Lukewarm Stove: Cubs’ Non-Shortstop Pursuits, Swanson Hefty Price Tag, Mets and Senga, Vazquez, More

Dec 09, 2022

Stray Lukewarm Stove action on a Friday night. Pretty unusual, but there was just some stuff that I wanted to get to this evening that couldn’t wait until tomorrow …

The Cubs are indeed waiting on the two remaining shortstops a bit, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have other items to check off the list:

As Cubs wait on the shortstop market to shake out,they are working on adding other pieces.Trey Mancini has been a player of interest.He brings both versatility and character.Catcher and starting P still a priority.They have talked Kodai Senga with agent Joel Wolfe.— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) December 9, 2022

Mancini, as we’ve discussed, is more of a “fine” addition than a particularly impactful one (unless he has a huge bounce-back year, which I suppose is possible). A back-up plan for Jose Abreu, but not really close to the same tier. I would have no problem with the Cubs adding him, but ideally it would be as a complementary move where there are more obvious upgrades taking place.

As for catcher and starting pitching, we know the Cubs clearly want to add an additional one of each. Maybe that means a free agent like Christian Vazquez, maybe that means a trade like Sean Murphy. And maybe it means a free agent like Kodai Senga or Chris Bassitt or Corey Kluber, maybe it means a surprising trade (I wonder if the Cubs would still try to get Jose Urquidy from the Astros for a modest return). I know it’s hard to think about things other than shortstop right now, but getting the right pieces at these other spots matters a great deal, too. I actually think Vazquez and Senga, if that happened, would be pretty huge. Other options are fine, too, though again, they fall into that same Mancini tier of not being particularly exciting.

Speaking of the shortstops – always the shortstops! – some thoughts from Jon Morosi that Matt and Brad caught live:

Morosi thinks it will likely take around 8/200 to get Swanson.
— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) December 9, 2022

Now he's talking up a combo of signing Swanson and trading for Murphy as the way for the Cubs to get back into contention. That's his recommendation at least.— Brad (@ballskwok) December 9, 2022

I think it could be hard to justify $200+ million on Swanson, even in this market. You would have to believe that his breakout on offense this past season was not a BABIP mirage (the underlying indicators are a bit conflicting), and that his super-elite defense is also repeatable to some extent. I mean, I guess if you knew for sure that both things would continue into next season, he’d be a $300 million guy in this market (he was a 6+ WAR player in 2022! It’s just that people DON’T expect him to repeat that).

It turns out the Angels were a mystery team on Willson Contreras, which suggests they could be in on the other available catchers, too (though I’m not sure they could get together with the A’s on a major intradivisional trade like Murphy). The Angels have Max Stassi and Logan O’Hoppe, though, so I wonder if they were looking at Contreras as more of a part-time catcher, part-time DH? On the days Shohei Ohtani doesn’t DH? I don’t know. It’s a bit of a weird fit, and I mostly just don’t want them to be in on Christian Vazquez.

The Mets are spending like crazy under Steve Cohen, and they aren’t finished yet. Maybe they bring back Chris Bassitt, or maybe they just pony up another $100+ million for Kodai Senga:

With their outlays today, if the Mets did nothing else, their payroll for luxury tax purposes projects to around $325 million. But they are going to do more. They continue to pursue, for example, Kodai Senga.— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 9, 2022

I was reminded of this, and it left me really annoyed again:

It was utterly moronic and inexplicable at the time, and now that we've seen the market, it's a borderline all-time boner.

So of course it was to the Cardinals' benefit. https://t.co/6sEczZHZdw— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) December 8, 2022

Random thought this morning:

For the Cubs, you take the chance on a rebound for Rendon at third base, at a reduced price tag on a four-year deal (in a very hot market), and you pick up extra talent in the process. It's "buying" prospects, but attached to a guy you might actually be able to use.— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) December 9, 2022

This will be HUGE news soon, because Murakami is a stud, though for now, it’s still kinda multiple years away:

Major international baseball news: Munetaka Murakami signs 3-year deal with the Yakult Swallows, including stipulation that he’ll be posted to @MLB teams after 2025 season. He’s expected to star for Japan at ‘23 ⁦@WBCBaseball⁩. ⁦@MLBNetwork⁩ https://t.co/GfZT32P4gC— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 9, 2022

written by

Brett Taylor

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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