Forty years after the Sandberg Game, Ryne Sandberg will be back at Wrigley Field on Sunday, and Bob Costas will be there to call the proceedings, just like he was in 1984. Sandberg’s statue will be unveiled outside of Wrigley Field, joining those of Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Ferguson Jenkins, Billy Williams, and Harry Caray. Marquee will have the broadcast starting at 3:00. (Earlier in the day, beginning at 8 AM, it’ll broadcast the Sandberg Game, Sandberg’s last game, and a documentary on the Sandberg Game. Quite the lead-up.)
If you read Off the Lake, there’s a good chance you know Ryne Sandberg better than I do. I was born in 1994, and while I went to elementary school with a kid named Ryne in his honor, I don’t have a single memory of watching the second baseman play. I’m familiar with his post-playing career—I remember when he looked like the manager of the future for a minute there—but if I watched Sandberg in person, I wasn’t yet three years old when I did it. I can acknowledge his legacy, but it needs no acknowledging. He, like those four players he joins, is one of the greatest Cubs of all time. Going by numbers, he’s write there with Santo and Banks among modern players.
Sunday will be a special day, and I’d imagine the ESPN broadcast has a lot of good Sandberg stuff on Sunday Night. In case you missed the latest update, the last thing we heard about Sandberg’s prostate cancer is really, really positive. A month ago today, he announced his PET scan and MRI(s) showed no remaining cancer. Again, you probably know this, but just in case!
Moves/Injuries:
- The big one happened. (Fine. The medium one.) As we speculated on Monday, Tomás Nido is a Cub now, with Yan Gomes designated for assignment to make room. It’s possible Gomes will bounce back again somewhere else, but at his age, there’s a strong possibility it’s just too late. Catching is a hard position. Hopefully we see a Nido revenge series this weekend. He was a career Met! Twelve years in that organization! What if all he needed was liberation?
- Mike Tauchman strained his groin on Monday, and Miles Mastrobuoni got the call, possibly because Alexander Canario was coming off an injury scare himself. Canario’s been back in the lineup at Iowa the last two nights, going 0-for-8 with five strikeouts. Hopefully he’s all good. Tauchman is expected to miss about a month.
- Keegan Thompson went on the paternity list, bringing Porter Hodge back to the majors.
News/Rumors/Speculation:
- Nothing came easy in that series against the Giants, but congratulations to Colten Brewer on his first career save. There’s no closer shift going on—the Cubs bullpen was just extremely depleted, and that was probably as psychological as it was physical—but it was telling how deflating Tyson Miller’s non-scoreless outing felt. It’s a unit that could really use a hot hand.
Games:
- Friday: Cubs vs. New York (NL), 1:20 PM CDT (Marquee)
- Saturday: Cubs vs. New York (NL), 1:20 PM CDT (Marquee, FS1)
- Sunday: Cubs vs. New York (NL), 6:10 PM CDT (ESPN)
The Cubs get the Sunday Night treatment, which often sets up for a rough Monday following travel and is set to be no different this time. To not look ahead, though:
We don’t know who’s going to pitch for the Cubs tomorrow and Sunday. It’s probably Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad, but that hasn’t been announced yet. Today, Shōta Imanaga goes opposite Jose Quintana, and that makes today the biggest mismatch of the series. The Cubs aren’t an overwhelming favorite—something like 60/40, as opposed to 50/50 in the last two—but today’s the key to taking the series even more than Game 1 always is. There’s a chance of rain tomorrow, but it’s currently looking like it’ll come in later on in the day.
Oh, Artūras…
We speculated on Monday that Artūras Karnišovas’s reticence to complete trades might indicate an unwillingness to risk accepting a bad deal.
So much for that.
The Bulls haven’t announced the move, but they have not disputed the reports. They’re trading Alex Caruso, for whom teams might have recently offered multiple first-round picks, for Josh Giddey.
I have nothing against Giddey. He had a bad postseason, but he’s young and he’s skilled and it’s easy to see the upside. The problem is that the Bulls have plenty of guys who are young and skilled, guys in whom it’s easy to see the upside. That’s Patrick Williams. That’s Ayo Dosunmu. In the right situation, any of the three could become a dynamic force, probably not a full-on Derrick White, but likely a top-100 player. The Bulls aren’t that right situation. The Bulls are a dumpster fire. And while Coby White’s breakout and Dosunmu’s flashes of promise are, well, promising, the preponderance of evidence suggests the Bulls will not turn Josh Giddey into a star.
The Bulls did get younger. But they could have gotten younger-er. They could have gotten multiple Josh Giddey-style players, first round talents with work ahead of them. Instead, they got one who’ll be a restricted free agent next offseason.
