[Seriously, people of the baseball world: stop doing things on Friday nights. I am writing this from a Christmas party.]
Well, you can scratch Brandon McCarthy off the wish list, as he just signed tonight with the Arizona Diamondbacks for two years and (just) $15.5 million. The Cubs obviously could have comfortably beat the D-Backs on that offer, which suggests one of three things (or all of them) is at work:
(1.) Teams are more scared off by his myriad injuries than we think;
(2.) McCarthy really wanted to pitch for a contender; and/or
(3.) The Cubs were trying to get McCarthy on the cheap.
I’ll have more thoughts on this later (immediate reaction is “ah, crap, that sucks”). But, you know, Christmas party.