Cubs May Be Able to Benefit from Dodgers’ Free Agent Gluttony
It seems like nearly every Cubs target this offseason has ended up going to the Dodgers, whether it’s a matter of money or the higher likelihood of winning it all. Based on their nearly $400 million payroll and status as clear World Series favorites, it’s probably both. The running joke as LA continues to add top-tier free agents at an unprecedented clip is that they’ll have to pay some of these dudes millions of dollars to serve as minor-league depth.
As it turns out, they won’t have room for everyone on the 40-man roster and the Cubs are among the teams that could benefit as the Dodgers are forced to throw away perfectly good food from their overflowing banquet table. Bob Nightengale specifically noted 37-year-old righty reliever Ryan Brasier as a victim of the inevitable purge following this winter’s ongoing binge. While he might be a decent target for a team in need of a solid veteran to hold down the 7th inning, I wouldn’t say he’s an ideal fit for the Cubs.
If we pull on this string a little more, however, we find exactly the kind of reclamation project Jed Hoyer and the Cubs’ pitching infrastructure love. After adding high-end starters Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell to a rotation that already includes Tony Gonsolin, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Shohei Ohtani, it’s very possible the Dodgers will be looking to unload health-challenged righty Dustin May. The lanky ginger has pitched only 101 innings over the last four years due to three elbow procedures and an esophageal tear, so we’re not talking about anything approaching a sure thing here.
The risk is largely mitigated by May’s $2.135 million in his final year of club control, which makes even a mediocre season worthwhile. We know the rotation is not a priority and prices on the starting pitching market are prohibitive given Hoyer’s budget — whether you like it or not, that’s the case — so a move like this might be the only way to add high-upside rotation help. May could also be used in the bullpen, especially as he builds back up from missing all of last season.
Working shorter stints might help May maintain the elite velocity he’s shown with the Dodgers and his starter’s repertoire makes him dangerous even if he’s not quite back to touching triple digits. Watching how he runs that nasty two-seam in on righties has me feeling a certain kind of way.
A reminder of how RIDICULOUS Dustin May’s Two Seamers are. ?
I woke up missing these. pic.twitter.com/0rz5huFHzV
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) December 17, 2024
The Dodgers aren’t exactly in an advantageous spot here, so it might just be a matter of trading cash or a lottery-ticket prospect for May and others. I made a joke the other day about collecting all the clothes and gear that get left at our travel baseball facility and then charging people to get it back. That’s essentially what the Dodgers are doing after picking up so many new players that they can’t keep everyone. Their big problem is that they can’t exactly charge premium prices because the alternative is to DFA guys and risk losing them for nothing.
We’ll see more about this in the coming days as their recent moves are finalized, but let’s review some other options for the Cubs after looking at a few bigger names earlier in the week. Among the numerous available players Hoyer and his staff have evaluated are Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek, Brooks Raley, and Andrew Chafin. If you’re scoring at home, that’s two former Cubs and a guy who was named after one. Sorry, Maton.
I can’t say I’m really bullish on any of those possibilities because they all feel somewhat lateral given the Cubs’ current bullpen construction. Which is to say none of them would immediately displace Porter Hodge as the de facto closer, and avoiding a committee situation by paying for a little more certainty was supposed to be the plan. Hoyer might have to turn to the trade market for someone like that.
Enter Ryan Pressly, the Houston setup man who was displaced as closer last year by Josh Hader. Pressly has a no-trade clause but might be willing to waive it to join a team that would guarantee him the ability to close games. His strikeouts and velocity were down a bit in his age-35 season, though you have to wonder whether some of that was situational. His $14 million salary is not prohibitive, especially if Houston needs to eat some of it to facilitate a deal, and his lone remaining year of control removes risk while leaving the job open for Hodge in the future.
This one doesn’t strike me as being nearly as sexy as a deal with the Padres for Robert Suárez, but it would give the Cubs a consistent high-leverage reliever with plenty of experience on the biggest stage. At this point, it’s feeling more and more like any kind of meaningful addition will come via trade rather than free agency. For all the caution they’ve shown when it comes to paying market value for players, the Cubs have gotten aggressive with trades over the past couple of years. Making a pair of deals for pitchers and then finding an inexpensive veteran bench bat feels like it fits Hoyer’s MO.
We’re less than a month from the first Cactus League games and the season starts earlier than usual for the Cubs and Dodgers, so I’d imagine we’ll see something happen soon.