Chicago Cubs 2025

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#1,551      
So the new goal appears to be to stay ahead of the Reds for the last wildcard spot. Then Imanaga, Boyd, and ... Taillon? Bullpen day? ... in the playoffs. Either a) Cassie, Alcantara, Long, Ballesteros, Triantos are all so good they will be in the bigs next year so Jed wouldn't trade them or b) so over rated that no one wanted them, or c) Jed just sucks at his job.

The Cubs are a good team this year, but the holes are so obvious, yet nothing. I am severely bummed.
Unless this post is sarcasm going right over my head, how can you believe the bolded to be true with Chicago 1 game behind Milwaukee for the division (the 2nd best winning percentage in MLB), with the Brewers not making any [major] noise at the deadline?

Edit: Brewers added RP Shelby Miller and backup C Danny Jansen.
 
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#1,554      
Unless this post is sarcasm going right over my head, how can you believe the bolded to be true with Chicago 1 game behind Milwaukee for the division (the 2nd best winning percentage in MLB), with the Brewers not making any [major] noise at the deadline?

Edit: Brewers added RP Shelby Miller and backup C Danny Jansen.
The Cubs have 2 decent starting pitchers. They play a 5 game series against Milwaukee soon. I expect/fear my point will be made then.
 
#1,555      
Way to go, Jed. Really earned your extension today

Sarcastic Sarcasm GIF
 
#1,556      
Underwhelming to say the least.

Figure Soroka takes Brown’s spot in the rotation. Kittredge and Rogers replace Presley (just DFA’d) and Flexen (ditto). Castro probably takes Ballesteros’ spot who just replaced Brujan (DFA’d).

A very Hoyer trade deadline. Improve on the margins, raise the floor without raising the ceiling.

This looks like an organization very content to play for a wildcard spot.
 
#1,558      
This reminds me of when we got Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez (Almost)
Randall Simon came too in a different trade, but still from the Pirates.
 
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#1,559      
So the new goal appears to be to stay ahead of the Reds for the last wildcard spot. Then Imanaga, Boyd, and ... Taillon? Bullpen day? ... in the playoffs. Either a) Cassie, Alcantara, Long, Ballesteros, Triantos are all so good they will be in the bigs next year so Jed wouldn't trade them or b) so over rated that no one wanted them, or c) Jed just sucks at his job.

The Cubs are a good team this year, but the holes are so obvious, yet nothing. I am severely bummed.
I think C+. Jed doesn’t suck at his job, but he isn’t particularly good at it either. I think Cubs were willing to trade some of those guys — Alcantara, Long and Triantos — but they weren’t enough to pull a big name SP. Looking at what WSox got for Houser, I can’t believe Cubs couldn’t get that deal done. Not a big name SP, but he would have helped. I’ve said it before, but I really think the lack of pitching prospects hurt the Cubs. Seems like at least 70 percent of the prospects traded were pitchers.

Cubs are a better team than they were, but still disappointed in Jed’s trade deadline performance. I’m glad they kept Caissie, Rojas and Wiggins, but I would have been fine with anyone else being traded cuz they aren’t can’t miss guys. Look at Curtis Mead. He was the #33 prospect in all of baseball in 2023 and #55 in 2024. Today he was traded (along with two other minor leaguers) for Adrian Houser.
 
#1,560      
Cardinals fan here with one simple question for you cubbie's fans.......

who won the deadline deals trade scenario ?.............Cubs or Brewers ?????........... inquiring minds want to know ............
 
#1,563      
Jed did fine. Can’t mortgage the future. Things are cheaper in the off season. They have what it takes to play in October. Shaw is going to be good. So is Cassie
I agree. We did what we needed to do, get pieces without gutting the future. Build from within always works. We did not need a starting pitcher especially what teams were asking. I am content with Shota, Jamo, Boyd, Horton and either Sokora/Brown. Assad will be a nice piece in the pen and the Kittridge will be a solid late game guy. Castro strengthens our bench. We can win with this team.
 
#1,564      
Cardinals fan here with one simple question for you cubbie's fans.......

who won the deadline deals trade scenario ?.............Cubs or Brewers ?????........... inquiring minds want to know ............
Cubbies, based simply on the fact that Nestor Cortes is now off Milwaukee's roster. He's been lights-out during his rehab.

With that said, I'll still take MILW to win the division.....based upon their remaining starting pitching.
 
#1,565      
I think C+. Jed doesn’t suck at his job, but he isn’t particularly good at it either. I think Cubs were willing to trade some of those guys — Alcantara, Long and Triantos — but they weren’t enough to pull a big name SP. Looking at what WSox got for Houser, I can’t believe Cubs couldn’t get that deal done. Not a big name SP, but he would have helped. I’ve said it before, but I really think the lack of pitching prospects hurt the Cubs. Seems like at least 70 percent of the prospects traded were pitchers.

Cubs are a better team than they were, but still disappointed in Jed’s trade deadline performance. I’m glad they kept Caissie, Rojas and Wiggins, but I would have been fine with anyone else being traded cuz they aren’t can’t miss guys. Look at Curtis Mead. He was the #33 prospect in all of baseball in 2023 and #55 in 2024. Today he was traded (along with two other minor leaguers) for Adrian Houser.
Agree with this.
 
#1,566      
Knowing that we have only have Tucker for the rest of the season, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of urgency. They could have easily gotten a Merrill Kelley type of SP. Not saying that would have put them over the top, but it would have helped. This team will make the playoffs, but I don't see them doing anything much more than that.
 
