Well, I was going to ask if the Cubs offseason might be over, but then this came through:
Alcántara’s an interesting pickup. Not in terms of what he could bring to the Cubs—he’s never been a huge prospect, and his MLB action’s been too limited to make much of it—but in terms of the fact that the Cubs got him. Because as Brett Taylor pointed out up there, the Cubs are going to have to make some room.
There are a variety of ways this could happen. There could be a big trade. There could be a small trade. The Cubs could DFA somebody. Anything’s on the table, and it’s possible the Cubs don’t know yet exactly what they’ll do. Presumably, they’re still listening to trade offers, and it’s been speculated that they want another starting pitching option, which would imply they may need to make two spaces available on the roster. The best expectation is probably that they have someone in mind to DFA, or that they’re working on a low-level trade: flip a minor league 40-man roster guy for a lower-level prospect. In other words, this doesn’t mean today is Kris Bryant’s final day as a Cub (though that could be the case).
But someone does have to leave the 40-man, so let’s look at the 40-man.
Here’s how it currently shapes up (credit to Roster Resource for being a good, well, roster resource):
Position Player Starters – 6
Anthony Rizzo
Kris Bryant
Ian Happ
Willson Contreras
Javier Báez
Jason Heyward
Platoon Position Players – 4
David Bote
Nico Hoerner
Joc Pederson
Phillip Ervin
Bench Options – 4
Austin Romine
Ildemaro Vargas
Sergio Alcántara
Max Schrock
Minor League Position Players – 2
Miguel Amaya
Christopher Morel
Starting Pitchers – 5
Kyle Hendricks
Zach Davies
Alec Mills
Trevor Williams
Adbert Alzolay
Starting Pitching Options – 6
Shelby Miller is not on the 40-man roster and is expected to be a non-roster Spring Training invitee
Tyson Miller
Kohl Stewart
Brailyn Marquez
Cory Abbott
Keegan Thompson
Justin Steele
Bullpen Options – 14
Craig Kimbrel
Rowan Wick
Jason Adam
Andrew Chafin
Duane Underwood Jr.
Kyle Ryan
Dan Winkler
Gray Fenter
Brad Wieck
Jonathan Holder
James Norwood
Dillon Maples
Robert Stock
Manuel Rodriguez
***
So, you’ve got 25 pitchers and 16 position players. The DFA candidates are probably mostly pitchers—Morel’s not a bad prospect, and the bench seems too thin to justify cutting Vargas unless Alcántara’s a one-for-one switch. But the possibility is there that this forebodes a trade this weekend.
We’ll see.
