r/CHICubs • u/ChiSportsFan94 • 1d ago

My Number One Target:

Post image

I keep seeing who we need to re-sign, but Adrian Morejon is my target. I want him badly. 27-years-old, lights out over the last 3 years, and has been stuck behind Mason on the depth chart. Give me this guy as our closer.

127 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

79

u/jercubsfan Chicago Cubs 1d ago

Him, Michael King, and a corner outfielder of your choosing and it's a great off-season

19

u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe Pat Hughes Enjoyer 1d ago

With how many pending free agents you’ll have that’s a good start but the team has way more than 3 holes.

9

u/jercubsfan Chicago Cubs 1d ago

Of course, there's plenty of fringe moves that Jed needs to make (especially arms) but if you add the above 3 and then add fringe guys in addition... Great off-season

2

u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe Pat Hughes Enjoyer 1d ago

Boyd, Imanaga, Holmes, Peterson, and potentially Rea are all gone. Only a chronic injury Ben Brown, Assad, and Cabrera remain along with a theoretically healthy Steele.

Plus Happ/Suzuki/Taylor and maybe Kelly leaving.

Plus the majority of the bullpen turning over. Palencia, Zeferjahn, and Rollison are the only guys still under contract that isn't an option or likely cut (Maton) situation.

Hodge and Horton will technically be mid-year additions depending on how bad their situations were individually. Horton's was worst case at a 14 monther apparently.

Lots of re-assembly and who knows how a lockout fucks with free agency/guys training.

42

u/dsalmon1449 Chicago Cubs 1d ago

Morejon, Palencia healthy, and Zeferjahn actually being good would be a great start.

1

u/Eli_Renfro 13h ago

How long is Zeferjahn under team control for?

1

u/dsalmon1449 Chicago Cubs 12h ago

5 years technically. He debuted in 24

32

u/AndrewLucksLaugh 1d ago

Plus they'll have, like, 16 months to get a deal done!

7

u/oliyoung Loveable Loser 1d ago

Only bright side, that Dodgers roster ain’t getting younger

1

u/StevieWonder557 1d ago

That lineup looks really old verse a much more hungry Brewer's lineup

0

u/Drclaw411 smh 1d ago

The one time the Dodgers could have helped baseball by winning (by giving more ammunition to the lockout), they do…this.

3

u/c4ctus FIRE THE BULLPEN. OUT OF AN ORBITAL RAILGUN. INTO TON 618. 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/WF7boIogNoMYfyEMfJ

10

u/AndrewAllStar888 #FlyTheW 1d ago

This front office just doesn’t do big reliever deals. The 2y/$15M contract we gave to Phil Maton was uncharacteristic, and that turned out terribly. Morejon might get close to a $20M AAV for a few years.

I think bullpen-wise, we just like to target cheap projects and try to turn them into something. It rarely works but it’s cheap

4

u/mk_hartman 1d ago

Yeah, and that's why that strategy happens every fucking year. I swear, for a large market team, they're definitely not run like one.

3

u/HollandHealy Let's play two 1d ago

I agree with the front office on this one. Relievers seem like NHL goalies in that other than a handful in the league at any given time you shouldn't give them much in terms of the length of contract. It's just so volatile.

1

u/fastassbluegras 1d ago

They were close to giving in to get tanner Scott. Hopefully they learned a lesson and will go however many years a deal takes.

1

u/Bennie-Factors 22h ago

Why did we ever give home that? What start made it feel like he was worth a little over 6% of our season salary?

1

u/WarmAd911 11h ago

This front office just doesn’t do big reliever deals.

I don’t know if Jed will actually change but from his press conference he’s seem to have realized that this isn’t the way to go anymore and has acknowledged how bad the bullpen has been

11

u/cubrunner34 1d ago

Eh would be nice but free agent relievers are such a crap shoot. Exactly why jed doesnt give big contracts to relievers. BUT something needs to change and im and so damn sick of having a bullpen thats a liability. Its really been Jed’s biggest issue imo

3

u/AssocProfPlum 1d ago

Need to target and actually hang onto prospects with the arms that can profile to be relievers. I honestly think Jed and Co have done about as well as you can building a bullpen year to year via free agency with how much variance there is with it. It’s just not the sign of a healthy pitching development organization to have to do that literally every year

2

u/cubrunner34 1d ago

His biggest Bullpen additions the last three offseasons have been pitiful As hell! Neris, Pressley, Maton all majorly sucked. Jed needs to do much better.

2

u/Exatraz Pete Cookie Armstrong 22h ago

Yeah, I think id rather spend the money on scouting and development programs for pitchers. Surely investing $15 mil more a year should help make them better in the long run so they don't torch money on guys that don't work out.

4

u/NumerousFly7490 1d ago

But his bargain bin shopping also doesn't work very well. It has its moments but they need to actually invest in the BP either via money or via trading some youth that is blocked

6

u/SwedishLovePump Stupid Sexy Rizzo 1d ago

His bargain bin shopping has worked great. Two years ago Porter Hodge, Tyson Miller, and Jorge Lopez were one of the best back 3s in all baseball after the ASB. Then he completely rebuilt the pen and Thielbar, Pomeranz, Keller, and Palencia were once again one of the best bullpens in baseball. It doesn’t work when we have an entire pitching staff of guys on the IL, but no strategy is.

