NEWSLETTER
It’s been my operating assumption since he opted out of his deal – just a gut thing – and there was a national report that suggested the sides would part ways. But now you can add something closer to a local report to the evidence that Marcus Stroman and the Chicago Cubs are not going to reunite this offseason.
Patrick Mooney of The Athletic sums it up here:
“In the end, it was a fairly straightforward decision for Marcus Stroman to opt out of his contract with the Chicago Cubs. Assuming good health, Stroman should be able to easily top the $21 million he would have been guaranteed with another year at Wrigley Field. In turn, Jed Hoyer’s baseball operations group can reallocate that money and go in a different direction.”
Stroman at one year and $21 million would’ve been fine. But being able to repurpose those funds, and think differently about how they want to add to the roster and rotation, is also fine.
The Cubs know they’ll need to add pitching after Stroman’s decision – it was a “probably” situation before his opt-out, but it’s a “definitely” now – and they will explore both the front-of-the-rotation types, and also the depth/bounce-back/reclamation types. Sounds like someone like Stroman, who falls more into the middle of being a solid, older, mid-rotation guy who’s going to get a healthy three-ish year contract, is not going to be in their wheelhouse this offseason.
