bring Bregman in on a five-year, $175 million deal<\/a> (a deal that\u2019s around $30-31 million in AAV with deferrals).<\/p>\nChicago sports fans are buzzing about their Bears and their Cubs. The only way to deflate them would be if the front office traded Hoerner. It doesn\u2019t matter if it would give the team more financial flexibility under the first luxury tax threshold \u2014 according to Roster Resource, the Cubs are less than $1 million below that $244 million mark. That Hoerner has a year left on his deal shouldn\u2019t be a big factor.<\/p>\n
None of these supposed issues should impede a team that, on paper at least, appears to be a legitimate contender once again. Trading Hoerner, a team leader, elite defender and above-average offensive player, would be antithetical to the ultimate goal of winning.<\/p>\n
There are no indications that the Cubs are looking to move Hoerner, but other teams have come calling, and this organization won\u2019t hang up when others ring. The Cubs will listen, and if they\u2019re blown away, they may decide it\u2019s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n
But a win-now team should want nothing more than to keep Hoerner. By WAR, he led all second basemen with 4.8 (FanGraphs). Baseball-Reference (6.2) was even more bullish on Hoerner, ranking him fourth for all National League position players in the metric. Hoerner has won two Gold Gloves, garnered down-ballot MVP votes last season, competed for a batting title and is fifth in stolen bases (123) over the last four seasons combined.<\/p>\n
Hoerner also brings an intangible quality. A front office that is model-heavy still clearly values that aspect of the game. It was a big reason the Cubs brought in Justin Turner last spring and a quality that attracted them to Bregman.<\/p>\n
\u201cNico\u2019s great at some things I think other people think they\u2019re good at and they\u2019re not as good at it,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said in December at the Winter Meetings. \u201cI\u2019m not talking about just players, I\u2019m talking about people. When you say show up every day and complete every rep, every rep is completed perfectly. That\u2019s who Nico is. That seems like that\u2019s easy, \u2018Everybody can do that, I do that.\u2019 Well, you don\u2019t do it. I would put Nico at the top of the list for how he does that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a sport like baseball with so many games and so many moments, it shows up a lot. It\u2019s a great trait to have and it\u2019s what made Nico a very, very good baseball player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving Hoerner could help the Cubs replenish a farm system that\u2019s seen some drain over the last year-plus. It would remove nearly $12 million of salary from the payroll. These would be the reasons to make that move. But the clubhouse would feel his absence, and his teammates would likely voice their displeasure, even if they understand this is a business. And it would hurt the team in the most important category: the win column.<\/p>\n
The luxury tax is an artificial limit, one that shouldn\u2019t impede teams like the Cubs, who continually fill Wrigley Field and have the surrounding area packed with fans all summer. There should be no fear of triggering any of the penalties, both financial or baseball-related, that come with surpassing the luxury tax.<\/p>\n
For too long, the Cubs have made half-measures and not looked like an organization that is truly going for it. They hired Counsell, and fans waited months for a big roster addition that never came. They traded for Kyle Tucker and never added the starting pitcher they would end up seeking for the next year. Finally, they are behaving as everyone has expected for years.<\/p>\n
When the trade deadline arrives, the Cubs should look to add whatever they need. That\u2019s how a big-market team should behave. It\u2019s how the Cubs acted Saturday when they added Bregman, a decisive act fans have been begging to see for years now. This is a moment to step on the accelerator, to take advantage of the moment and take control of a division they\u2019ve let the Milwaukee Brewers lead for too long. A step back shouldn\u2019t be acceptable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs saw a path to their dream offseason, and for the first time in a while,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5158,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-408607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}