The Torreyes Decision, Javy’s Birthday, Baseball in Portland, Schoop, and Other Bullets

The free agent market got quite the injection of usable talent last night at the tender deadline, so make sure you check out some of the names that are now available in free agency.

  • As for the Cubs, they non-tendered Ronald Torreyes just days after acquiring him in trade. As we speculated last night, the explanations for doing so are probably (1) the Cubs wanted insurance in case they moved Addison Russell this week, (2) the Cubs maybe hoped to sign Torreyes to a deal below his arbitration projection, and/or (3) the Cubs saw all the non-tenders around baseball and decided they could roll the dice. In any case, they are still going to try to retain the 26-year-old utility man:
  • If Torreyes can find a 40-man spot elsewhere, he’d be well-advised to take it. But if not, maybe the Cubs can get him to sign a generous minor league deal. It’s not like it’s that hard to squint and see possible playing time for Torreyes on the Cubs at some point.
  • Having non-tendered Jonathan Schoop after acquiring him at midseason to be a part of the 2019 team, the Brewers say they made a mistake:
  • Me? I still think they’re doing a little bit of message-massaging with respect to the financial part of the decision. Is $10 million – not fully guaranteed – too much for a 28-year-old who was solid (with upside) for three and a half years before a terrible half year? I get that they can position themselves without him if they dip into free agency, but it just seemed like a good guy to have around at that price. The market will determine whether I’m crazy or the Brewers were just cheap. They weren’t able to trade him before the deadline, though, so clearly he wasn’t *OBVIOUSLY* worth a tender. I must admit that much.
  • The effort to get a new baseball team to Portland takes its next step:
  • Although MLB has not committed to expansion, much less specific locations for expansion, when the time comes, it’s going to help if you’ve already got financing and facilities lined up. Commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated a desire to expand to 32 teams after the ballpark situations for Oakland and Tampa Bay are resolved, and now both of those clubs have plans for new ballparks in place.
  • This makes a lot more sense than rumors that the Mariners were going to chip in $60M *AND* take on crummy contracts:
  • Give me Aramis Ramirez, and then you move other guys around as necessary:
  • Happy 26th birthday to Javy Baez:
  • Cubs prospect Chris Singleton is doing good:
  • It’s a sitewide sale day at the MLB Shop, plus free shipping.
  • Today’s deals of the day at Amazon include sports equipment and sports games, so if you like sports, you should probably check them out.
  • 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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