Cubswin11 wrote:Tryptamine wrote:Cubswin11 wrote:I believe he’d be available for KB. He can’t play defense and there’s no NL DH this year and they have Alonso. Idk why we’d be interested in him since he’s a fringe 1B at best and there’s no certainty a DH is coming to the NL for good anytime soon.
Because we have an aging 1B who is a FA next season and is going to want near 20M a year.
Rizzo isn’t getting $20 mil AAV and Smith is borderline unplayable defensively if he isn’t OPS’ing close to 1.000. And I think we extend Rizzo anyways so Smith doesn’t really fit. I’d rather target a different return for KB with the Mets or someone else.
I'm not sure I believe this but let me play devil's advocate. You essentially have 3 risks here:
- The risk that Smith isn't even functional at 1B/LF plus the risk that the DH doesn't come to the NL. UZR seems to not despise Smith at 1B, for as much as we can trust 1B UZR.
- The risk that a different return for Bryant is too far away or too low ceiling thanks to his minimal team control, inconsistent production, and most importantly, 20 million contract in a year where that is a poison pill.
- The risk that Bryant does not return to form and/or does not re-sign with the Cubs.
I can see a set of circumstances where Hoyer and co believe that 2020 Smith is at least close to the real article and that he could be a longer term Rizzo replacement, and that the current version of Bryant + pandemic finances mean that's by far the most production/upside he's going to get in trade, and that they're pessimistic about Bryant's long term future(productivity, contract, or both).
This also assumes that Rizzo is not getting extended, which is maybe me wishfully projecting my hopes onto the situation(unless he's taking very short years and/or a fairly extensive pay cut).
