SAN ANTONIO — The Chicago Cubs’ offseason roster-building approach has gained much-needed clarity thanks to Cody Bellinger’s contract decision.
President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was informed a little over a week ago by Bellinger’s agent, Scott Boras, that the 29-year-old slugger would be picking up his $27.5 million player option for next year.
“It’s great, we signed him to that deal, we love him as a player,” Hoyer said Sunday. “And any time a really good player decides to stay with you, that’s good news.”
Over the next four days, the Cubs will be talking to other teams and agents at the MLB general managers meetings to get a feel for the market while in information-gathering mode as the organization attempts to turn an 83-win team into a postseason appearance in 2025.
“Always we’re looking to be creative, find if we can find value on the margins, to be able to do that,” Hoyer said. “I think there’s room for it this year. … Everyone comes here with a lot of great ideas, and they usually get squashed within the first cocktail party, and then you go back to the drawing board. But we’ll talk to everyone here. We’ll be super active in discussions and see where it leads us.”
With Bellinger returning, the Cubs currently have a player locked into a guaranteed contract or under team control at each of the nine positions, including designated hitter. Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner, Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki all have at least two years left on their deals while Isaac Paredes is arbitration eligible and Michael Busch, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya are pre-arb.
It’s premature to declare Suzuki will predominately be the Cubs’ DH next year, Hoyer said, though “obviously Cody’s our best defensive right fielder but certainly Seiya is solid and he has room to improve.” Suzuki’s bat will keep him in the lineup regardless of the outfield alignment. He was named one of five finalists among National League outfielders for the Silver Slugger Award on Sunday.
“I was really pleased with how that group played the second half of the season, I thought our offense was good,” Hoyer said. “Obviously, we went for a long stretch of not producing. But I felt like things settled out a bit more. Pete played better in the second half. We solidified the third base position. Some of the other guys played better. So I felt like it was a productive group in the second half, but certainly looking to improve.”
One unknown over the next three months is Hoerner’s readiness for the start of the season after he underwent surgery last month to repair the flexor tendon in his right forearm. His timeline remains unclear, but top prospects Matt Shaw and James Triantos provide quality depth if the Cubs need to go that route until Hoerner is game-ready.
“It’s really nice to have that kind of depth,” Hoyer said. “When you talk about farm systems, a lot of times they’re talking about guys in High A, Low A — it’s great to have that pipeline. But they’re non-usable pieces in the big leagues. And I think that our guys are rapidly becoming usable major-league depth.”
Hoyer estimated Hoerner had been dealing with the injury for half the season, “maybe a little more,” and they knew surgery might be a possibility once the season ended. The type of procedure he needed was ultimately a good scenario, Hoyer added.
“If you go back now and watch, you can see some double play turns, that probably didn’t have as much on the throw as he wanted,” Hoyer said. “You can see him kind of running balls over (to the base) and kind of short-arming some balls. It’s a credit to his toughness that he was able just to play through and play really well. But, yeah, I think you could see it on some plays where he didn’t have quite as much on the throw, and it made sense right after the season to get it checked out.”
While the Cubs look to improve an offensive group that needs more slug in the lineup, the bullpen presents a lot of question marks after an evolving season hit hard by injuries. Part of bolstering that unit will be finding more lefty options. On Monday that meant reuniting with a familiar face.
Left-hander Rob Zastryzny was claimed off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers, bringing the 32-year-old back to Chicago. Zastryzny, a second-round pick of the Cubs in 2013, debuted in 2016 and earned a World Series ring after posting a 1.13 ERA in eight games during the regular season. He made 18 appearances in parts of three seasons before the Cubs released him in 2019.
Zastryzny was called up to the Brewers on June 29, recording a 1.17 ERA in nine games until left elbow tendinitis in late July ultimately ended his season. The Cubs designated right-hander Jimmy Herget for assignment as the corresponding 40-man roster move.
The Cubs also announced Monday that right-hander Yency Almonte, catcher Christian Bethancourt, right-hander Colten Brewer and right-hander Enoli Paredes cleared waivers and elected free agency. Six players who were on the 60-day injured list were put back on the 40-man roster: right-handers Adbert Alzolay, Ben Brown and Julian Merryweather, infielder Nick Madrigal, outfielder Brennen Davis and left-hander Luke Little. Alzolay, Merryweather and Madrigal are arbitration-eligible.
As the Cubs evaluate the reliever market, they aren’t satisfied with Little and Zastryzny as their two main options against left-handed hitters. The organizational need became clear after trading Mark Leiter Jr., their go-to reliever for lefties.
“We weren’t optimizing for individual matchups as much as we would have been, and you could feel it in the second half,” Hoyer said. “We oftentimes didn’t have the best matchup for a lefty, especially when Luke went out. So that is something that we’ll be actively looking for this offseason.”
