Lukewarm Stove: Giants and Cardinals Spending, Bradley, Heyward, Chapman, More

old stove featureClosing down the week with some rumor bits to check out. If you missed the qualifying offer decisions and attendant discussion today, here it is. Also, a bit on Ben Zobrist and the Cubs.

  • We’ve touched on this before, but to confirm it a bit: multiple reports indicate that the Giants will be in on David Price. The market is loaded with interesting pitching options, so it’s not like the Giants have to get a Price or a Zack Greinke, but consider that not only do the Giants have a clear rotation need (or three), they’re also flush with cash. They’re going to be huge bidders this offseason, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see them land multiple top tier free agents (on the pitching side for one, perhaps, and on the positional side for the other). They’ve got to keep up their even year World Series streak, after all.
  • Another team that’s likely to spend big this offseason, especially after Lance Lynn’s season ended before it began: the Cardinals. They need multiple starting pitchers, and it seems logical that at least one would be among the better available options. Buster Olney reports that they’re very interested in Ben Zobrist, and are also looking at the best pitchers on the market, including David Price and Zack Greinke.
  • The Padres sent quality reliever Joaquin Benoit to the Mariners, who were exceptionally active this past week.
  • Speaking of which, the Cubs (and Royals) were connected to Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley, Jr. earlier this week in a report out of Boston, and Jon Morosi adds that the Mariners are interested, too:
  • Also on Bradley, though I wouldn’t take this as gospel (just an interesting thought out of Boston):
  • Speaking of the Red Sox, they are very seriously interested in Reds closer Aroldis Chapman, according to the Boston Globe. We learned earlier that many around the league believe Chapman could be dealt as soon as this weekend. Even if not this weekend, I’ll go out on a limb and say he will be dealt at some point this offseason. The Reds simply have no reason to risk going into the season with him.
  • UPDATE: Well, unless the Red Sox are going to load up on dominant closers, they won’t be going after Chapman – they just picked up Craig Kimbrel.
  • Michael got into Jason Heyward as a possible Cubs target, and, after his write-up and Sahadev’s thoughts on the podcast, I’m much more into the idea of the Cubs pursuing Heyward as part of a broader offseason plan than I was this morning (and I was already into it, in a general sense). None of that is to say that the Cubs will actually pursue Heyward, mind you (and I’d go as far as to say it’s pretty unlikely). It’s just to say that, if they’re going to commit upwards of $200 million to one player this offseason, there are ways I can see it being smart to make that player Jason Heyward.
  • Patrick Mooney has a good bit more on the Cubs’ center field possibilities here, and we should have a little more on center field tomorrow.
  • A great look at Jeff Samardzija’s down 2015 season over at FanGraphs, and why there is still plenty of reason to believe he can be very good.
  • Jon Heyman’s latest has a whole bunch of stuff to digest, including his thoughts on how each of the top spending teams (including the Cubs, in Heyman’s estimation) will go this offseason. He says the Cubs are getting a lot of interest in Javier Baez.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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