After seeing your team swing and miss on both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, what does a Chicago Cubs fan receive?
For the Cubs, the offseason hasn’t been easy so far. What improvements can the team make for its supporters? On Christmas Day, place these three presents beneath the tree.
Yes, now is the time to convince the best free agent bat available to accept a long-term contract (or, at the very least, a long-term dela with a few opt-outs that Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, adores).
The Cubs should want this guy back, how could they not? With the Cubs, the NL Comeback Player of the Year had a tremendous season. He’s healthy and in the prime of his career. For him, Wrigley Field is ideal. He is available to the Cubs at first base and center field. They can solve their corner infield dilemma and create room for their best prospect, Pete Crow-Armstrong, in center field if they can persuade him to play first base full-time.
Money is all that is needed. Indeed, a great deal of it. Spending THAT much money—likely more than $200 million—is the difficult part. However, that is the purpose of delayed money and opt-outs, after all.
That carries some danger. He did, after all, just have his best-ever season, going 16-5 with a 3.06 ERA and 176 strikeouts in 173 innings.
Three years into his career, though, Steele is now heading into arbitration. The Cubs can decide whether to go with Steele on a year-to-year basis, either through arbitration hearings or one-year deals, or they can go with a long-term extension to get Steele through those years and maybe even one or two more to find a middle ground.
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