The Cubs are in agreement with free agent first baseman Dominic Smith on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (X link). Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the deal contains a $1.75MM base salary if Smith makes the MLB roster (on X). Murray adds that it could max out at $3.5MM if he hits all the available incentives.
Smith hit free agency when he was non-tendered by the Nationals. Washington signed the former top prospect to a $2MM deal last winter, taking a buy-low flier after Smith’s tenure in Queens had fizzled out. The first baseman had flashed significant offensive upside in limited work between 2019-20, hitting .299/.366/.571 in just under 400 plate appearances over that stretch.
Not only has Smith not maintained that form, he has been a below-average hitter in each of the last three seasons. The Mets moved on after the 2022 season. Smith logged a career-high 586 plate appearances a year ago in Washington. He didn’t make a huge impact, running a .254/.326/.366 slash. Smith kept his strikeouts to a personal-low 15.5% clip but didn’t provide the kind of power expected of a first baseman. He hit 12 homers and tied with Ty France for the lowest slugging mark among primary first basemen (minimum 400 plate appearances).
Murray reports that Smith underwent surgery to address a hamate injury in his wrist in early January. It’s unclear precisely when he suffered the injury, although he didn’t require any time on the IL a year ago. Murray indicates that Smith is expected to be at full strength by the end of exhibition play.
As is the case with tonight’s agreement with David Peralta, Chicago adds an experienced left-handed hitter coming off a down year. Both players made contact at better than average rates a year ago, albeit with minimal power. Smith is limited to first base, where he’ll vie for a job behind offseason trade pickup Michael Busch.
Anthony minors deal, where is Belli, pls Chicago
Do not worry Jed’s got this. As soon as Scott Boras figures out a way to save face(and who to blame)Belli will surely sign with the Cubs.
It only takes one crazy team and Arte Moreno happens to own one.
If Belly is signed and can produce last year’s numbers, Cubs have a shot at the division, but Reds have better roster.
Whose Anthony? Are you Murohy of Murphy’s Bleachers Bar and Grill?
So two minor league deals to two guys who play both positions that bellinger plays…the plot thickens
Neither of them can play center field, nor can Happ or Suzuki.
Fair point. Dom and Peralta are organizational depth at worst. Injury fill ins at best
Pete: But they got on base
Billy: They get on base, check your sheet guys!
Peralta didn’t get on base much, and neither he nor Smith hit for much power last season. They’re “break glass in case of emergency” signings.
You know who can play centerfield, Peter Crow Armsostrong.
But he can’t hit a foul ball- top flight defender
Looks like Tauchmann and Busch have starting jobs. Sorry Baby Shark.
Baby shark?
Could be worse, could be Will Smith. Ahahaha!
Actually that would have been more exciting – and only slightly less productive.
Sorry Cody, had to move on.
2 lefties in a row ….. the writing is on the wall
These seem like leverage moves to put pressure on Boras. The Cubs don’t need these guys for depth. A couple minor league deals to make it look like they’ve moved on. Maybe they have……..
Or maybe Ricketts just got tired of Boras playing games – – and trying to get the Cubs to start bidding against themselves.
Boras better start talking to those ‘mystery teams’. Maybe they’ll be happy to offer one year deals.
“Seem like leverage moves”…..I’m sure you’re probably right but I’ve never seen a team fail because of too much depth, so it never hurts to stockpile while you can.
I guess it’s Belli to Giants or Angels then. I know for a fact Belli loves the California Green Skunk so maybe it will all make sense in the end. (Is weed even legal in Illinois?)
Yes, Illinois is 420 friendly.
Yeah, but I feel like you need baseball money to stay in it here. Cali is wayyy cheaper.
Maybe that’s the far away look in Bellinger’s eyes.
And there’s a dispensary across the street from Wrigley Field. Way overpriced. Which isn’t surprising but my sister and I paid $80 for two 10 pack of dummies. They did nothing for me. They got her high as a kite though.
Gummies*
You’re not wrong haha
The Angels sure don’t need him. unless he takes 2/30.
Boy, Cubs got that poker face going on. Who is the fallback team for Bellinger if the Cubs do take a hard pass?
Hiroshima Carp.
Signing an outfielder and first baseman in like 20 minutes. Belli isn’t looking promising in Chicago. Putting a little pressure on him maybe?
And it was soon after Rickett’s comments and Boras’ retort. Drama is high as a kite.
“Fallback team for Bellinger”…Scott Boras is a lawyer and lawyers never admit when they screw up or miscalculate. Scott will surely rail on about about how the establishment and “market forces” conspired against him and his clients, saying nothing about how badly he misread the market.
Boras misread the seriousness of the TV rights fiasco which took a lot of teams right out of consideration ( Colorado, Minnesota, San Diego etc) and then overplayed his hand when two other clubs filled their payrolls like the Dodgers and Yankees with Ohtani and Soto. kudos to the Cubs for not negotiating against themselves. NO mystery team this time, Scotty.
And Boras never makes mistakes, but his lack of negotiation cost Michael Conforto $17 million he will never see again.
He is not so perfect. And Bellinger will have to take a short-term deal because no one can afford a $200 M deal for someone who just might slip back into old habits. Maybe the way to continue to get Bellinger to perform is to keep giving him one year
Make-good contracts.