What might be the worst about this whole thing is that I don’t really blame Karnišovas. The reports regarding the trade deadline offers do suggest he could have gotten more in the deal, but there was probably a big time-driven discount on those hypothetical picks, and they were reportedly going to be protected. I doubt that two post-lottery 2028 first-rounders are significantly better on-paper assets than Giddey. Would they be significantly better for the Bulls? Yes. The Bulls need distilled future value. They got brackish future value, some heavily mixed with hope of present playoff contention. And while it’s honorable to refuse to tank, they’re not building towards the title tier. That’s not the approach here. The approach is to make sure they win 40 games each year and to then, as an afterthought, leave the door open to winning 50 or 60 down the line. Karnišovas is operating in line with those principles. But they didn’t come from him. If Karnišovas did instigate a real rebuild, his job would be on the line. Karnišovas can’t wait for 2028. He has to win those 40 games now.
It’s Jerry Reinsdorf all the way down.
(Good for Caruso, by the way. Happy for him. The Thunder seem like a very fun team that could very much use his presence this coming season. Good for him, he deserves it, etc. Caruso rules.)
Jonathan Cannon: Something or Nothing?
The White Sox dropped their series against Houston, two games to one, but the bright spot was Tuesday’s near-shutout by Jonathan Cannon, who went eight and two thirds in his fifth career start.
In Cannon’s last two starts, he’s now struck out eleven, walked only two, and allowed just one home run. Since coming back up from Triple-A, he’s got a 0.48 ERA backed by a 2.55 FIP. Is it enough to be meaningful?
Not yet. It’s not nothing when a player pitches like Cannon pitched against a lineup like that of the Astros, but it’s not enough just yet. In Triple-A, the guy was walking almost three times as many batters as he’s walked on the year at the MLB level. That’s not something that goes away easy.
The results are encouraging, especially from a 23-year-old. But beyond the sample being small, the presence of a specific red flag from his time in the minors this same year casts a lot of suspicion on what’s happening.
Also, if he is good, the White Sox might break him. We’re not joking when we talk about that.
Moves:
- The Sox released Tim Hill, who then landed with the Yankees. This is funny, and it might have been dumb to cut Hill, who has a sub-4.00 xERA and FIP, but the Yankees had a specific need the White Sox lacked, and the guy was coming off a disastrous 2023 with the Padres. I assume every team has a formal or informal cut list lined up at all times—a designation of who leaves town when the 40-man roster ticks up to 41. Maybe the White Sox could have swung a trade. That’s not guaranteed. Hard to blame them for the straight cut.
Games:
- Friday: White Sox @ Detroit, 5:40 PM CDT (NBC Sports Chicago)
- Saturday: White Sox @ Detroit, 12:10 PM CDT (NBC Sports Chicago)
- Sunday: White Sox @ Detroit, 12:40 PM CDT (NBC Sports Chicago)
The Tigers’ regression is well underway, and with Erick Fedde, Drew Thorpe, and Jonathan Cannon lined up against a bad offense, this is a series it wouldn’t be shocking to see the White Sox win. But Jack Flaherty’s been great, Reese Olson has been good, and the Thorpe vs. Kenta Maeda matchup isn’t especially promising after Thorpe’s rough time in Arizona.
Angel Reese Put Up More Numbers
18 rebounds for Angel Reese yesterday as part of her seventh straight double-double. That’s a WNBA rookie record. Chennedy Carter got back to scoring, Marina Mabrey had a solid game, and the Sky are back in the win column, breaking their losing streak. Now…yet another Caitlin Clark game on Sunday.
- Sunday: Sky vs. Indiana, 3:00 PM CDT (ESPN)
NHL Offseason Watch: It’s Happening
The Stanley Cup has yet to be claimed, but the trades started this week. Nothing from the Blackhawks yet (although they did sign Cole Guttman’s two-way extension), and less smoke around them this week than in previous weeks, but it’s an any–moment kind of thing.
Why Is Caleb Williams Unsigned?
Six first round picks remain unsigned. Two of them are Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze. What’s left to negotiate, with the size of each draft pick’s rookie contract dictated by the CBA? From CBS Sports:
There are very few negotiable items with rookie contracts anymore. The two primary negotiating issues, particularly at the top of the draft, are the payment schedule of the signing bonus and whether salary guarantees will have offsets. Another important consideration is the language outlining the voiding of salary guarantees.
Small things. Offsets relate to what happens if the player is eventually released and signed by another team. So while Joey Bosa held out in 2016, that was a long time ago and hasn’t been anywhere close to normal in the years since. A Williams holdout would be entertaining and undoubtedly very silly, but it seems we shouldn’t expect it.
