The Rundown: Cubs Trade Speculation Increasing, Winter Meetings Approaching, A’s Break Bank for Severino

Speculating on potential trades at this time of year is akin to a teenager building a Christmas wishlist. You’re excited to jot down ideas and ultimately disappointed when things go in a vastly different direction. I’m no different, but it doesn’t stop me from playing GM for multiple teams whose players I’m only vaguely familiar with. Scouting the numbers gets all of us in trouble, though there’s some merit, albeit misguided at best, to think any of us could do better than back-to-back 83-win seasons. Sigh, if only it were that easy.

So while you discuss the merits of including Nico Hoerner or Isaac Paredes in a package for Bryan Woo, I’ll leave you with what might be the most appropriate — if not annoying — holiday song for all the armchair GMs that have all the solutions to add 11-12 wins to Chicago’s middling National League ballclub. If any of us were smarter than Jed Hoyer, we’d have his job. Yes, that’s the cold, dark reality of hot stove season.

Cubs News & Notes

• The Cubs and Mariners have preliminarily discussed a deal involving Hoerner, though Parades may be a better fit for Seattle.
• Ian Happ and two others will not be returning to MLBPA’s executive subcommittee following some union discord earlier this year. I find it interesting that Jack Flaherty is also part of the departing trio. I do think the 29-year-old righty checks all of Hoyer’s free-agent boxes.
• The addition of Matthew Boyd might have something to do with the limited success Chicago’s NL Central Division opponents have had against lefties. Isn’t same-siding the very reason Hoyer and Theo Epstein thought righty Tyler Chatwood would have success with the Cubs?
• The Cubs are considered a “viable option” in trade talks for electric lefty Garrett Crochet.
• Jim Bowden of The Athletic thinks the Astros are a good fit ($) for a trade for Cody Bellinger. The former MLB executive thinks a package of prospects Zach Dezenzo and Ryan Forcucci will get it done.
• The Braves need an outfielder and Bellinger checks all of their boxes, but they have little financial wiggle room to take on his contract. Atlanta catching prospect Drake Baldwin might interest Hoyer. Time to get creative.
• Blue Jays bloggers aren’t as excited about the long-term futures of Michael Busch and Cade Horton as we are.
• The comments section in yesterday’s Rundown has a nice conversation about buying titles the way the Dodgers want to. That might make for a nice column if they sign Juan Soto and Rōki Sasaki. They’ll still be shopping if both stars join other organizations. I’d imagine they’d immediately segue to Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Anthony Santander, Teoscar Hernández, or Tyler O’Neill.
• By the way, I feel extremely guilty that I want O’Neill on the Cubs. He is a former Cardinal and he’d block Chicago’s young outfielders, but I like the fit.

Odds & Sods

The polar vortex has finally reached the depths of Hell. The previous largest contract in A’s history was Eric Chavez ($66 million) back in 2004. Luis Severino just surpassed Chavez by a cool million. It’s going to be a nice weekend for a Moneyball/The Sandlot double feature.

Luis Severino is going to love it in Sacramento pic.twitter.com/YArYsxm2fT

— Matty Claus 🎅🏽 (@yomattycakes) December 5, 2024

Central Intelligence

• Milwaukee: The Brewers would love to retain Willy Adames, but it’s doubtful the star shortstop will return to Milwaukee because he’s expected to earn $150 million or more in free agency.
• St. Louis: The Cardinals’ rebuild is starting to look like the one the Cubs orchestrated when they replaced Jim Hendry with Theo Epstein. St. Louis is completely overhauling its player development department.
• Cincinnati: Your obligatory White Sox-Reds trade proposals to bring Crochet to Cincinnati.
• Pittsburgh: Paul Skenes is one of several players who were elected to the MLBPA executive subcommittee. AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal is also joining Skenes.

Thursday Stove

Here are the details of Severino’s deal with Oakland.

The Guardians are open to trade offers for first baseman Josh Naylor and outfielder Lane Thomas.

Teams are calling the Diamondbacks about their starting pitchers, GM Mike Hazen told the Arizona Republic.

The Yankees have met with Burnes and Fried.

The Rays are willing to trade their starting pitchers and have received inquiries about Jeffrey Springs and Pete Fairbanks.

The White Sox are expected to operate patiently in fielding trade requests for Crochet.

Roger Clemens made a great counterargument to Rob Manfred’s proposed Golden At-Bat rule.

Get Your Pencils and Scorecards Ready

Some important dates for next week’s Winter Meetings in Dallas.

• Hall of Fame Classic Baseball Era Committee Results (December 8): Former White Sox star Dick Allen is on this year’s ballot, as are Tommy John, Dave Parker, and Luis Tiant.
• MLB Draft Lottery (December 10): The Cubs are once again lottery-eligible after missing the playoffs in ’24, though their odds of getting the top pick are incredibly slim.
• Rule 5 Draft (December 11): The Cubs may lose outfielder Christian Franklin, who would make a nice backup for an analytics-forward rebuilding team like the Cardinals.

Extra Innings

Watching Ben Grieve hit a home run off of soft-tossing Todd Van Poppel in the final season of both mediocre careers is everything I fear about relying solely on prospects. Van Poppel was drafted No. 14 overall in 1990 and Grieve No. 2 in 1994. Both were selected by the A’s and spent time with the Cubs.

9/17/2004: Ben Grieve appeared in 38 games for the #Cubs at the end of his #MLB career. This was the only home run he hit for Chicago.#FlyTheW (via kasey ignarski) @BleacherNation @TheBsblr pic.twitter.com/hejXHmOuWB

— MLB Daily Dingers (@MLBDailyDingers) December 1, 2024

They Said It

• “You’re always trying to be creative, and I think there is room for it this year.” – Hoyer
• “When you don’t have that elite star, the guys you have will underperform at times. What we are trying to do, like Atlanta did this year, is build a team that can sustain some underperformance thanks to elite play somewhere else. We don’t want to rely on overperformance; we want our roster to be elite enough that it doesn’t matter.” – Hoyer

Thursday Walk-Up Song

I just want one shot at being an MLB GM…