Swapping Codys

In News And Rumors by Rice Cube136 Comments

The trade that I guess needed to happen has happened. After grabbing Kyle Tucker, and as discussed on the Dreamcast, the Cubs have indeed offloaded Cody Bellinger to the Yankees:

The Yankees are acquiring first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger from the Cubs, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Cubs also send cash to the Yanks and receive right-hander Cody Poteet. Per Jack Curry of YES Network, it’s $5MM going to the Yankees. Per Jesse Rogers of ESPN, that’ll be $2.5MM this year and $2.5MM next year. The second $2.5MM will go towards either his buyout or his 2026 salary, depending on his opt-out decision, per Passan. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Bellinger has been told he’ll be playing center field for the Yanks.

Via MLBTR

Given the acquisition of Tucker and the need to bat Seiya Suzuki (and probably let him play RF) every now and then, not to mention the glut of outfielders in the system, this trade was probably inevitable, but the nearly full-scale salary dump is a bit surprising. Nevertheless, that’s about $25MM the Cubs get to repurpose for bullpen, more infielders, a starting pitcher or two, etc. if they so choose. The Cubs are certainly not done yet as they have payroll space even if they might dial back the total payroll a tad, and they also have a bit more trade capital to play with.

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  1. Author
    Rice Cube

    berselius:
    berselius,

    I guess the Cubs have pre-emptively said no on Burnes, so lets send that Brinks truck to Flaherty.

    I think they might actually try that Luzardo trade or even trade for Luis Castillo, there are also other options as we did sort of mention Turnbull, but the ball is in Jed’s court it seems

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  4. berselius

    I wonder who the backup/emergency CF is now. Alcantara? Tucker has played like 45 innings of CF in his career, and I don’t feel thrilled about Happ moving back over there.

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  7. dmick89

    This site is likely going to be offline for awhile starting tonight at around 9 pm. Database is many, many years outdated and the host is updating it. This theme is almost certainly not going to work since it’s old. Same with some plugins. I’m going to switch to some generic theme and figure the rest out later.

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  9. BVS

    Rice Cube:
    berselius,

    One of Canario or Alcantara, whoever isn’t traded

    I think both are pretty good in CF, just not PCA good.

    Terrible undersell IMO. They better use the money for something damn good.

    When Santander or Teoscar sign for 4/$90 or more, it’ll be clear that the Cubs undersold, because Belli is worth much more than that.

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  10. andcounting

    BVS,

    By sending only $5 million to the Yankees, the Cubs essentially paid Bellinger the buyout they wish they had been paying him in the first place, plus they got a pitcher out of the deal.

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  12. berselius

    Whoa, I’m actually getting the mobile site now. I guess the site did fine with the WordPress/sql upgrade that I never had time to look into (dying laughing)

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  13. BVS

    andcounting,

    Sure, but that is just frosting over the fact that they dumped a commodity that had greater value than they received. They should have been hoping Cody would opt in if for no other reason than they could have gained a better return than Poteet in a trade.

    My opinion changes if both the following become true…
    1. The Cubs actually use the money for a significant upgrade to pitching
    2. Bellinger performs really poorly this upcoming year and it is due to something the Cubs could have predicted, like a lingering injury issue, or a massive decline in some peripheral.

    At the very least, the Cubs should have also held out for a flyer in addition to Poteet, like they did when they traded Ivan de Jesús. 😄

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  15. Author
    Rice Cube

    BVS,

    I think we will find out if 2025 Cody is similar to 2024 or 2023, it does make you wonder who’s going to back up CF to give PCA a day off here and there, or 1B, but I would be surprised if they didn’t try to use that money to at least boost the bullpen.

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  19. berselius

    berselius:
    Whoa, I’m actually getting the mobile site now. I guess the site did fine with the WordPress/sql upgrade that I never had time to look into (dying laughing)

    I didn’t read every word.

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  20. BVS

    I get free-tv-antenna broadcasts of 15 Braves games this year. Hopefully they’ll be against the Cubs and not the Braves-Royals series.

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  22. dmick89

    berselius:
    Whoa, I’m actually getting the mobile site now. I guess the site did fine with the WordPress/sql upgrade that I never had time to look into (dying laughing)

    You weren’t able to access the site on a mobile device before?

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  24. Author
    Rice Cube

    I assume if we get into the template files etc we can probably tweak the color schemes and what not, but it’s good we can at least read stuff (dying laughing)

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  26. andcounting

    Rice Cube:
    ZiPS really likes the Cubs

    That PCA projection is big if true. His defensive and baserunning numbers are really strong, I believe, so I don’t know that a 4-win season from him is all that dependent on an offensive explosion. But he definitely presents huge upside. That defense really does have potential to be great, but I feel like we’ve said that for two years.

