2K19 Offseason Rumor Thread

[Hornsby]

Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein recently had a "lengthy" meeting with Bryce Harper's agent, Scott Boras.
Wittenmyer writes that Epstein urged Boras and Harper "to wait before accepting an offer from another team until the Cubs had a chance to try to move some payroll off the books and check again with ownership."

Who would the Cubs move to shed payroll?

Heyward and Chatwood are the 2 main drags on payroll, but nobody in their right mind would take either contract on. Let's face it, the Cubs have made some really poor personal decisions in the past few years, I doubt that Darvish is ever really going to pay off either. Lots of dead dollars on the books, so any Harper talk looks like nothing but wishful thinking to me, unless ownership decides to go over the cap, and I doubt that happens.

[TS Garp]

Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein recently had a "lengthy" meeting with Bryce Harper's agent, Scott Boras.
Wittenmyer writes that Epstein urged Boras and Harper "to wait before accepting an offer from another team until the Cubs had a chance to try to move some payroll off the books and check again with ownership."

Who would the Cubs move to shed payroll?

I’m sure Scott Boras had nothing to do with this story...

[Sharky]

I’m sure Scott Boras had nothing to do with this story...

Sure but so what if he did? Isn’t that his job? It’s not as if lower payrolls translate to lower ticket prices. So I certainly don’t begrudge players and agents getting what they can.

[cavebird]

Sure but so what if he did? Isn’t that his job? It’s not as if lower payrolls translate to lower ticket prices. So I certainly don’t begrudge players and agents getting what they can.

No, they don't. Just higher profits, and a possible strike when the current CBA expires. The next one will get really ugly unless the owners are willing to open their wallets.

[TranaGreg]

so it's February; pitchers & catchers report next week; and still no signings for Harper, Machado, Kimbrel, and a handful of others. Maybe this is the week???

[revo]

so it's February; pitchers & catchers report next week; and still no signings for Harper, Machado, Kimbrel, and a handful of others. Maybe this is the week???

Remember, JD Martinez didn't sign until the last week of February last season.

[Fresno Bob]

Boras already claiming he has a deal in place for Bryce

I guess that wasn't true....

[Gregg]

Rotoworld is now claiming 8 teams are still in on Harper.

[joncarlos]

What's going on with Kimbrel? I haven't heard a thing. Is he just going to slink back to Boston on a relatively cheap deal?

[TranaGreg]

What's going on with Kimbrel? I haven't heard a thing. Is he just going to slink back to Boston on a relatively cheap deal?

there were rumours the Twins were in on him, but that was a couple of weeks ago, and then that the Braves as sitting in the bush on him ... but who the heck knows.

[revo]

All I can say is after these last two off-seasons, the possibility of a strike just shot up tremendously.

[cavebird]

At this point, I think we are getting towards less of a chance---it is so bad that the owners know that concessions will have to be made. Then again, given the history of the league, they might come to that realization two months into a strike.

[harmon]

Have to think there will be a push by the players to start the big contracts earlier in careers and the owners will resist as the current system is a dream from heaven for them.

Hard to be optimistic about this unfortunately.