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Cardinals Sign Steven Matz, Miguel Amaya's Injury, and Other Cubs Tidbits



 Ok. So much news and updates and rumors it is hard to sort through it all. The biggest news right now is that LHP Steven Matz signed with the Cardinals.


The Cubs had come down to the top 5 in offers to Matz, and although he would have been a nice addition to the rotation, I'm not too upset about it. I'm more upset he signed with the Cardinals... But apparently the Mets are pretty upset about it, and Steven Cohen took his wrath to Twitter: 


Alright, it's ok to be disappointed, but chewing out a players' agent...I wonder who's being more unprofessional here. 

Another big signing, this time with the White Sox, who signed yet another closer. I mean, having a bullpen full of closers isn't really necessary, and the White Sox are well on their way to doing that. Right now, they have 3 closers (Hendricks, Kimbrel, and now Graveman), although they'll be trading Kimbrel.


 Pretty soon they'll be signing Jansen, Iglesias, and all the closers on the market!

Another piece of big news was that MLB moved the tender deadline to November 30th.


The reasoning behind this is that tendered players can sign with a team before the lockout begins on December 2nd. So, likely there will be several tendered players who will be quickly signing with a team in two days. 

A couple rumors to chew over:


I still wouldn't mind the Cubs signing Gausman, but now I've come to the conclusion that it probably won' happen.

By the way, the Yankees released Frazier and Odor...I know the Cubs already got Ramirez, but would they target Frazier too?

 

My guess would be no, because other teams are likely to be more interested than the Cubs, and with young outfielders like Davis, Valezquez, and others ready to move up soon, it probably wouldn't be wise to have too many outfielders.

A big piece of Cubs news that is pretty discouraging:

 

That's pretty tough for a guy who hasn't really had any playing time the last couple years, and is supposed to be the heir to Contreras. Tommy John surgery can knock you out for at least 6 months, and even up to a year, so I'm not too optimistic that he'll even get any playing time in 2022.

That leads to the big question: are the Cubs going to extend Contreras? I really, really want them to, and now with Amaya held back, they can't really afford to lose their main catcher. So, bad news there, and also shows a weakness in the Cubs farm system.

A lot of news, and likely more to come, so stay tuned on Cubbies Gazette, and get the latest news if you follow me on Twitter.

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