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  27. berselius

    dmick89: You weren’t able to access the site on a mobile device before?

    I didn’t realize that the WP theme had changed, and thought that I was getting a mobile site instead of the desktop version. I was also extremely uncaffeinated at the time (dying laughing).

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  28. dmick89

    Rice Cube,

    Yeah, it’s the 2016 WordPress theme. It’s one of the default themes from a long time ago. I’m still surprised people weren’t getting a mobile site here though. I was and I checked on at least half a dozen devices and different operating systems.

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  30. berselius

    dmick89:
    Rice Cube,

    Yeah, it’s the 2016 WordPress theme. It’s one of the default themes from a long time ago. I’m still surprised people weren’t getting a mobile site here though. I was and I checked on at least half a dozen devices and different operating systems.

    Could also be that my memory was shit, and I rarely checked on my phone (dying laughing)

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  34. Perkins

    Sounds like the Luzardo deal might be dead. I’d rather the Cubs get Flaherty, but if they want to roll the dice on upside as with Luzardo, I would not be upset about a Walker Buehler signing.

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  37. BVS

    Perkins,

    Seems to me that if the Cubs are even considering trading Triantos, then something like Assad and Triantos for a Seattle pitcher should be a good start. Seattle seems to want an infielder.

    Triantos, btw, played third at Myrtle Beach, and I watched him play 4-5 games there. He hasn’t played 3rd since. For good reason based on what I saw.

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  38. berselius

    BVS:
    Perkins,

    Seems to me that if the Cubs are even considering trading Triantos, then something like Assad and Triantos for a Seattle pitcher should be a good start. Seattle seems to want an infielder.

    Triantos, btw, played third at Myrtle Beach, and I watched him play 4-5 games there. He hasn’t played 3rd since. For good reason based on what I saw.

    It would be sad to see the Shawn Camp Memorial Team MVP shipped out, but I’d be okay with that trade.

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  46. Perkins

    Trivia question: of the legends and luminaries to wear 21 for the Cubs after Sosa, who accumulated the greatest WAR in it?

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  53. berselius

    Reposting this from Calcaterra’s newsletter

    Sammy Sosa admits to using PEDs

    On March 17, 2005 the House Committee on Government Reform put ten baseball players and executives under oath in an 11-hour hearing in an effort to pressure baseball to toughen its policy against steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Most notable among the witnesses: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro.

    By the end of that day McGwire’s reign as a baseball hero would be over due to his evasiveness in the face of questioning. Palmeiro had likewise signed the death warrant for his legacy, though it would not become apparent for several months. He would eventually become the first big star to test positive for PEDs, revealing his performative, finger-wagging denials of drug use to be as phony as hell.

    Sosa’s disgrace was a bit more interesting.

    On the day of his testimony Sosa chose to speak in Spanish and use an interpreter. A lot of people – including most baseball writers – got on Sosa’s case for not speaking English, which he had often done in interviews and casual conversation. But as I’ve argued many times over the past 19 years, that was a very wise decision by Sosa and by his legal counsel. He was under oath, in a high-profile matter, and there were several dozen lawyers in the room trying to set perjury traps. If you were in that situation you would be wise to choose your words very carefully and speaking under oath in your non-native language is a good way to unintentionally misspeak.

    And to be clear, Sosa had to speak very carefully, because if you look closely at the things he said, he was walking an extraordinarily fine line to keep from either (a) lying, which would’ve gotten him in legal trouble; or (b) admitting to PED use which, at the time, would’ve made him persona non grata in baseball.

    The key things he said:

    “To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs”;
    “I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic”; and
    “I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean.”

    You don’t have to be a lawyer to see that Sosa was being cute there, as all of those statements allowed for the possibility that he used substances that were legal in the Dominican Republic but which would have been illegal to use in the United States and which, either way, all of us would identify as PEDs. No lies detected but it was pretty clear that Sosa was trying to thread that needle. In the end, however, his carefully-chosen words didn’t save Sosa’s legacy and he continued to be associated with PEDs.

    This was partially because his name was leaked as having tested positive in the 2003 survey testing which was done prior to baseball creating a PED testing regime. Of course others – such as David Ortiz – had their names leaked as well and did not become pariahs, But Sosa did. I suspect it’s because Sosa (a) challenged some hallowed records, and everyone back then was way harder on players whose PED use broke or threatened records; and (b) because people really didn’t like the fact that Sosa answered questions before Congress in Spanish. Honestly, no one has ever adequately explained to me why Sosa and Ortiz were treated differently, but I suppose the fact that Ortiz’s team defended and embraced him when his name came out while the Cubs, for whom Sosa no longer played in 2005, did not embrace or defend Sosa had a lot to do with it.

