentucky yet I’ve seen every Cubs game for the past 20 years that was on WGN up until they stopped being on WGN.
Even if that were true (which it’s obviously not) 20% of Cub fans still outnumber 100% of the White Sox fans in that city…and every where else. The ratings, the attendance, merch sales, etc… doesn’t lie. But again, thanks for stopping by a Cubs post… again. Hahaha
I’m a Cubs fan who’s been living in the south suburbs for the past 20 years and yes, Sox fans outnumber Cubs fans around here but there appears to be a firewall as you get to Joliet and beyond as there are more Cubs fans from Joliet on down state by a large margin. Sox nation is pretty much confined to the southside and south suburbs. Growing up in downstate Illinois and living on the west coast in my youth, the only time I heard anyone mention the Sox was when Dick/Richie Allen was tearing things up for the southsiders. Otherwise they were out of sight, out of mind. To paraphrase Joe Friday, just the facts man.
Good move. Left handed 2B to spell Hoerner and mentor him.
And quite an upgrade from Descalso
If he signed with the yankees he would hit .385 with 50 home runs. Scrubs to stars but they’re not cheating. Tick, tick, tick.
Another whiney Yankee hating post from wayhazy. What a waste of retirement. Grow up, dude.
Let’s see, Urshela hit .314 with 21 HR’s and Tauchman hit .277 with 13 HR’s. Not close to .385 with 50 HR’s. Yup, you’re a lying idiot with zero credibility. But we knew that.
Lol I love how you let these guys get to you
It’s mainly this guy, multiple times every day. He does little else. Biggest hater on the site. By far. There used to be a couple of others but they’ve responded to complaints and backed off. Wayhazy is just obsessed.
They spend big and have not won for a while.
Good for him and his family, if he makes the club. I remember that MLB network documentary on the 2016 WS where his whole family grew up die hard Cubs fans and they all thought it would be hard to root againts them until the WS began. His sister maybe went a little too far though by saying she hated the Cubs or something to that effect after they won.
He stinks
lol
Cubbies gotta cub.
He is our new Mark DeRosa……our new Ben Zobrist……..
Great pick up !………
I will even predict a great year for the Cubs.
2020 is the New 2016 for the Cubs !
Trading Quintana will free up some cash !
When I saw the story earlier today about Oakland being interested in him, I knew right then that he’d be signing with the Cubs.
I liked Scooter as a long shot to regain 2018 form. Unfortunately, Kipnis is a shoe-in to recent form. Let the two H’s compete for the job – Hoerner and Happ.
I think Cubs could easily win division this year: Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers, and Reds all seem like 85 to 86 win teams. Pirates in last with may 70 wins.
Ha!
If we can get a fifth starter than you are probably dead on.
It’s happening.
Ian Happ will be the next Josh Donaldson..on another team.
Perhaps Kipnis can replace Zobrist as 2B/LF option.
So glad he’s gone.
So glad he’s gone.
Kipnis is a class act,a truly nice guy and was a helluva player,but Father Time is undefeated.
Hopefully, he ‘ll be able to close out a very good career playing for his hometown team.