There was an interesting rumor involving the Chicago Cubs that started up yesterday. While I could see it possible happening the aftermath that was talked about made no sense at all to me. Let’s go through it and see what you think.
There are many teams including some that will be contenders next season that need a front line catcher. The biggest free agent name on the catching market is Yasmani Grandal and there has been some mention of Travis d’Arnaud. Other than that there are some solid veteran catchers on the free agent market, but not the knock your socks off kind of payer teams are looking for.
This brings us to the Cubs who have apparently been receiving calls on their starting catcher Willson Contreras and it seems as though they might be interested in moving him. After a rough 2018 Contreras bounced back in 2019 and established himself as one of the top catchers in baseball; so it’s understandable why teams would be interested in acquiring him. How ever why would the Cubs be interested in dealing him?
Well the Cubs have one of the worst minor league systems in baseball and they could strengthen that by trading Contreras for multiple prospects. Contreras is also an arbitration eligible player along with the likes of Kris Bryant and Javier Baez. There’s just no way the Cubs would be able to retain all three of these players when they reach free agency at close to the same time; so a deal makes sense.
Now the part of this rumor that didn’t make any sense to me at all. It was reported that if the Cubs traded Contreras they’d jump into the market to try and sign Grandal. So the Cubs are going to trade a 27 year old catcher who’d make less money for a 31 year old veteran catcher who’s going to want a multi-year contract at right around $20 million dollars a year. This almost seems counter productive on a team that has more important needs than a catcher even if Contreras is traded. Don’t forget the Cubs have Victor Caratini who came through their minor league system as a catching prospect and has produced when given playing time. Caratini is 25 years old and a switch hitter. Why wouldn’t they turn the starting catching job over to him and just sign a veteran to back him up?
In all honesty I thought that the Cubs would dangle Caratini in front of teams this off season and see what they might be able to get for him in a deal, but it looks like it might be Contreras that they’re going to end up doing that with.
If you had the Cubs catching situation what would you do? Do you trade Contreras? If you did deal Contreras; would you try to sign Grandal? Or would you just allow Caratini to be the full time catcher?
Major League Baseball is going to start handing out their year end awards this week. Now I don’t have to big of an issues with the players and managers that where nominated expect in one category; American League Rookie of the Year.
Now it seems as though just about everyone in the media or I should say on MLB Network had given the Rookie of the year award to Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros after he had only spent about a week in the majors; so I fully expect him to win the award. What I can’t figure out is how they came up with the other two finalist.
Alvarez is one of the finalist for the award along with Brandon Lowe of the Tampa Bay Rays and John Means of the Baltimore Orioles.
I’m not going to jump up and down and complain to much about Means being nominated. He did go 12-11 with a 3.60 ERA over 31 games 27 of which where starts and he threw 155 innings for one of the worst teams in baseball. Even though I’m not so sure he should’ve been a finalist I can see him making the top 3.
Lowe on the other hand is a completely different story. He only played in 82 games due to injury. Alvarez only played in 87 games, but he was a latter minor league call up; Lowe was hurt. Lowe hit .270 with 17 home runs, 51 RBI’s and an OPS of .850. Now those are solid rookie numbers, but nowhere near good enough to be a finalist for Rookie of the Year.
Now who should’ve gotten Lowe’s spot in the final three. How about Eloy Jimenez of the Chicago White Sox. Jimenez played in 122 games and led all American League rookies on home runs with 31 and RBI’s with 79. I’m completely lost on how Jimenez didn’t get enough votes to be a Rookie of the Year finalist.
Maybe you’re not in on Jimenez; so how about Vlad Guerrero Jr. I’m not sure if Vlad Jr. had the type of season people where expecting him to have and that may have hurt him in the voting, but overall he had a better year than Lowe. Guerrero played in 123 games which was the most for an AL rookie. He hit .272 with 15 home runs and 69 RBI’s. I’m under the impression people thought they’d see more power out of Guerrero, but even without the big power numbers he had a good rookie year and could’ve been a finalist.
Am I completely wrong here? Do you think Lowe belongs as a finalist? Or is there someone else besides Jimenez or Guerrero that you thought should’ve been a Rookie of the Year finalist?
The other award I’m a little confused by is National League Manager of the Year. The Nominees are Brian Snitker of the Atlanta Braves, Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers and Mike Shildt of the St. Louis Cardinals.
I can understand these three managers being the finalist, but Snitker did win this award last season; so did the Braves improve that much that he deserves to be nominated again? They won the NL East last season and where 90-72. The Braves won the NL East again this season and where 97-65. Is a seven game improvement in your teams won-loss record make you a Manager of the Year candidate?
Obviously the third finalist should’ve been Dave Martinez of the Washington Nationals. Now playoff performance doesn’t count, but even discounting that the Nationals won the World Series where they came from to accomplish that should’ve been enough to make Martinez a finalist for Manager of the Year, but probably should’ve made him the winner.
On June 1st the Nationals had as many losses as the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers went on to loss more games than any other team in baseball this season at 114. The Nationals straighten things out and ended up losing 69 games. They finished 4 games behind the Braves in the NL East and ended up being a wild card team.
How is Martinez not a finalist for NL Manager of the Year?
You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime
Sports Time Radio 