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.

•Re-Sign Seiya Suzuki

I watched every at bat Seiya took in 2026. A lot of them were poor, confusing, and just infuriating to watch. It felt like he always took the best pitch he would see every at bat. But it was also an incredibly intriguing season. Not only did he maintain an OPS in the mid-.800s with the ninth best WRC+ among qualified National Leaguers, but he introduced a wealth of new talent to his game. His walk rate was by far his best in his MLB career, at 12.8%, (91st percentile) to start. More blatantly, though, he was an above average defender for the first time in his career. We’re a little spoiled with the greatest defender in baseball being in our center field, so maybe Seiya didn’t stand out as much. Sure, it was easy to tell that he was making a lot less errors than before, but he was also getting a lot more outs than ever. In 2025, Seiya accumulated 0 outs above average, placing… well you know, in the middle. It was a lot better than his -3 OAA he put up in 2024, so at least he proved that he could hold down right field. But in 2026, he stepped his game up and got his OAA to 5, which placed him in the top ten percentile for all players. He’s a much more well-rounded player now, to say the least. To sum it up, ~.850 OPS players are hard to find on the open market, and any reasonable replacement we could find will likely just not be as strong of a player as Seiya Suzuki. Contract-wise, I have a hard time thinking that he’ll get five years. A lot of the corner outfielders that get five or more years are either a couple years younger than Seiya is now, or are some of the marquee players in the sport. I see two lanes for Seiya’s upcoming contract. Either it’ll be shorter term deal than many expect, probably at 3 years with a high AAV (think $25-$30M per year), or four years at $20-$25M per year. Which contract will be offered, I don’t know. But I strongly doubt that he’ll end up getting a nine-figure deal.

•Re-Sign Carson Kelly

Catchers are very hard to find. We do have Owen Ayers waiting in AAA, but it’s unreasonable to think that any catcher with no MLB experience can work effectively with MLB pitchers immediately. A lot of the reasoning behind keeping Seiya will be the same with keeping Kelly. If he’s a hard player to replace, why not just keep him? He’s only gonna be entering his age-32 season, so a multi year deal should be no problem. Well, as long as it’s reasonable. I think 2-3 years at a $10M AAV would be an appealing offer. Oh and not to mention, but he’s the clutchgod.

•Re-Sign David Peterson

We have so many pitchers entering free agency this offseason. So many. A lot of them probably need to move on to another chapter in their MLB career. Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga specifically should find a new team. No hard feelings, I just think their era as a Cub should probably end here. We do have a lot of starters we traded for mid-season who are entering free agency, and that might be more interesting. If the Cubs must pick one to come back, it should be David Peterson. Is he better than someone like Clay Holmes? The jury is still out on that. While Holmes was a great fit on paper, it’s hard to think that the ~$20M+ AAV he’ll likely get would be the best value. But Peterson will likely only get half that on a shorter term contract… with very similar production. They’re all short sample sizes, but Peterson actually had the best stretch of any starter the Cubs picked up mid-season. He would be a great 4/5 starter on this team for the next couple years.

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Was at the Lego store this past weekend in Old orchard and saw Seiya walk in. He was super nice and happily said yes to taking a pic. I asked him if he’ll be in Chicago next year and he said yes 👀👀

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Lets start with the players with options and what I would do with these players

• SP: Clay Holmes (33) – $12M player option - PRAY HE OPTS FOR FREE AGENCY
• SP/RP: Colin Rea (36) – $7M club option - DECLINE OPTION
• RP: Jacob Webb (33) – $2.5M club option - DECLINE OPTION
• SP: Matthew Boyd (35) – $15M mutual option - DECLINE OPTION
• C: Carson Kelly (32) – $7.5M mutual option - PICK UP OPTION
• RP: Hunter Harvey (31) – $8M mutual option - DECLINE OPTION
• RP: Caleb Thielbar (39) – $6M mutual option - DECLINE OPTION

Then you have these players who will be free agents and I will be honest I would not consider bringing any of them back

• SP: Shota Imanaga (33)
• SP: Kevin Gausman (35)
• SP: David Peterson (31)
• RP: Aaron Civale (31)
• OF: Ian Happ (32)
• OF: Seiya Suzuki (32)
• OF: Tyrone Taylor (32)
• OF: Michael Conforto (33)
• 1B/DH: Tyler Austin (35)

Now lets look at the positions the Cubs have and what they need to fill BOLD WILL BE MY SUGGESTIONS ADDED IN

Starting Lineup:

C: Carson Kelly (32) & Miguel Amaya (27)

1B: Michael Busch (28)

2B: Nico Hoerner (29)

SS: Dansby Swanson (32)

3B: Alex Bregman (32)

RF: Kevin Alcantara (24)

CF: Pete Crow Armstrong (24)

LF: STEVEN KWAN (29) - SUGGESTED

DH: RANDY AROZARENA (31) - SUGGESTED

Bench:

INF: Pedro Ramirez (22)

INF/OF: Matt Shaw

OF: MYLES STRAW - SUGGESTED

They will need to finally let Kevin Alcantara play on the daily and show what he truly has to offer and I truly believe him in RF makes the most sense for him. They also need to add clutch hitting at LF & DH they need players who can hit, make contact, have solid OBP, OPS, have speed and drive in RBIs. They also need a defensive OF bench spot, as a possible platoon option for RF.

