An interesting piece out of Los Angeles on the Dodgers’ offseason from Mark Saxon, who expects the Dodgers – now a year into their new front office – to be extremely active this offseason. I suppose that was true last offseason, too, though you can definitely see why, with a year of additional familiarity, they’d be at least as active this time around.
In Saxon’s piece, among many other things, he writes that free agent Zack Greinke will “probably” not be back with the Dodgers next year thanks to a team policy not to sign or extend pitchers after age 30 who’ve thrown more than a certain number of pitches. Saxon adds that, despite presumptions to the contrary, the “signals” given off by the team do not lean toward Greinke being back.
That’s all interesting in its own right – if Greinke doesn’t return, do the Dodgers throw sacks of money at David Price? – but I though it also an appropriate opportunity to mention that Greinke has popped up in a large number of Cubs-related reports over the last couple weeks. For example here … and here … and here … and here … and here. And there’s the fact that the Cubs’ front office reportedly met with Greinke’s reps last week (among many other free agents, mind you).
None of that is to say that the Cubs are definitely in aggresively on Greinke, but I thought it important to note all the reports in one place given that – admittedly – I came into this offseason openly assuming that the Cubs would not be involved with Greinke in any way, given his age, mileage, and expected price tag. It seems I was wrong about that, and, if nothing else, Greinke could actually be a legitimate option for the Cubs.
And, as Michael explored in greater depth last week, there are reasons to believe Greinke, who turned 32 last month, could be among the better aging top tier starters.
Don’t go getting yourself all excited or anything, but, all in all, I think it’s pretty reasonable at this point to keep Greinke and Greinke-related rumors on your radar. I still suspect he’s probably lower on the priority list for the Cubs (unless he winds up costing much, much less than expected), but you never know how the offseason will shake out.