Cubs News & Notes – 11/30/16: Cubs Sign OF Jon Jay, CBA Progress, Cubs Get Recognized

If you haven’t noticed yet, there was a bit of movement in the free agent market yesterday. Most notable was the signing of Yoenis Cespedes by the New York Mets to a four-year, $110 million deal according to multiple reports. I’m hoping this is a sign that the owners and players are close to coming to a consensus on the Collective Bargaining Agreement. We’ll find out soon.

  • The Cubs made a splash in the free agent market yesterday with the signing of 31 year-old outfielder Jon Jay. It’s a one-year $8 million deal. He’s a veteran presence who will likely platoon in center field with Albert Almora. For his career Jay has a .287/.352/.384 slash line. This signing all but guarantees that Dexter Fowler will not be returning to the Cubs and will likely sign with another club.

  • Bob Nightengale reported some progress in the CBA talks yesterday, which is positive news considering the current CBA expires tomorrow. Reportedly, there will not be an international draft, the luxury tax is expected to stay at the current level of $189 million for 2017 with gradual increases over the next five years, and rosters may increase from 25 to 26 players. We’ll discuss these changes in more detail once the CBA actually gets finalized. Here’s a link to the full story.
  • The Cubs have been named the 2016 Organization of the Year by Baseball America. A link to the full article is here but basically it says what we all already know – the Cubs are awesome.
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