DH Suggestion - Randy Arozarena (31) .255 BA .350 OBP .442 SLG .792 OPS 24 HR 80 RBI 27 SB average a season would be a solid consideration for a player whos been known as a solid hitter with power but a sub par defender

LF Suggestion - Steven Kwan (29) .282 .357 OBP .382 SLG .739 OPS 9 HR 53 RBI 18 SB average a season would be a solid trade target as he he hits well makes contact and is a great defender

OF Bench Suggestion - Myles Straw (31) he is mainly being a suggestion as a good defensive sub

Starting Rotation

1. Cade Horton (25)

2. Justin Steele (31)

3. Ben Brown (27)

4. JOE RYAN (30) - SUGGESTED

5. SONNY GRAY (36) - SUGGESTED

They need 2 veteran back of the rotation guys who can be reliable, avoid injuries and give quality starts and last 5+ innings so the bullpen is not over worked and be clutch down in a playoff pursuit.

Joe Ryan (30) 3.79 ERA 1.081 WHIP 211 K 189 IP average per season

Sonny Gray (36) 3.51 ERA 1.193 WHIP 194 K 195 IP average per season

Bullpen

1. Daniel Palencia (26)

2. Edward Cabrera (28)

3. Phil Maton (33)

4. Ryan Zeferjahn (28)

5. Javier Assad (29)

6. DAVID BEDNAR (32) - SUGGESTED

7. BRYAN ABREU (29) - SUGGESTED

8. EVAN PHILLIPS (32) - SUGGESTED

Now they do also still have Ryan Rolinson (29) but he has minor league options so starting him in AAA to work on his mechanics is best. Moving Edward Cabrera full time to the bullpen seems like the best move as he struggled as a starter, and working the off season to adjust the issues with Phil Maton and Daniel Palencia will be a priority. Ryan Zeferjahn and Javier Assad were two of your better arms and need to be the reliable middle relievers next year. What you need to add is 3 trusted arms of which any of the 3 may have to step into the setup man or closer role

David Bednar (32) - 3.03 ERA 1.133 WHIP 83 K 69 IP 26 SV average per season

Bryan Abreu (29) - 2.82 ERA 1.203 WHIP 94 K 70 IP 4 SV average per season

Evan Phillips (32) - 3.37 ERA 1.126 WHIP 78 K 67 IP 11 SV average per season

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Colin got to throw out the first pitch for the Hawkeye vs Jayhawks. He grew up about 20 miles down the road in Cascade and his college coach is the current head coach for the Hawkeyes. I may have freaked out just a bit.
Editing to add: Alex Cohen was also there (I think he did announcing for the broadcast)

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Doing a little sorting tonight.

Struck by this fun cross-section of the last 40 or so years of Cubs baseball.

New Orleans Saints head football coach and former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch of the game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago Cubs on July 5, 1998, in Chicago. (Frank Polich/AP)

Added the italics for sings

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I'm curious how hot his seat is getting. We fired Ross right as he was coming out of major rebuild and Counsell put up the exact same record the following year. He improved in year two and regressed in year three. Looking at our recent history:

• Counsell: 264-222; .543 win%, 4-6 in playoffs, won 2025 NLWC
• Ross: 262-284; .480 win% (with much of that being rebuilding), 0-2 in playoffs
• Maddon: 471-339; .581 win%, 19-17 in playoffs, won 2015 NLWC, 2015 NLDS, 2016 NLDS, 2016 NLCS, 2016 WS, 2017 NLDS
• Renteria: 73-89; .451 win%

First, I just want to acknowledge how much the two baseball franchises in Chicago hosed Rick Renteria. Hired to rebuild the Cubs, manages one season improved the team's wins by more than 10% during a rebuild. Canned and replaced by Maddon (that said, I am grateful we got Maddon and the ring). Then he his hired by the White Sox to rebuild their team, he gets through the rough of it and the team has significantly improved in his final season (albeit the COVID shortened season). Canned for La Russa who has a good first year with the team that Renteria has built up and then he tanks it the next year and is gone. Some team would be smart to hire him as a manager and let him have the time to field a good team.

Now, my actual question is how hot is Craig's seat? He has managed 3 seasons, we haven't beaten the Brewers, we missed the playoffs once, made it and got to the NLDS where we lost, and then we made it and were swept out of the WC. His win% is exactly what you get if you combine Maddon and Ross. Meaning he is about equally better than Ross as he was worse than Maddon in the win category. But Maddon got us results in the playoffs. And I know rosters play into it, but there are teams out there winning with rosters that aren't star studded like the Dodgers. Do they ride out the full contract or is next season make or break for him?

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If this actually happens, I would lose my mind.

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Thanks to the community for reminding me to order Pete Crow Crunch and supporting a good cause. Pete's favorite charity, the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago.

It only took four weeks to ship.

Go Cubs!