http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/frozen-baseball-offseason-hot-stove-starting-pitching-pitcher-theo-epstein-jake-arrieta-yu-darvish-alex-cobb-gerrit-cole-mlb-trade-rumors“I like the talent that we have right now, but I think we could certainly add to the depth. And you could do that through depth moves or through adding another real quality pitcher and bolster the depth even more that way...."“We’re looking to add another pitcher just
to possibly improve the options in the starting rotation and especially the ripple effect that will add depth,” Epstein said. “The best way to build a championship team is to mitigate all the risks that sink teams and prevent them from being championship teams. And with us
right now, we’re very well protected on the position-player side. But there’s legitimate risk for injury or underperformance to our pitching staff that we’re going to be scrambling midseason. You don’t want to be scrambling.
“So we
need to continue to add quality and depth and try to mitigate as many of the risks as we can. You never eliminate all the risks, otherwise you’d win it all every year. But eliminating as many of those risks as you can is our job.”
Thoughts:
1. The focus is on pitching, of course. But I think the underlined statement about position-players is really relevant. Cubs have 10 non-catcher position guys, with people like Happ, Zobrist, La Stella, Almora, and Heyward at the back end of that group. Much flexibility, so I agree with Theo that they are well protected there. But, behind those ten guys are what, David Bote and Mark Zagunis?
My point here is that they don't have a position surplus. If you need to trade two of those ten guys, even one of them, the depth and contingency coverage could VERY quickly erode. Thus I think Theo should be *very* reluctant to trade Happ or Happ/Almora from that pool.
Position pool is nice as is; but not superfluous/redundant to allow a trade without getting really risky position-wise.
So, I agree with P2, spending $$$ in FA is the way to go.
2. It's interesting how Theo talks about the pitcher. This is a variation on standard Theo/Hoyer cliche that the repeat every winter, about wanting depth and risk-mitigation for pitchers. That's what they said two years ago when they added Adam Warren and Cahill, etc.. Last year they talked about that a bunch, but in practice ended up committing to Anderson for the rotation, and the "depth" additions were the likes of Eddie Butler, Dylan Florio, Seth Frankoff, and Alec Mills.
It's the same spiel every winter, kind of. But obviously in context we know that Theo is meaning more than adding Butler, Florio, Frankoff, and Mills this time around.
"
could do that through depth moves or through adding another real quality pitcher and bolster the depth even more that way"Theo talks about "depth moves", but obviously the "adding another real quality pitcher" which then bumps everybody down is really the way to go. That still won't be super deep: Chatwood as #5, Montgomery as #6, with Tseng as #7 isn't necessarily the deepest, strongest contingency protection. But it's a world better than Chatwood #4, Montgomery #5, Tseng #6, and Zastryzny as #7, or whatever.
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