So Much Fallout Potential from Correa and the Mets, Swanson Supposed to Be Official Today, and Other Cubs Bullets

Today, I’m thinking about how fortunate the Cubs are to be in the NL Central. And how they need to make sure they continue acting like it in this and future offseasons …

  • If you missed the literally-overnight-wee-hours news, Steve Cohen and the Mets pounced on the opportunity to snag Carlos Correa when his deal with the Giants was paused by a medical concern. This is just going to be a monster story for a long, long time, and there’s still so much we don’t know. Like, for example, what exactly did the Giants find? How much did it concern them? Did Boras sprint to the Mets as soon as the Giants tried to renegotiate? As in, did the Giants want to still get a deal done with minor modifications, but Boras didn’t want to risk it? I’m sure the reporting on this will be wild.
  • A decent-sized question now: do the Giants quickly pivot to WHATEVER they can get, or do they step back, knowing that the Padres and Dodgers were looking like beasts in any case? The Correa signing was partly about getting a new “face,” and there is no one left like that.
  • The Mets are going to spend half a billion dollars on payroll this year, which hey, do your thing … but weren’t willing to give up a half-decent prospect at the deadline to boost their chances in a season where they were already in a great spot to win. It was just such an unbelievably cowardly and foolish move, and maybe Cohen is now looking back with so much regret that he’s trying to paper over his feelings.
  • Also, thinking about when the Cubs swept them and how the Mets felt that was part of why they didn’t win the division and get a bye.
  • This won’t necessarily stay this way (in both directions), but this is pretty eye-popping:
  • So many owners around MLB feared exactly this about Cohen’s arrival, and I guarantee they are, right now, on the horn with Rob Manfred screaming that he must do something about this. Good luck on that, and hey, sounds like it’ll be another great CBA fight in four years!
  • Fun tweets to see arriving back-to-back in my timeline:
  • Bryan is correct and correct, though even if the Mets were going to trade Baty, the Cubs would have swift competition from about 15 other clubs:
  • For any fears that now the Giants or some other team would pull a Mets and swoop in on Dansby Swanson, his signing is SUPPOSED to become official today (press conference at 11:30am CT), and he’s posted his official farewell to the Braves. So, it sure would be surprising, to say the least:
  • This, by the way, was Swanson talking about what mattered to him in free agency before it arrived:
  • Jake Arrieta approves:
  • Cubs utility man Miles Mastrobuoni has wrapped his time in the Dominican Republic, where he hit .243 .404 .378. The newfound power he showed this past season did not appear (so keep an eye on that), but he did walk more than he struck out.
  • Marco Romero just wrapped his college career at IU Southeast, and now he’s headed right into the Cubs organization as a player development coach:
  • This is a fantastic – and somewhat sobering – read at FanGraphs on how rookie-year performance can predict future performance if you’re looking at the right data. As simple as it is, the best predictor (nothing is perfect!) is good old fashioned “how hard did he hit the ball?”
  • This is very funny:
  • 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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