Post by Corndog on May 21, 2016 10:44:07 GMT -5
I'm a bit concerned that Theo will cave in to this "win now" mode talk. He promised us sustained success. Trading young guys for a reliever and adding payroll is counterproductive to that end.
Financial aspects matter in trades. If you add another high dollar amount to the payroll, then you might as well forget about any realistic chance to sign our best pitcher to an extension. These young players will need extensions in 3 years or so. Right now, we really don't NEED anything. We do need a capable starter at the AAA level, someone who can be depended on when 3/5ths of our rotation disappears in two years. We don't have that guy. Maybe Warren could take one spot, but that still leaves two big holes in the starting rotation in a free agent market where starters are hard to come by. Strassburg was pretty much the only legit starter in next years free agent market. He signed an extension already with the Nationals. More and more superstars are resigning with their teams to extensions. We need to plan out the finances, so we can keep our own stars, then build from within to fill the holes.
I believe part of building up the minor league system is to put yourself into a position of being able to go "all in" ... And I don't think it goes against the plan at all.. Maybe it'll be a "lesser" add... But I'm confident Theo and crew are always trying to find ways to improve the roster AND the entire system... Everything is calculated.
Exactly, part of building the minor league system was also to be able to trade for top players and go "all in" when needed. At this point, there is no way every top prospect on this team will make it to the majors, they will be blocked by the ML players. We are already starting to see it with Almora and Candelario.
Although this also gives the Cubs the luxury of trading players on the 25 man roster and having players that can fill those spots. I know some people here will hate this comparison, but it will be like the Cardinals. They lose quality starting position players and are able to fill them with prospects from their minor league system. They also manage to trade for players vs buying a lot of players, because of their farm system. The Cubs aren't going to keep everyone on this current team. So it's always nice to have prospects that can either fill the spots themselves or be traded to fill the position.
As far as getting a lefty specialist, I really don't expect it to cost us the farm, so there is no reason to panic.