I keep on saying that the Cubs should give Bellinger a vesting option if he finishes in the top 5 of the NL MVP. Given that Ohtani and Acuña are likely to finish 1-2 or 2-1, it’s essentially top 3 of the rest.
Take 1 year at 29M and if you can finish top 5 MVP, you can have the rest of what you are asking for as a player option.
You can’t sign an open-ended deal, Brick. You’re idea isn’t bad, but there would have to be finite numbers (years and dollars with or without Options) attached.
So 1/29 with a vesting 7/181 player option if he finishes top 5 in NL MVP this year. No other opt-outs.
Lmao
Poor Dom Smith, even when the post is about him he still gets ignored. Good luck Dom!
He has more than enough hype when he was a Mets prospect. The universe is balancing things out now – not that he’s ever deserved any recognition in his MLB career.
Next stop for Dom after his career is over, is being remembered as one of the Mets overhyped busts – and perhaps being the DH of the Mets All-Time Busts team.
The players represented by Boras appear to be patient guys. Apparently these guys trust and believe in Boras. One would think you would want get something done. Just from a standpoint of where you are going to play and settle in. Get to know new teammates and coaches That’s just me.But I guess millions of dollars are potentially on the line.
Or they’re blowing up his phone all day.
We’ll never know.
I love these two moves! Lifelong cubs fan here who really appreciates Jed’s conservative approach. Megadeal for Belli is just to risky.
Dom hit .316 with 10 dingers a couple years ago, while Belli smashed a big .165 and 10.
You are the only one.
“Are the only one”…..Personally, I think Jed’s hardball, no nonsense approach will lead to Belli signing with the Cubs on much more palatable terms. Where else is he realistically gonna go,?…..Scott Boras is great at getting teams to bid against themselves and the Cubs are simply refusing to play that game.
good pair of signings. ink chapman at 3B and cubs are ok. sign montgomery and boom
Why did they give Trey Mancini the bag what a rough deal
Another huge bust that’s lucky to get even that.
The Cubs finally had enough of Boras and went out and got a OF & 1B to replace Bellinger. Donezo
I would rather spend half as much on Adam Duvall as I would on Cody Bellinger, and get a part-time CF/part-time 1B/DH with some pop. Let Crow-Armstrong develop without total pressure to perform.
and Smith is a decent backup plan for 1B. Hope Dom finds his stroke again. He is a really good guy.
How do you know? Do you play Texas hold em together?
If those two are counted on for any significant contribution, the Cubs are in trouble.
Smith couldn’t stick with the Nationals for a second year. But he is a plus defensive 1B, so I won’t be surprised if he sticks as the backup 1B who comes in as a defensive replacement for Busch a fair amount.
If anything, this is competition for Patrick Wisdom, especially if Morel is competent at 3B and Madrigal or Mastrobuoni can be the backup.
Wisdom seems tailor-made to be Kris Bryant’s backup at 1B in Colorado.
I hear Rendon might be available to play 3B, or something like that.
Sure, at $37M/yr for the next three years, Rendon is a bargain. I’m surprised the Cubs haven’t offered Horton for him.
Especially since Rendon has such a pleasant and outgoing personality.
He’s getting killed on MLB satellite radio. The local media has been way too soft on him.
Yeah, I heard Spilly and Jensen Lewis eviscerating him this afternoon and suggesting that he just retire.
I wouldn’t listen to anything someone named Spilly has to say.
“Baseball has never been a priority for me” – Anthony Rendon, February 20th 2024.
Now that they’ve signed Dominic smith albeit a minor league shows that the are no longer interested in bellinger especially at $ he’s asking. Good luck to bellinger and Boris because list of interested teams going down eac day with spring games beginning
Signing Smith doesn’t take them out of the running for Bellinger.
Who will cave first? The Boras Four await their final verdict: Guilty of hiring the wrong agent.
Time to move on.
Padres miss another one. Good gosh where are they at?
Hey big spender
Funny thing is, either of the minor league signings the Cubs made would be huge improvements to the White Sox major league team. The White Sox aren’t even spending dough on table three
“The White Sox aren’t even spending”…The WhiteSox are clearly undergoing a rebuild and during a rebuild you typically don’t want to spend much money. Typically the focus during a rebuild is getting younger, leaner, trading older players, clearing or playing out expensive contracts and identifying helpful young players for the future.
My comment was clearly in response to the original poster. That said these are clearly the type of players the rebuilding teams should go for so they can flip them at the deadline. Or is 1.75 mil too much for you?
What are you watching? They would not be improvements at all. You would take Dom Smith over Andrew Vaughn? Or David Peralta over any of their outfielders Benintendi / Robert / Jimenez – Hell no. You’re wrong and ridiculous.
Cubs offseason has been an absolute disaster! If they think they won’t regress this year as things stand, they are kidding themselves! If you’re in a window in which you can compete you owe it to build on that with roster additions. They have instead lost key pieces and not improved AT ALL. Sorry but that japanese pitcher ain’t it.
Dominic Smith…it is time to retire, your a bum and you will always be a BUM!!!
Mets should have signed Dom over Luke Voit ! WTF?
Well they’re both washed out so what’s the difference?
So glad they signed Tominick Mysterio. He’s gonna do great with the Judgement Day.
If you were gonna sign a left handed first basemen to a minors deal I would have went with Joey Votto. To get him around the younger players if nothing else.