    Sosa left baseball following the 2007 season and has been estranged from the game ever since. Despite the massive number of butts he put in Wrigley Field seats in his thirteen years in Chicago – and despite the fact that he was a primary reason there were some good Cubs teams in the 1990s and early 2000s– the Cubs never held a “Sammy Sosa Day” or anything like that. Several years ago team owner Tom Ricketts said it was because he wanted Sosa to apologize. Partially for the ignominious end to Sosa’s Cubs career – he infamously left the ballpark early on his final day as a Cub in 2004 – but more for his PED use. Ricketts said that “players from that era owe us a little bit of honesty . . . the only way to turn that page is to put everything on the table.” Since that never happened there has been no reunion.

    Now, however, there will be:

    Sammy Sosa and the Chicago Cubs made up Thursday afternoon, ending their 17-year estrangement after the former slugger apologized for making “mistakes” during his playing career.

    Sosa, who has been linked to performance-enhancing drugs for decades, stopped short of directly admitting to PED use in a statement released Thursday.

    But the former National League MVP said he “did whatever I could to recover from injuries” at times throughout his playing career and added: “I never broke any laws but in hindsight, I made mistakes, and I apologize.”

    Minutes after the apology was released, the Cubs invited Sosa to their winter fan convention for the first time since he retired. It was pretty obviously an arranged deal: you make a statement, we’ll invite you back. Which, fine. If Sosa wanted back bad enough and those were the conditions for him coming back, who am I to say he shouldn’t do it?

    That being said, I’ve long taken issue with Ricketts’ demand for a Sosa apology.

    Sosa left the Cubs after 2004. Tom Ricketts did not buy the team until 2009. Sosa never worked for Tom Ricketts. He never wronged Tom Ricketts. Indeed, Sosa’s contributions to the Cubs did a hell of a lot to create a generation of Cubs fans who have made Tom Ricketts even more wealthy than he already was. Where does he get off asking for an apology? It’s like your second husband demanding that you apologize to him for wronging your first. If, indeed, the first husband in this analogy – the Tribune Company? Cubs fans? – was even truly wronged.

    Yeah, there are a lot of fans who were none too pleased about PEDs in baseball, generally speaking, but were they not entertained? Did they not get what they paid for during Sosa’s prime? He hit a boatload of home runs and Cubs fans cheered like mad for every single one of them. There was always a pretty strong current among fans and baseball officials who wanted to have their cake and eat it too when it came to homers and PEDs in the 1990s and early 2000s. They loved them dingers but they wanted to – quite selectively – moralize about them too. I’m not sure those folks are owed any apologies. The only people I truly think were owed apologies were players who either (a) had their careers harmed or cut short because they were competing against players who doped; and (b) players who felt compelled to dope against their better judgment in order to survive. Whatever the case, none of the other big stars who got caught up in PEDs – Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte – were expected to offer apologies lest they be cast out from the franchise with which they were most associated, so why was Sosa expected to grovel? It never made sense to me.

    Now, however, that’s all water under the bridge. It took long enough, but the Cubs and Sammy Sosa are in the same place basically all of the big stars of his era are with their former teams. A welcome guest who, I strongly suspect, will be warmly greeted for creating a hell of a lot of good memories for a hell of a lot of fans.

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  58. Author
    Rice Cube

    berselius,

    He said a lot of things I thought but never got into words…anyway, Sosa was cool, probably not the greatest human being though but he did make me a Cubs fan, which I guess is up to interpretation whether that’s a good thing (dying laughing)

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  82. BVS

    berselius:
    Jesus Lizard —–> Phillies

    Looking at the return to Miami, no wonder the Cubs backed out. SS who is No. 54-81 MLB prospect in Low A ball and #23 team prospect CF in High A.

    Neither of those guys are Caissie or Triantos.

    Plus the Marlins sent an also ran minor league C.

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  84. berselius

    Vikings scrape by a terrible Seahawks team: KOC should be coach of the year.

    Packers dominate the same Seahawks team in prime time one week previous: 🦗for Matt LaFleur 🤷‍♂️

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  86. Perkins

    Kind of tough today

    Daily Walkoff ⚾️
    Cubs #115

    ⚪️⚪️🟡⚪️⚫️
    🟡🟡🟡🟡⚫️
    🟢🟢🟢🟢🚀

    dailywalkoff.com

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  95. BVS

    Thanks to waiting in lines and parking lots today I did the daily walkoff for every team today. Only the Marlins got me out. They were tough. So little history, so interchangeable.

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  107. Author
    Rice Cube

    Rough one

    🎄 Daily Walkoff ⚾️
    Cubs #116

    “Big Christmas Energy”
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    dailywalkoff.com

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  109. Perkins

    🎄 Daily Walkoff ⚾️
    Cubs #116

    “Big Christmas Energy”
    🟡⚪️🟡🟡⚫️
    🟢🟢🟢🟢🚀

    dailywalkoff.com

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