Looks Like Drew Smyly’s Staying with Cubs After All, Adding Another Lefty Could Make Sense
Drew Smyly was placed on irrevocable waivers two days ago, which confused a lot of folks who were prematurely celebrating his departure. The lefty was not designated for assignment, so he remained with the team during the waiver process and pitched in Wednesday’s win. Now that he’s cleared and remains in the Cubs’ employ, it should be business as usual in the bullpen.
On the other hand, or maybe the same hand since we’re talking about another lefty, there’s been a lot of speculation about Jed Hoyer targeting Taylor Rogers of the Giants. Like Smyly, Rogers was recently placed on waivers and can be claimed by any team willing to pay the remainder of his $12 million salary for this year (~$2.2M) and the full freight of that same amount in 2025. His CBT hit is slightly less at $11 million, for what it’s worth.
It could be worth something to the Cubs, who’ve been right around the penalty threshold all season. Waiving Smyly was at least partially an attempt to shave a little money off of both their actual and luxury tax payrolls, but it doesn’t appear as though the Cubs made similar moves with Mike Tauchman or Patrick Wisdom. As such, they figure to end up nudging past the first CBT penalty threshold.
Given the way their season has gone, that strikes me the same as taking a shot with your toe on the three-point line. As Rick Pitino said back when his Kentucky Wildcats were revolutionizing college basketball by shooting what then seemed like a very high volume of triples, that’s the worst shot in basketball. Please understand how much it pains me to leverage UK in even a mildly positive way.
What I’m driving at here is that you either need to be under by enough to ensure you stay there or you need to be over by enough to ensure the penalties are worth it. While the financial hit won’t be significant in and of itself, Tom Ricketts and Crane Kenney have routinely opined on the evils of dead-weight losses and being repeat offenders. So, barring what feels like an impossible pursuit of Juan Soto, the front office might not be handed as big a budget next season.
If there’s still a little left in it now, however, they could try to make a move for the future by adding Rogers. His salary is comparable to Smyly’s, making it a wash for next year, but he misses bats at a much higher rate and has traditionally done a better job against left-handed hitters even though he’s got heavy reverse splits this season. I have to think at least one other team is thinking the same thing, so it won’t matter for the Cubs if any other interested parties have higher waiver priority.
Not quite as wild as the days of waiver trades, but this is another of those funky procedural wrinkles that gives us something to talk about on the off day.