Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
You realize that Bryant is almost certainly going to make more than Rizzo next season through arbitration? Baez is gonna probably approach $8 million in his own right. I mean in the end if the Cubs tender all their arb guys, they'll be approaching $40 million in arbitration salaries when all is said and done. It's not as though they're still getting these kids at $600K anymore. They're still bargains, to be sure. But the difference between their pre-arb years and arb salaries is gonna suck up some of what they'd need to reinforce their starting rotation or bullpen.
Now the Cubs aren't a bunch of skinflints like DeWitt and the Cardinals so they'll think nothing of bumping near $200 million in salaries if they think it will keep them at 90-95 wins, but they can't keep whistling past the graveyard and acting like their salary structure is as healthy as it was in 2016.
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One big move the Cubs could make would be to trade Bryant in a couple seasons.
It all depends on how Bote develops, but they already bumped Bryant to the OF to get Bote into the lineup. He's going to have to show some adjustments at the plate because he didn't end the year as well as it started, but he had one of the best hard hit rates in baseball. If you can get 850ish OPS out of Bote I think you pretty much have to trade Bryant because there's an obvious elephant in the room with him. He's going to be 30 years old when he is eligible to become a FA and his agent is Scott Boras and there has been no progress on extension talks.