#1,568      
Knowing that we have only have Tucker for the rest of the season, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of urgency. They could have easily gotten a Merrill Kelley type of SP. Not saying that would have put them over the top, but it would have helped. This team will make the playoffs, but I don't see them doing anything much more than that.
We do not know that about Tucker. Why do we need a starting pitcher when we have one main piece coming back in a week? Teams were asking too much for rentals. We desperately needed relief pitchers. We got three solid pieces. We got a super utility guy and gave up virtually nothing in all these trades. I think this was a very successful deadline for us. Pressly is gone. Huge upgrade. We now will have Sokora, Kittridge, Rogers, Palencia, Keller, Braiser, Pomeranz and Thielbar as our 8 guys. Assad can be worked in the mix as well. We upgraded the bullpen and that will pay off in September.
 
#1,569      
I love all these armchair GMs that come out at the deadline (myself included). We did exactly as expected - a SP, two bullpen arms, and a utility position player and tbh, it's nice that we did it without selling any top prospects. Cubs have a loaded farm system right now and just my opinion, but I didn't think there was anyone out there worth selling out for besides maybe Mason Miller.
 
#1,570      
Jed did fine. Can’t mortgage the future. Things are cheaper in the off season. They have what it takes to play in October. Shaw is going to be good. So is Cassie
The can’t mortgage the future argument is a cop out. There is a big difference between mortgaging the future and not being aggressive enough. Not being willing to trade Shaw and/or Caissie (which was the right move) squashed any hope for a #1 pitcher, but there were plenty of players moved who would have helped the Cubs. In all, I think only 2 maybe 3 top 100 players were traded. So how did these other GMs get players without mortgaging their teams’ futures. Not asking him to step into AJ Preller land, but he needed to get more aggressive in packaging players outside the top 100. Keep the 5 prospects who are in the top 100, but put together better/larger packages to get players that could have made more of a difference.

There will likely be more prospects from the Cubs 6-30 list that will be below average major leaguers than not. Sure some of them will be good players, but when? Wilfri de la Cruz was one I was hoping not to lose — more so than most guys that were ranked higher in the 6-30 group. But he’s 17 and projected not to sniff the majors until 2030. If you can improve a team with real aspirations now, you do it. I would have no problem having 3 or 4 fewer #6-30 prospects if it meant another pitcher that could really help. But by all means hang on to prospects who very possibly won’t be part of the future anyway to disregard the present.
 
#1,571      
I love all these armchair GMs that come out at the deadline (myself included). We did exactly as expected - a SP, two bullpen arms, and a utility position player and tbh, it's nice that we did it without selling any top prospects. Cubs have a loaded farm system right now and just my opinion, but I didn't think there was anyone out there worth selling out for besides maybe Mason Miller.
Yeah, none of the impact, controllable starters were delt, suggesting the prices were crazy. We weren't going to give up a top 10 prospect for a rental, which is probably wise in the long run. I imagine that in 2 years we'll be glad we were conservative, but if we fade in September again...
 
#1,572      
I love all these armchair GMs that come out at the deadline (myself included). We did exactly as expected - a SP, two bullpen arms, and a utility position player and tbh, it's nice that we did it without selling any top prospects. Cubs have a loaded farm system right now and just my opinion, but I didn't think there was anyone out there worth selling out for besides maybe Mason Miller.
I agree with a SP, 2 RP's and a Bench Guy but the SP had to be better. They could have at least gotten Houser or Kelly without selling the farm and made an improvement in the rotation Hopefully, I'm wrong and Soroka's decent analytics show up in the next 2 months.

Although not very seemingly relevant now, I still think this all was a money issue. The Cubs could have gotten a top of the rotation guy in the offseason but didn't because they wanted the flexibility to spend at the deadline if they were good. Why was it so important to not go over the salary cap this year? Because some idiot in the front office miscalculated and they went over the cap by less than $1M last year. 2 years in a row and they would have been penalized even more. I realize that Ricketts has a right to be fiscally responsible but what other large market team is? As I stated prior, do you think that the guy who will take over for Reinsdorf is going to be fiscally responsible?????

They just didn't want to part with their controllable minor leaguers (with an emphasis on "controllable").
 
#1,573      
Yeah, none of the impact, controllable starters were delt, suggesting the prices were crazy. We weren't going to give up a top 10 prospect for a rental, which is probably wise in the long run. I imagine that in 2 years we'll be glad we were conservative, but if we fade in September again...
In 2 years there will be a major lockout.
 
#1,574      
Yeah, none of the impact, controllable starters were delt, suggesting the prices were crazy. We weren't going to give up a top 10 prospect for a rental, which is probably wise in the long run. I imagine that in 2 years we'll be glad we were conservative, but if we fade in September again...
I disagree with this in that there isn’t a Cubs prospect in the 6-10 range that I wouldn’t have traded to get a good SP rental. Sure I’m not trading 3 or 4 of them for one, but Jed needed to be more aggressive and package one or even two depending on pitcher. I have no problem with the deals he made, and team is better. He needed to make one more though.
 
#1,575      
I wanted another starting pitcher even if it was another Sorotka middle of the rotation rental. Just getting Soroka tells me the Cubs think:

A. Taillon and/or Assad will be back and effective relatively soon.
B. Boyd isn’t going to run out of gas despite throwing his most innings in a season since 2019.
C. Horton and/or Brown aren’t on as strict of innings limits as many of us suspect.

If any of the above are not true, they needed to get another starter.

They need 54 more starts. It looks like they think they’ll get 42-ish from Imanaga, Boyd, Taillon and Soroka.
 
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