Cubs Non-Tender, New Wood Bat League, Bryant Trade? Let’s Talk

I’ve been away much of November and I hope to have a ton of content for December. I am also seeking others that would like to write. We are looking for someone to cover Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Bears, and Bulls news here on the site. We really need someone that is open to writing two to five articles a week on the team they elect to cover. If you are interested, please email me.

Now, December is a big month in baseball. Wait, what!? There haven’t been games for two months and players don’t report for three months, how can December be big? Well, Wednesday (December 2nd) is the deadline to offer pre-arb and arb-eligible players a contract for the 2021 season. Now, they don’t have to sign the player yet, just offer them a contract. If they don’t, the player becomes a free agent.

The Cubs have seemingly three-quarters of their roster that fall into this. So, I think there are a lot of fans that don’t realize what pre-arb and arb-eligible are. Like, they might hear it, and they may have a general thought, but they don’t grasp how these work.

Basically, anyone that is on a “rookie contract” or hasn’t signed a traditional contract is “controlled” by the team but every year is offered a single-season contract. So, while a player like Alec Mills is controlled for five more years, each year the Cubs need to offer him a contract for the next season. The club can elect to not tender an offer, just as they can do with arbitration-eligible players. Now, with pre-arb players, the team dictates the salary while the players have more say in arb-eligible cases to the point where they can go to a salary arbitration case to present their case to earn more.

There were a number of ridiculous articles suggesting that the Cubs would non-tender Kris Bryant. Now I understand the *idea* behind that suggestion as the Cubs want to reduce salary, but the actual act of doing it is the stupidest thing I may have ever heard from this fanbase (and I once heard a fan tell someone Ryne Sandberg is the best pitcher on the team). Luckily some sanity was restored when Jon Heyman suggested that the Cubs would in fact tender Bryant a contract for the 2021 season. There is still an underlying question on if Bryant will be a Cub in 2021, which we will dive into later.

Now, from some whispers that are out there, it sounds like Bryant, Javier Baez, Willson Contreras, Victor Caratini, Ian Happ, and Kyle Schwarber are all safe and will be tendered a contract by 7 pm Wednesday. It shouldn’t be a surprise on many of them besides maybe Schwarber.

It is expected that Schwarbs gets around $9 million in arbitration. With the Cubs expecting to reduce payroll, he seems to be one of the guys they could circle to achieve this goal. But it seems that the club would rather tender him a deal and work out a potential trade on the backend. While his 2020 wasn’t what legends are made of, he still provides value as a hitter and has increased his value as a defender. I’ve written about it before, and while several defensive metrics can be misleading in short samples, he’s been near the top of the NL defensively in left for the past three seasons.

Non-Tendering Albert Almora

I do expect to see Albert Almora non-tendered, meaning these are the last several hours that he will be a Cub. While I like his experience and he still provides a solid glove in center, this is the type of player that may have his MLB dream come to an end because of COVID and the financial losses teams have suffered in 2020.

I can see Almora receiving a MiLB deal, and something inviting him to Spring Training somewhere (perhaps even back here?), but I don’t know if anyone is jumping at the bit to offer him guaranteed money. I do think it would be worth his while to look at jumping the pond and playing in Japan for a year or two. Build some value back up and come back here to the states.

I hate this part of the game, seeing someone that you so actively rooted for potentially never seeing an MLB at-bat again. Especially one that had such promise and provided some great moments.

New Wood Bat League

One bit of interesting, and good news, is the adaptation of a new Wood Bat League that MLB is creating for draft-eligible prospects. There has been a lot of worry from potential draftees on how they could get recruited if there were no High School of College games. While there seems to be a plan for games to proceed in 2021 (although later than normal) players lost the 2020 season due to COVID-related shutdowns.

I have seen some that were very critical of this move, but these are typically the cynical types that claim everything is a way to work the system. While this could be a way to justify the reduction of minor league teams from 160 to 120, but the silver lining is the fact that players that didn’t have the opportunity to showcase their talents one last time, will be afforded that opportunity.

This is a positive for the players and it should afford teams the opportunity to see guys that might have been on the bubble.

Trade Kris Bryant

It has been no secret to anyone that has read my stuff that I am very pro-KB. I, for the life of me, cannot understand why there are so many willing to toss KB to the side for next to nothing.

I was alerted to this article on Cubs DNA on the idea of trading Kris Bryant. I absolutely, 1000% agree with everything said here. Staci Heaton explained how I feel better than I could ever. The fact is, Kris Bryant is the best player on the Cubs roster. This is still true even after a rather disastrous 2020 (in which we saw him suffer from a number of weird, strange, and uncommon injuries).

You can go and point out all his deficiencies all you want, but every player has them. It seems like Bryant’s biggest issue is, he isn’t Mike Trout. But seriously, there’s only one Mike Trout, just like there’s only one Kris Bryant. There is a reason the Cubs started winning when KB joined the club. He’s one of the biggest reasons the Cubs won the World Series. He’s the reason the Cubs have been competitive over the past six years, and he will be the reason whichever team he plays for is competitive.

I hope like hell that KB remains a Cub for a very, very long time. But the way we, collectively as a fanbase, have treated him and have taken him for granted – we deserve to lose his talents. More importantly, he deserves a fanbase that appreciates him and what he contributes to a team. If he remains a Cub, GREAT! He will continue his Hall of Fame track in Cubbie blue. If he is moved this offseason, or by the deadline, or allowed to walk next offseason, I hope wherever he lands the fans love this dude and appreciate the top of the league production he provides.