After the Chicago Cubs signed Marcus Stroman to a three-year deal tonight, I’m certainly not ASKING for more before the presumed lockout begins at midnight Eastern.
But in the post-Stroman-signing show on Marquee, Bruce Levine indicated that there COULD be more coming. Like, soon:
The Chicago Cubs are showing interest in several free agent pitchers, per @MLBBruceLevine.
There's a chance that they could sign another pitcher before the lockout.
— Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) December 2, 2021
A chance. Don’t go too crazy with your expectations!
What’s most interesting about this rumor is that, as with the Stroman signing, it’s not possible to start a negotiation today and get a deal done before the lockout starts, again presumably, at midnight Eastern. So if the Cubs *ARE* landing another starter before tonight, then that means they were already deep, deep into negotiations without any kind of leak. We know they can pull it off, though, given what just happened with Stroman.
The rumor also means, as far as Levine’s sources are concerned, some of those kinds of talks HAVE happened with at least one other starting pitcher. But what about a pre-emptive physical, like with Stroman? Has that happened? Just how close are the talks? It’s gotta be so hard to actually pull this off at the zero hour.
So, maybe don’t get your hopes up, but definitely stay tuned.