1

u/Drclaw411 smh 1d ago

If those are your best relief pitchers, you’re not winning shit. Even that insanely stacked 2016 team doesn’t win fuck all had they not traded for Chapman, and he was barely enough.

2

u/AssocProfPlum 1d ago

I think enough time has passed that we can admit Joe mismanaged the heck out of Chapman during the playoff run

7

u/OkFlow4327 1984 Cubs Fan 1d ago

Jed's too cheap to sign him

13

u/Material-Heron6336 1d ago

Not cheap, just poor decision making at times. We’re spending just not seeing the results.

4

u/OkFlow4327 1984 Cubs Fan 1d ago

true, maton, priestly, naris, etc...

6

u/FlatTopTonysCanoe The Professor 1d ago

I’d bet a good amount Jed’s going to have to adjust his philosophy a little now that it’s resulted in the worst pitching staff in the majors tanking the momentum for the best everything else in the majors. If this year hasn’t proven you can’t compensate for bad pitching idk what will. Statistically has there ever been a better performing team with dead last pitching?

2

u/c4ctus FIRE THE BULLPEN. OUT OF AN ORBITAL RAILGUN. INTO TON 618. 1d ago

The pitch lab is hungry for souls UCL tendons.

2

u/Key_Environment8179 Derrek Lee 1d ago

It’s not Jed’s money lol

1

u/OkFlow4327 1984 Cubs Fan 1d ago

he spends it like it is his on shit players

2

u/ptbnl34 1d ago

Seems like he’s been rode hard and put away wet. Just because he’s been great the past three years doesn’t mean his arm won’t fall off next season.

2

u/StevieWonder557 1d ago

I just watch in awe that Brewers shutdown bullpen. Oh to dream

1

u/CuriousCubSixteen Baaah 1d ago

The guy who blew game 1 of the NLDS and then didn't pitch for the rest of the series? There was a picture going around of him with a swollen hand, probably punched something, but was out with "shoulder stickiness" lol

1

u/ShirlLotJack 1d ago

I believe the club that offers Morejon the opportunity to be in the starting rotation (along with the bag of money) will have the best odds of signing him.

1

u/Chewalk Eat fried chicken until death 1d ago

I want Kaima Taira

1

u/Omnipootent 1d ago

He is far too established for our bullpen, reclamation projects only sorry

1

u/BassmanUW 1d ago

I love the idea of bringing in Morejon… only potential issue is I’ve heard he wants to be a starter, so he might be looking for an opportunity to do that. Maybe willing to take a shorter term deal for a team willing to give him a shot at that?

1

u/aidanpryde98 1d ago

I’m fine with project relievers. But not the closer. If they truly can’t figure out what’s up with Palencia, it’s time to bite the bullet.

1

u/BigDaddyPeach23 #FlyTheW 1d ago

Yes on Morejon, but make him a starter.

1

u/bearmastersupreme 1d ago

I mean mines Tarik Skubal, because I live in wirgleyville Christmasland. But this is a solid choice too

1

u/prodigalsuun21 1d ago

He got hurt just from you mentioning him as a Cub.

1

u/yungvisionary19 1d ago

I haven’t thought about free agent pitchers much at all, really. The organizational pitching infrastructure is the highest priority and it must improve before we can even comprehend deep playoff runs.

1

u/thebizkit23 1d ago

He's had 3 fantastic seasons in a row. He's going to command 20+ million, if it wasn't for Matons horrible deal I could see us signing him but committing 30+ million to two relievers is a huge risk.

1

u/extendedsolo 1d ago

Not for that price when they need so so many arms down there. 

1

u/ArodIsAGod 1d ago

We’ll see if there’s room in the cap…

1

u/bob_newhart_of_dixie Chicago Cubs 23h ago

I've been crowing about this for the past two seasons.

1

u/tmet1027 Derrek Lee 13h ago

How about draft and develop

1

u/WarmAd911 11h ago

I hope Jed finally breaks his not believing in closers for once and signs this guy

1

u/Cal-Run 5h ago

Why? High dollar FA contracts for relievers RARELY, if ever, work out.

1

u/Distinct_Discount534 6h ago

We're going to get a Temu version of this guy

1

u/Drclaw411 smh 1d ago

The front office has openly said not paying relievers is an organizational philosophy. They’ll sign inexpensive, soft throwing bad pitchers, and Tom will give some money to Donald while choosing the next rooftop or restaurant to purchase.

1

u/thebizkit23 1d ago

Except they literally spent 14 million dollars on one reliever last off season.....

1

u/boss_flog 11h ago

who was intended to be a starter

1

u/thebizkit23 11h ago

Phil Maton was never intended to be a starter...

1

u/AvonBarksDoodle 1d ago

all we need is to sign: kelly, tyrone taylor, randy arozoraena, merojon, david peterson, clay holmes, shota and ill be happy