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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Sullivan: Cubs will know soon if they have landed Soler

The bids for free-agent outfielder Jorge Soler were due Sunday night, and Cubs baseball President Theo Epstein will soon find out if their long courtship of the Cuban defector will lead to a lasting relationship in Chicago.

When is a good time to start going after prime-time free agents?

“There’s obviously going to be some guys available this winter, and you’ve got to sit down and decide what the plan is,” [Sveum said] “It’s not like we’ve got a lot of guys coming except the (Anthony) Rizzos, (Brett) Jacksons and Junior Lakes, guys with tons of upside. So we do have to obviously fix some things.”

Sveum said a quick turnaround is possible “because it’s happened before” with other teams. But to do so, he said the Cubs need some game-changers in key roles, including the bullpen.

“When you have dominating bullpens, average starting pitching, and really nice 3-4-5 (hitters) and a leadoff guy, you’re going to be ahead of the scale to win all these kind of games instead of coming up a little bit short,” he said.

McCoy Posted: June 10, 2012 at 07:04 PM | 16 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: cubs, prospects

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1. UCCF Posted: June 11, 2012 at 02:22 PM (#4153877)

Apparently the Cubs won. Yay.

2. McCoy Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:07 PM (#4153958)

Odd. This took forever to get posted. But yeah Cubbies.

3. Nasty Nate Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:27 PM (#4153984)

Maybe this has been discussed and I missed it, but why were there 'bids' and not just the normal FA negotiations?

4. Dan Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:32 PM (#4153994)

A 9 year contract for a player with 0 professional experience seems a bit bonkers.

5. UCCF Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:34 PM (#4153995)

9 years but it's not a lot of money. He's 20 now, so you're basically buying out his 20s. If he makes it to the Cubs in a couple of years and you get 6-7 seasons out of him for $30M, he doesn't have to be a superstar to be worth the money.

6. Randy Jones

Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:36 PM (#4153997)

9 years is better for the team as it effectively makes it cheaper(depending somewhat on how the payments are structured).

7. McCoy Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:39 PM (#4154005)

Give him a 5 million dollar bonus and then 9 years at 25 million and you are talking about less than 3 million a year. That is ashtray money, bro.

8. Pops Freshenmeyer Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:53 PM (#4154014)

Maybe this has been discussed and I missed it, but why were there 'bids' and not just the normal FA negotiations?

In order to avoid the new international FA signing cap, Soler had to get a deal done before July 2. Maybe that was a factor? Or maybe the Cubs actually did make that reported offer months ago and Soler only needed a little bit of time to shop it around and see if anyone would beat it. Teams have had amole opprotunity to scout his workouts while they waited on FA eligibility.

9. SouthSideRyan Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:54 PM (#4154015)

Insider says Soler can opt out to go to arbitration.

10. Pops Freshenmeyer Posted: June 11, 2012 at 03:56 PM (#4154017)

Heyman is reporting the same but suggests there is some kind of threshhold to acquire that option.

11. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: June 11, 2012 at 04:13 PM (#4154033)

Give him a 5 million dollar bonus and then 9 years at 25 million and you are talking about less than 3 million a year. That is ashtray money, bro.

Isn't this along the lines of what Chapman got?

12. Pops Freshenmeyer Posted: June 11, 2012 at 04:47 PM (#4154101)

OK, Rosenthal says he can opt out once he hits arb. So It's basically like a draft bonus. I seem to recall a recent argument about how much draftee salaries were suppressed under the old draft system. For comparison, Bryce Harper signed for about 5 years / $10 million.

13. McCoy Posted: June 11, 2012 at 04:57 PM (#4154115)

From MLB.com

The Cubs have won the bidding war for Cuban prospect Jorge Soler, coming to an agreement Monday on a guaranteed nine-year, $30 million contract with the young outfielder, according to an industry source

It is MLB.com! Anything you say is being said from an "industry source".

14. McCoy Posted: June 11, 2012 at 05:00 PM (#4154120)

I'm guessing that Soler will get a good size guaranteed bonus and then the yearly salaries will be small except for the back end of the contract which will probably have most of the money that wasn't given to him as a bonus.

15. zonk Posted: June 11, 2012 at 05:05 PM (#4154130)

The Cubs have never really had a problem spending on ammy talent, so I guess they just figured might as well shoot the wad one last time before the new CBA makes it impossible.

Generally, I don't like player opt-outs, but the A-Ram one didn't work out that badly.

16. Brian C Posted: June 11, 2012 at 05:49 PM (#4154162)

I don't mind a player opt-out in this case - if he ever gets to the point where he wants to opt out, it will mean that he's become a major-league player worth paying to keep. Which is a good thing.

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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Sullivan: Cubs will know soon if they have landed Soler

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