Lukewarm Stove: Walker (and Other Cubs Rotation Targets), Kluber’s Next Move, Molina on the White Sox? More

When you follow a particular team for a long time – especially in the era of blogs and Twitter – certain trade or free agent rumors tend to stick with the broader community. Sometimes, it’s a player that’s seemingly connected to the team year-after-year (Chris Archer), sometimes it’s just a really crazy one-off (Jake Peavy), and sometimes it even becomes a meme (Brian Roberts).

Back at the beginning of the season, we had a little fun crowd-sourcing the best lineup full of “Guys who were totally gonna be Cubs, but then weren’t,” and I’m wondering if you think we missed anyone?

I’ve got one name to add to the list, and it kicks off our first rumor of the day ….

How About Taijuan Walker?

Walker hasn’t been *explicitly* tied to the Cubs too often (they did bring him in for a look in Spring Training), but he has almost certainly been on their radar over the past decade, as a former tip-top pitching prospect whose career never really followed its expected trajectory. Now 28, Walker is a free agent this offseason and was listed as a potential Cubs free agent target by MLB.com.

The reason behind the connection is fairly simple, with Jose Quintana, Tyler Chatwood, and Jon Lester all likely exiting via free agency, the Cubs have clear openings in their rotation, even if you pencil in Alec Mills *and* Adbert Alzolay. For another, Walker, as I mentioned, was a former top pitching prospects (the front office seemingly *loves* that type), but is still just 28-years-old. He also had a fine 2020 season with the Mariners and Blue Jays, with a 2.70 ERA overall (albeit a 4.56 FIP).

We’ll have to save a deeper dive for another time, but I do want to point out that his results and peripherals were MUCH stronger after his mid-season trade to the Blue Jays, where he began throwing his four-seamer a lot more (and a little harder) and his split-finger a lot less. Whenever a former top pitching prospect, whose still young, makes a notable change to something like his pitch mix AND gets better results and peripherals, I think it’s probably worth mentioning (very small sample, of course).

Other Pitchers in This Tier?

For what it’s worth, MLB.com also listed Brett Anderson as a potential Cubs option, which I don’t find very compelling, but I do think the implication is spot on: The Cubs will target starting pitchers *in this tier* this offseason, more than necessarily these two guys in particular. Some of those names include …

Kevin Gausman, Jake Odorizzi, Drew Smyly, Jose Quintana, Tyler Chatwood, Corey Kluber, Rick Porcello, J.A. Happ, Robbie Ray, Chris Archer, and my personal favorite, Mike Minor:

Corey Kluber, You Say?

When Corey Kluber was traded to the Rangers last season for not much, I think a lot of us were caught off guard. At the time, Kluber, 33, might have been on the wrong side of 30, technically past his prime, and coming off an injured 2019 season … but he was a Cy Young finalist in 2018. That was just ONE SEASON prior and he was coming with two years of, frankly, pretty affordable team control (at the time): $13.5M in 2020 and a $14M club option ($1M buyout in 2021).

Unfortunately, Kluber threw just 1.0 inning in 2020 thanks to a shoulder injury and now his future is a little murky:

The Rangers’ plan seems to be simple: Buy him out for $1M, sign him to what I can only imagine will be either a very cheap big league deal or even actually a minor league deal, but it’s obviously not that simple. As soon as they buy him out, any team could take a flier on Kluber, and considering how cheap he’ll be I actually do imagine there’ll be more than one suitor.

Hell, I wouldn’t mind seeing if the Cubs can make something of him. He should cost next to nothing, but could wind up (1) helping push a last dance team over the finish line or (2) be exactly the type of lotto-ticket/mid-season sell off this team was built on in the first place. It’s not like he *chose* to go to the Rangers, either, so there could be somewhere he prefers to rehab/make his way back and with the Cubs, he’d have a pretty clear path to a rotation spot if he was healthy. Just saying.

Marte’s Option Picked Up

The early offseason has been a bit of a roller coaster, with a couple horrendous signs for the offseason to come (Brad Hand, Kolten Wong) and a couple that signal something a little brighter, Zack Britton and Starling Marte.

According to the Associated Press, The Miami Marlins (of all teams) picked up their $12.5M option on Starling Marte for next season instead of paying him a $1 million buyout. Marte, 32, was actually a below-average offensive contributor after being traded to the Marlins last season (91 wRC+), but his time with the Diamondbacks was pretty great (124 wRC+) and the Marlins are clearly taking a gamble on that.

Let me restate clearly: The fact that the MARLINS are willing to make this $11.5M decision on a 32-year-old Marte in a division with the Mets (who are probably going to look a lot better next year) and the Braves is a pretty darn good sign.

Of course, as I type that, the Rays declined their $15 million option on Charlie Morton, so not all small-market Florida teams are feeling spendy.

Molina and Wainwright

Brett mentioned it yesterday when Ryan Braun became a free agent, but I want to say it, too: If we live in a world where Ryan Braun is not on the Brewers, and Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina (both free agents) are not on the Cardinals, it’ll feel *extremely* weird. I’m sure we’ll find new villains, but there’ll be an adjustment period. I think it’s kind of like the Brewers losing Ben Sheets and Prince Fielder or the Cardinals losing Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds.

Speaking of Molina and Wainwright, both players reportedly hope to return to the Cardinals next season and – pandemic or not – you have to imagine that’s the most likely outcome. Maybe it’ll require extreme flexibility in terms of finances, structure, and playing time expectations, but these guys are Cardinals.

HOWEVER, now that Tony La Russa is managing the White Sox, who could use a catcher like Molina to pair with Yasmani Grandal the way they paired Grandal with James McCann (a free agent) last season, there’s at least one other team to keep an eye on. And wouldn’t that just be perfect? Yadi going from the Cardinals to the White Sox?

Well, he seems to think so, since he posted this at the moment the Tony La Russa White Sox news dropped:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

🤔…

A post shared by @ yadier_marciano_molina on

That wasn’t a coincidence.

written by

Michael Cerami began covering the Chicago Cubs for Bleacher Nation as a part-time contributor in 2015. One year later, he joined Bleacher Nation full-time, covering the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball. Today, Michael runs Bleacher Nation, contributing as a writer (Cubs, MLB) and an editor for all sections of the site, including the Chicago Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks, as well as MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL. In 2019, Michael was the co-host of NBC Sports Chicago's Cubs Post-Game Show Outside the Ivy. You can find him on Twitter/X @Michael_Cerami

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