Fowler will probably opt out of his deal and be a free agent. Cubs will likely not re-sign him.
So, barring any trades, I think you're looking at Schwarber, Almora and Heyward in the outfield, with Soler and Szczur backing up.
Rizzo, Zobrist, Russell and Bryant are the infield, with Baez and LaStella backing up.
Contreras and Montero are your catchers, probably with Contreras getting the majority of the starts and Montero filling Ross's role.
In free agency, the Cubs might look for a backup catcher if they don't think Montero can do it any more or possibly a 4th outfielder type if they think they can find someone better than Szczur, but I think they'll probably not be very active in free agency.
I hear this about Strop all the time from other Cubs fans and I just don't get it. The guy had a bad first half of the year with Baltimore back in 2013, but has otherwise been about as consistent a middle reliever as there's been in baseball over the last 5 or 6 seasons.
His ERAs with the Cubs:
2013: 2.83
2014: 2.21
2015: 2.91
2016: 2.70
What exactly is there to complain about?
As for the rest of the bullpen, Cubs relievers are fourth in the league in ERA, a half run lower than league average. Rondon, Strop, Wood, and Cahill have all been excellent. They're all 28 to 31, in the prime of their careers. No real reason to think they'll fall off. It's easy to forget that both Wood and Cahill were All Star starting pitchers.
Grimm and Warren have both pitched below expectations. Given their talent level, past results, and the small sample size (about 25 innings) this year, they are both quite likely to pitch better over the course of the rest of the season than anyone brought in to replace them would.
Richard is just a place holder and it's only a matter of time before he's replaced by Matusz or someone else. He's pitched a grand total of 12 innings this year. It's not like the 1 inning every 5 or 6 games that he's pitched makes a big difference in the grand scheme of things.
Sure, getting a Miller or a Chapman would be awesome, but I don't know why anyone should have "zero confidence" in the Cubs middle relief.
So.........how's that bullpen looking to you right about now, after you shredded apart my post from last month?
I didn't think what the starters were accomplishing was sustainable over the course of a 162 game season, and they seem to have plateaued just shy of 70 games. To boot, the early season numbers from the relief staff were misnomers, as is proving to be the case.
That's two straight games in a row, against cellar-dwelling teams in the N.L., at home, no less, with Cahill blowing it against the Reds on Wednesday (that's not all on Cahill........Maddon is just as culpable), and your supposed *ACE* reliever, Rondon, blowing yet another save opportunity yesterday in the 9th against the lowly Braves, right after your team, powered by the inspired rookie Contreras, just made a comeback in the 8th inning.
Been following this franchise for 40 years. There will always be doubts in the back of the mind of any longtime Cubs fan, regardless of the empirical evidence belying such suspicions. And now with the recent tailspin, from the pitching and hitting, we have some evidence to support those claims. The $64K questions is: how temporary is it? After all, most contenders go through dry spells.
But here's a stat for you: after getting off to a 25-6 start to the season, the Cubs have played .500 ball over the last 8 weeks (27-27), so it's hardly just a "recent" lull in production.
That said, they are obviously in the postseason conversation, barring a major meltdown in the 2nd half.
Still......anything short of Epstein & Co. acquiring a rock solid lefty reliever and an additional lefty pitcher (spot starter/middle reliever) over the next few weeks is a recipe for an early exit in October. In the end, it may not matter much if the starters under-perform the way they have been in the last few weeks.
In fact, I still think the core group of young hitters on the active roster are too inexperienced to demonstrate the requisite plate patience come October to be difference-makers against the likes of flame throwers from Washington, New York and San Francisco. Hope I'm wrong!
I still think better days lie ahead for a franchise blessed with a wealth of productive hitters, most of whom should be donning Cubbie blue for a long time to come. And there are still more in the pipeline (Happ, McKinney, et al). They'll just have to grow up a little faster than normal while we still have something resembling a good starting rotation, and that window will keep growing shorter, barring major acquisitions and unloading some young talent.
My two cents!
