Now the sadness begins. No baseball activity for likely a couple months, at the least. All the activity in signings, trades, roster moves, etc., have been stopped and likely will be for a while. Now, I'm no expert in the business part of MLB, including arbitration, agreements, unions, etc., but I can offer a short explanation of what is going on so you can understand.
- The CBA is the negotiated agreement between players and clubs (i.e., the team owners) that governs the working relationship between the two parties.
- Since that agreement ended Dec.1st, the owners can "lockout" the players until a new agreement is reached. That has been done, with the owners voting unanimously to do that until a new agreement is reached.
- Some downsides to this are: players cannot workout or rehab in baseball facilities, teams cannot communicate or connect with players, teams will be scrambling to sign remaining free agents and do trades close to the start of the season. These are just a few downsides I highlighted.
Locking out baseball activity is no new strategy. It's been going on for a while, but you don't realize it until you're stuck in it. Of course, Manfred and his cronies have a nice explanation for it all found here: A letter to baseball fans | MLB.com, but there is certainly a lot of "fluff" regarding it. Anyway, as much as I hate the lockout, and wish it wasn't happening, I can't do anything about it, so we have to deal with it.
However, that doesn't mean Cubbies Gazette is going to stop posting articles. On the contrary, we have some exciting new things planned...perhaps interviewing Cubs players? And, we'll have some time to evaluate the Cubs' roster and future moves.
So, the Cubs roster is at 39 right now, after adding Stroman and Hermosillo to the roster, and also signing 2 past minor-league players to minor league deals.
- The Cubs signed C PJ Higgins to a minor league deal. He's had great success in the minor leagues, batting .333/.458/.513 with a 167 wRC in Triple A this year. However, he struggled in the major leagues, batting a bad .043/.120/.043 in 23 AB. So, with him having 3 MiLB options left, I guess the Cubs wanted to take a chance, plus add that catching depth.
- The Cubs signed RHP Jonathan Holder to a minor league deal. The Cubs signed Holder last year, but he dealt with an injury all year long, so he had no pitching time this past year. He's pitched for 5 years with the Yankees, posting an overall 4.38 ERA, 21.7% K rate, and a 36.8% GB rate. So, with having only one MiLB option left, expect him to fit into the Cubs' bullpen plans.
Now, rumors don't have as much affect right now, since it'll probably be a couple months before any team can start signing again, but this one is still exciting to dream about. Carlos Correa. Here's the latest:
- According to insiders, the Correa suitors had come down to the Cubs and Yankees, but neither made a move to sign him before the lockout. The Cubs were involved in "active talks" with Correa, although Correa wasn't mandatory of getting signed before the lockout.
- Correa even reportedly called Baez up to see how the Cubs' organization treated him. Hopefully Baez had some good things to say!
- Correa would fill a big hole at shortstop and provide stellar defense and offense. That is needed even more now, seeing the Cubs have a mostly contact-based rotation like Stroman, Miley, Hendricks and Mills.
- Of course, the Yankees have been very liberal with money the last few years, and probably wouldn't hesitate to make an offer, but the Cubs have money to spend too, so it mainly comes down to if they want to spend that on Correa and if he prefers Chicago over New York.
Miguel Amaya had his Tommy John surgery this week, so all the best to his recovery and excited to see him in a Cubs uniform one of these years.
That's all for today, so at least we have a Stroman signing to keep Cubs fans happy!
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