Cubs Spring Training 2021

[Cubswin11]

[Bertz]

It's interesting that the NRI list is mostly just depth dudes rather than prospects. I expected to see Brennan Davis et al, since the minor league season for guys below AAA is pushed back a month.

I wonder if teams have been told not to do that, or if they just don't want guys like Davis down in AZ for 2.5 months prior to starting their seasons.

[Brian]

Marquee doing nightly shows from Arizona from tonight up to the start of games. Nice to see them starting to use the channel.

[Cubswin11]

[Bertz]

I really wish we had a 100% answer on how many options Alzolay has, because that goes a long way to determining how I feel about this

[Cubswin11]

With the 40-man crunch, they have to clear two spots for Jake and Marisnick and another for this alleged bullpen move that’s imminent.... I wonder if Ryan gets cut if he’s going to be delayed. With Chafin, Wieck and Steele already around that makes some sense plus he makes like $800,000 and if he’s cut now the team gets most of that. Which isn’t nothing and can go towards this new RP potentially.

[Bertz]

With the 40-man crunch, they have to clear two spots for Jake and Marisnick and another for this alleged bullpen move that’s imminent.... I wonder if Ryan gets cut if he’s going to be delayed. With Chafin, Wieck and Steele already around that makes some sense plus he makes like $800,000 and if he’s cut now the team gets most of that. Which isn’t nothing and can go towards this new RP potentially.

I believe I saw that as of tomorrow they can start 60 day DL-ing people. There's not 3 of those (that we know of), but that might account for 1 or 2 of those spots

[Cubswin11]

We all seem to have figured out this is probably going to have to be the way to get through the year with SP, but Jed is confirming it now.

[TomtheBombadil]

The prospects thing is interesting. The Mets, Dodgers, Giants, Twins, etc all have top prospects on the roster including from the low minors or none at all

On one hand, sure I would like to see the prospects. On the other, seems like a good idea to bury the 26th ranked farm system down the depth charts?

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[Cubswin11]

Not good, would assume the odds of him being ready by opening day are nearly zero.

[17 Seconds]

it actually feels weird seeing bryant in a cubs uniform now

[Brian]

[Cubswin11]

There were some questions if Adbert had an option or not, good to see he does have one. It’s obviously a sink or swim year for him but with a innings limit on him it’s nice to have the option for flexibility and may not be the worst thing to start him in Iowa or hold him back in Arizona or whatever. He’ll get his major league innings anyways. Or they can play the games with sending him up and down to keep the innings in line like the Dodgers do.

[Bertz]

There were some questions if Adbert had an option or not, good to see he does have one. It’s obviously a sink or swim year for him but with a innings limit on him it’s nice to have the option for flexibility and may not be the worst thing to start him in Iowa or hold him back in Arizona or whatever. He’ll get his major league innings anyways. Or they can play the games with sending him up and down to keep the innings in line like the Dodgers do.

Yeah, you have to think he likely starts out at Iowa now. That's fine, because like you said we know he'll be up eventually, and he was never going to make close to 30 starts anyway. Iowa's a better option than long relief IMO.

If we assume Adbert at Iowa and Wick opening on the DL out of caution, I'd guess this is the opening day pen?

CL - Kimbrel
SU - Workman
SU - Chafin
MRP - Adam
MRP - Winkler
MRP - TBD Righty (Holder or Stock)
MRP - TBD Lefty (Ryan, Wieck, or Morgan)
LRP - Underwood or Fenter

Those TBD spots I think are going to be the revolving doors for guys with options. We'll see a lot of cycling but I'd think Holder and Ryan will be first up? We might see a 9th reliever, which would probably be an opportunity to stash another out of options guy for low leverage innings.

[TomtheBombadil]

I'd like to see an Alzolay plan that's basically 1-3 innings in the first 10 starts (1 time through the lineup), 2-4 in the next ten (so up to 12 outs), and 3-5+ in the last 10

The option is nice to have but the competition for SP jobs isn't exactly stiff, there's no real reason to have him throw AAA innings, and there's always the shot the new CBA may not care so much for service time and the related games as we know

[CubinNY]

Brent is going wild on Twitter over Nico Hoerner’s ass and hips in bo pics. Yep, it’s spring training.

[Bertz]

Brent is going wild on Twitter over Nico Hoerner’s ass and hips in bo pics. Yep, it’s spring training.

Yeah it's... something

Speaking of Nico...Sharma and Mooney had a chat today in the Athletic. Not a ton of insight, but both guys sounded pretty confident Nico is making the team and the starting 2B unless he horsefeathers the bed in spring training.

[David]

brett is so cringe like 99% of the time lol

[TomtheBombadil]

I'm pro Hoerner as the starting 2B. He's easily the best defender there, doesn't strike out, the position as a whole put up a 91 wRC+ in 2020 so he doesn't need to set the world on fire etc

[Bertz]

Looks like some prospects have in fact been added to the roster. TBD who besides Davis.

[David]

nice angle

[Bertz]

Have to assume this was that weekend where there was a ton of buzz that a trade that was going down imminently.

[Bull]

https://twitter.com/BleacherNation/status/1365027864782000133?s=19

Have to assume this was that weekend where there was a ton of buzz that a trade that was going down imminently.

The article admits that they have no reason to believe that it was anything more than a random fan or ESPN employee

[TomtheBombadil]

The best pitching coach in baseball speaks! Hottovy shuts down the idea of opening a season in a 6 man rotation for some good reasons:



I'm permanently anti-6 man, feel like it's more competitive to go 4 and gain the bullpen arm and also in either situation maybe 8 or more guys are going to log starts anyway

[Bertz]

https://twitter.com/BleacherNation/status/1365027864782000133?s=19

Have to assume this was that weekend where there was a ton of buzz that a trade that was going down imminently.

The article admits that they have no reason to believe that it was anything more than a random fan or ESPN employee

Right. But, but even though it ended up being a prank, it likely set off all that buzz (due to KB calling around to get this confirmed/denied). Especially since those rumors primarily came from local sources.