The Rundown–12/8/16: Marlins Fishing, White Sox Active, Closer Market Solidifies

Photo of Nate Schmidt Nate SchmidtDecember 8, 2016

Here are today’s headlines for the Cubs and around the MLB:

  1. Today is the final day of the Winter Meetings and they will feature the always exciting Rule 5 Draft.
    • Teams can take players that were not added to other teams’ 40-man roster for a nominal fee of $100,000 (up from $50,000 in the last CBA).
    • I think it is entirely possible the Cubs take someone, probably an LHRP, but more likely they don’t take anyone.
  2. The Marlins signed Jeff Locke to a Major League deal worth $3M and also signed AJ Ellis to a one-year deal worth $2.5M yesterday.
    • Neither signing will move the needle much, but Ellis is interesting because he has caught, like, 48% of all of Kenley Jansen‘s MLB innings, so maybe his signing is a precursor to that move.
  3. Which brings me to this: the Marlins have reportedly offered Jansen a 5-year deal worth over $80M.
    • Jansen pitched under current Marlin manager, Don Mattingly, so this is a very strong financial offer and there is some level of comfort there for him
    • The Nats though have been spurned all week and are making a late push for Jansen.
  4. All of that Jansen news was made possible by Aroldis Chapman re-upping with the Yankees for 5 years and $86M, which leaves Jansen as the last big-time closer on the market.
    • Chapman can opt out after 3 years, has a full no-trade clause for 3 years, then a limited one for the last 2 years, but he cannot be traded to any California team.
    • That last point is the most interesting because the Dodgers were on the verge of acquiring Chapman last offseason. Then news broke about his domestic abuse charges and the trade faded away. So maybe he was jaded by that experience or maybe he just doesn’t like the west coast.
  5. The White Sox continue to tear it all down and made another spectacular trade, this time with the Nationals. The Sox sent Adam Eaton to the Nats for Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning.
    • Giolito and Lopez are considered two of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball and Dunning was just a first round pick (29th overall) this past June.
    • The past two days have see the Sox trade two very valuable pieces for what are widely considered as excellent returns. The thing is though, they are still not done, they have several very valuable pieces left to deal, including Todd Frazier, Jose Quintana, closer David Robertson, Jose Abreu and even Melky Cabrera.
    • GM Rick Hahn probably won’t move all of those guys, but he still has many bullets left and a whole winter to work things out; the South Side could be building something very special here.
  6. The Cubs and Royals officially finalized their trade of Jorge Soler for Wade Davis yesterday afternoon.






Photo of Nate Schmidt Nate SchmidtDecember 8, 2016
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