2016 Winter Meetings (Day One)
It's time for the Winter Meetings!--in National Harbor, Maryland (for some reason).Last year at this time, the Cubs resigned Cahill, traded Castro to the Yanks for Warren, and signed Zobrist and Heyward.
This year, the Cubs have the luxury of coming off a 103-win championship season. And with the exception of Dexter Fowler, who might just show up at Spring Training, they have not suffered any major losses. After signing Jon Jay for a one-year $8m deal to support and test Almora's transition to every day CF, the big question seems to be if they're going to make a run at a top closer. Melancon is already reported to have received a number of offers (at least from the Giants and Nationals) in the 4yr/$60m range, which would not seem to put the Cubs out of it.
It's also likely that the Cubs will trade from their depth of position players to address their pitching needs. Chris Archer has been mentioned, provided that the Rays are not harboring any grudges about losing their former manager. In any event, if I were Soler, I would not buy a plane ticket to the Cubs Convention quite yet.
There was also the rumor from last week about a (highly unlikely) trade involving Arrieta and a minor leaguer or two for Justin Verlander and maybe some cash. He has 3 years and $84 million left on his recent extension with the Tigers but would have a guaranteed fourth year at $22m, if he finishes in the top five Cy Young voting in 2019--which I don't think anyone would complain about.
Keep an eye on the Twitter feed for the most outlandish rumors and small updates. If anything big happens, I'll post an update.
Go Theo!
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