Real Baseball Arrives This Week, Bourjos Departs, Young Player Extensions, and Other Bullets

Working while on vacation with the family is do-able, though this is the first time I’ve done it since we upgraded to three kids. But with one of the kiddos sick (hopefully on the mend), the challenge of balancing everything is … robust. My hope remains that you won’t notice many differences this week, and also that I get lots of quality time with the family.

• There is regular season baseball this week! The Cactus League ended this weekend, and the Cubs will have a couple exhibition games in Florida against the Red Sox today and tomorrow. Then it’s regular season time, Thursday morning at 11:40 am CT against the Marlins. REAL BASEBALL, BABY. THIS WEEK.
• (Also, assuming no sickness derails it, I will be in Miami for the opener, hopefully seated as close to the home run sculpture as humanly possible, not only to admire the beautiful, absurd piece of art, but also to catch all of the Cubs ricochets.)

• Good deal for Peter Bourjos – after learning that he wouldn’t make the Cubs’ Opening Day roster on his minor league deal, the Cubs let him go pursue a new contract, and he landed a big league deal with the Braves.
• Sahadev Sharma wrote about a range of one-off Cubs items from the close of Spring Training, and it’s all good. The potential impact of a new-and-improved Kyle Hendricks curveball has me giddy.
• Speaking of Sahadev …

TFW there's so much beauty in the world, you feel like you can't take it. @sahadevsharma pic.twitter.com/SRj3wL9fd8

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 25, 2018

• The Scott Kingery extension is interesting for so many reasons, and continues the recent trend of reshaping our expectations for young player extensions (among other things, they’ve become much longer again in the wake of free agents feeling the effects of the current CBA). The Phillies get the first six years of Kingery’s career for no more than $24 million, an AAV of just $4 million. The overall hit if he totally flops is low. The annual hit is also extremely low, especially in what would have been arbitration years that, if he hits, would have been $10+ million annually. And if he becomes only a utility guy? Well, then it’s still a fine deal.
• Like Luis said yesterday, the Cubs don’t have a no-service-time parallel for this deal, but it does reiterate that the market for youngster extensions is shifting. You’d love to see the Cubs able to lock up a young position player or two, not only for the control and possible savings, but also for the certainty it provides for AAV/luxury tax planning. The rub is that any long-term deal that kicks in this year will move the Cubs’ payroll for luxury tax purposes this year up. The Cubs do have a little bit of space to work with that (probably $5 million or so, if they want to preserve at least $8 million in mid-season flexibility; note: releasing Justin Grimm when the Cubs did saved a little under $2 million).
• More on the Cubs’ new backup catcher:

"I thought the best way to train was to be here early. I had good workouts and worked hard."#Cubs No. 8 prospect Victor Caratini spent the offseason in Arizona and it may have helped him win a roster spot: https://t.co/T97UxOqvB4 pic.twitter.com/JgXAWb7CVs

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 25, 2018

• Jed Hoyer reiterated to the Tribune that the Cubs are aware they need to monitor Caratini’s playing time for development purposes. You can develop as a backup in the big leagues, but you do also have to play semi-regularly for that to happen. If it isn’t working out, the Cubs can always re-assess with respect to Chris Gimenez, the veteran backup who will head to AAA Iowa to start the season.
• Former Cub Munenori Kawasaki is retiring from baseball. PLEASE COME JOIN THE CUBS IN SOME WAY!
• Bryzzo…kay … :

Bryzzo…kay… pic.twitter.com/ghLtnoNlmb

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 25, 2018

• If you missed anything this weekend, catch yourself up by scanning the headlines here.
• A whole bunch of toys/games are the Deal of the Day at Amazon.
• Fanatics flipped a bunch of new Cubs stuff to clearance today, so you’ll want to peruse here:

Fanatics just flipped a whole bunch of extra Cubs stuff to clearance today only: https://t.co/cNdXaA2CC8 pic.twitter.com/5EUwP8Hp2P

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 26, 2018