I’m a believer in assembling talent and then figuring it out. PCA will play when he’s ready, but as we’ve seen with Brennan Davis and Miguel Amaya, development is not always a straight line. I actually don’t think the Cubs will trade either at the deadline.
Organizationally there is a decent argument to resign him and stick him at first. It’s a black hole for power. Although, I haven’t given up on Mervis, I would resign Bellinger. He ads versatility and is a great clubhouse guy. Keep his injuries in mind, however.
Resign him for what? He isn’t gonna be another one or two year guy. I don’t think you sign him for 5+ years, which is what I think he will demand. Too many OF prospects coming up. But I don’t talk this out much so I bow to you guys who know more than me.
He’s 28 and the best years of his career were the first 3. He followed those up with 2 putrid years and one you had to squint at. He’s had some tough injuries. This season has been a nice rebound, but he’s missed a month, and is still down around the .250 line. So, who is signing him for 5 years? He’d be good to keep around, but he’s not going to get $30+ for 5 years deal from anyone. Well, anyone not stupid, that is.
left handed power hitting plus defender in CF or at 1B and in his prime. If he stays healthy and ends up with around his current season 900 OPS many teams will be interested in paying him a lot of $$$ on a long term deal.
Just saw where the Astros are interested. I don’t think there is any doubt that he is going to test free agency, and if he really likes playing in Chicago, trade him and try to resign him, just like Stroman.
Yep! Unless they go at least 9-4 before the deadline I see them selling if they can get top 100 prospects for Stro and Belly. I wouldn’t mind just those two going as I’m guessing they won’t get enough for anyone else (Merryweather etc) to make it worthwhile
He hasn’t been healthy for 4 seasons, however. I’m not against the guy, but his track record includes a lot of structural injuries.
Well, he had a lot of promise, and his chance at a career got derailed. I do feel a little for the guy. His stuff was electric for awhile.
It was nothing personal but it's a cruel game. Glad we've got better options coming through the system
Meh
It’s probably just a decent organizational move. You pay $50,000 or so to get a guy back that you wanted to keep. Higgins is familiar with the coaches and some of the pitchers. It’s probably mostly about Nunez being injured and the next best catchers in the system not ready to come up a level this year. Ballesteros and Aliendo both made a jump this year, but they aren’t ready for AAA. And, if someone wants Gomes really badly to trade for him you’d still have 2 catchers on the Cubs roster. If Gomes is traded Amaya should start 5 games a week.
I wonder what steal success rate is league wide. Has anybody been successful? Not calling you out, just genuinely curious.
Ask and you shall receive. Steal attempts are up slightly, and the success rate is at an all time high.
That would be the most “Cubs thing” in the world to do: trade the one guy on the team with a pure club option for ‘24 at a bargain price when you have no other proven every day player at his position.
I think it’s mostly a depth play, but there is a small, but non-zero, chance that the Cubs trade Gomes or Barnhart.
One thing Jed has done a pretty good job of through these sells is not selling at a discount. He’s held for his return, so I don’t see any reason why they’d give Gomes away. Barnhart might actually get moved, or maybe neither.
If you dig into the caught stealing rates, it’s hard to judge a guy too much until there’s a track record built up, because sometimes the steal happens more on the P than the C. As pointed out by Lucas, steals are way up this year - not surprisingly given the rule changes. There are a couple C up at 45-50% caught stealing, but that’s really only the top few guys. The bulk of the catchers are between 20-33%. Gomes rates out 18th at 29% (note he’s 18th if you include a bunch of guys who haven’t caught a lot of innings, so he’s probably really top 10-15). Barnhart is 35th at 21% (same caveat). Amaya has caught 1 of 10 for a 10% rate and is 72nd, right there with Victor Caratini and Andrew Kizner and Sal Perez. I think he’s looked good throwing, but we’ll see more with a bigger sample size.
www.baseball-reference.com
I’m still reserving judgment on his returns in his significant trades. Been some nice hits but lots of misses, which I’m sure can be said of many GMs. Also, they gave Gomes more playing time and brought Barnhart in for very specific reasons, so trading them makes little sense.
I'd keep his peripheral stats in mind. His numbers are way out performing them. Some regression is to be expected.
I don't think it's likely, but, there is a chance Gomes or Barnhart are traded. This is cheap insurance, just as it's cheap insurance to have a guy on hand in AAA just in case someone has to go on the IL.
No doubt stat cast lists him as the third luckiest player on his reaching on base percentage. Meaning he's had an abnormal amount of soft contact base hits. His resurgence is suspect. Versus let's say Yelich who has been smashing the ball just not beating it into the ground as much now.
Agreed. Plus they would have to way overpay to sign him now…he’s shown that he’s improving, so he will want to see what his market value is. And from what I’ve heard, he likes Chicago, so he’d be an option to re-sign even if he’s traded.
His contact doesn’t make him that attractive. He has another year of team control on his contract with a club option worth $16 million for 2024. The cubs won’t just trade him for nothing and I doubt teams will want to give up a lot for that.
