Torreyes Roster Impact, Non-Tenders Loom, Chicago Owners, and Other Bullets

On Tuesdays, Thursday, and Fridays, I take The Littlest Girl to her school downtown, and then work somewhere during the day down there, pick her up at the end of the day and head back home to the suburbs. It works well, especially because there’s a gym right there where I can work out in the morning, too. The only rub is that on especially rough workout days, I’m absolutely soaked and gross, and then I get to sit in it all day. I’ve started bringing a change of clothes, but then it’s like, sure, I’m putting on fresh clothes, but ultimately I’m just funking those ones up, too. I’m a disgusting beast. Cheers.

  • Sorry for the late Bullets, but I started tracking that Mets/Cano/Diaz rumor and got down the wormhole a bit, desperate for something exciting to happen. You understand.
  • Gordon Wittenmyer suggests the addition of versatile infielder Ronald Torreyes yesterday for the Cubs may have more to do with Tommy La Stella’s standing on the roster than Addison Russell’s. To be sure, if you view Torreyes as a replacement for anyone, it would be La Stella, who is a superlative pinch hitter, but is not able to contribute defensively in any meaningful way. Torreyes also projects to make $300,000 less next year than La Stella, for whatever that’s worth. (But man, if the Cubs non-tender La Stella tomorrow for financial reasons, then you’ll know money is extremely tight, since he’s projected to make only about $1.2 million in arbitration, and even that’s not fully guaranteed if they decided to cut him in Spring Training.)
  • Given Torreyes’s minor league options, and the fact that he would ultimately be the kind of depth that slides in if there’s an injury, it doesn’t seem necessary to – for example – non-tender La Stella tomorrow so that Torreyes can lock up a spot on the four-man big league bench. The Cubs could certainly keep both for now. Either way, having Torreyes in the organization is a bit of a security blanket in case the Cubs do decide to move on from Russell, either by non-tendering him tomorrow, or by trading him at some point.
  • Oh yeah, that reminds me to remind you: tomorrow is the deadline to tender contracts to players who are under control, but not already on a contract for 2019. The Cubs have a full 40-man roster, so you could tentatively expect a non-tender or two, though it doesn’t have to be from the group of arbitration-eligible players. Instead, there could be other 40-man players non-tendered at that time, and then Cubs would try to retain them on minor league deals.
  • Ah, when they were but wee babes:
  • This is fun:
  • There are a surprising number of Cubs who made their bones with the club, headed out and got paid, then wound up coming back to more or less finish up their career with the Cubs.
  • Old friend Chris Gimenez has joined the Dodgers’ coaching staff.
  • The local owners are attempting to help the city:
  • So much nastiness:
  • https://www.instagram.com/p/BqvZ5xeHOQg/

  • Toys, chairs, iPads, and a bunch of live deals at Amazon for Cyber Week.
  • Gotta love having a young defensive star on the Bears:
  • 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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