Cubs News & Notes – 11/29/16: Kris Bryant’s Value Soars, Cubs+Dynasty=Love, CBA Rumors Abound

Photo of Jon Ferlise Jon FerliseNovember 29, 2016

Today’s Cubs News & Notes is brought to you by the creeping CBA deadline, if something doesn’t happen soon, we’ll all be baffled and dismayed. Really though, something should happen soon, or at least that’s what we’ve been led to believe. As a refresher – in case you haven’t heard it 100+ times already – the CBA expires on December 1, 2016. That’s Thursday and that means that if an agreement is going to be reached it will happen today or tomorrow.

  • As the CBA deadline nears there has been chatter, namely from Ken Rosenthal, that progress is being made. Of course, this chatter comes from unnamed sources and we don’t know the motivation of said sources – such as, if they are leaking real information or just select information that could stand to benefit their side of the negotiations. These things tend to get complicated this late in the game. The sticking point for the players has appeared to be the international draft – that is, they don’t want it and the owners are pushing hard for it. Well, now we hear from Rosenthal that the owners have backed off on that point.

  • So that’s good news, right? Well, maybe and maybe not. You see, there’s this too.

  • Look, I want to be positive about this, you know, rainbows and butterflies, we can all live in peace, everything is going to be okay. The second tweet tells me one of two things. Either it’s true, and the players have some ‘other’ issue that we didn’t know was as big of an issue as it is, or ‘the owners’ willingness to back off international draft’ really means that the owners have modified their ‘ask’ and not completely dropped it, as the above tweet would have you believe. Either way, there’s still an issue and I’m hoping it comes to the surface and gets resolved in due course, as in today.
  • Now that Kris Bryant is the MVP of the National League everything he does and, more importantly, everything he touches seemingly turns to gold. Case in point – according to an article in Crain’s, a jersey that Bryant wore in a regular season game fetched over $16,000 last night in a Cubs Authentics auction. That’s a record price paid for a single item from Cubs Authentics. Crazy. Good thing all proceeds benefit Cubs’ Charities.
  • And last but certainly not least, there is a fine read over at the Ringer that covers, in great detail, all the things the Cubs can do to become a dynasty (hint, they’re going to be a dynasty unless someone screws this up really good and, by the way, that somebody would have to be Theo Epstein. So there’s that). The article ponders what it would take to win a second title (or more) over the next five years and gives us five paths to choose from 1. Do nothing 2. Bring up the remaining talent in the minor league system 3. Make a big trade or 4. Make a big free agent acquisition somewhere along the way. The more relevant topic may be ‘how could the Cubs not become a dynasty’. You can read the full article here.
Photo of Jon Ferlise Jon FerliseNovember 29, 2016
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