Chicago Sports Exchange, Baseball Edition: Cubs Finally Make Splash, Sox Extend Second Chance
The Chicago Sports Exchange provides a brief look at each pro team in the Chi each week and decides whether fans should "buy," "sell," or "hold" their investments in each team
Less than two weeks from today spring training will begin.
This, and that Opening Day will fall on April 1, we know for sure. The details of the 2021 MLB season still need to be ironed out beyond that.
Even though it was both the meat and potatoes for the MLBPAs rejection of the league’s proposal for a delayed start, an expanded playoff format isn’t yet completely off the table. Neither are the issues of a universal designated hitter, seven-inning doubleheaders, neutral-site playoff games, nor the idea of a runner starting at second base in extra innings.
Those wrinkles could be smoothed out in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, the Cubs and White Sox have given fans plenty more to think about.
HOLD - Cubs Signings Make Noise, But Rivals Do More
Like a Chrysler 300 to a Phantom, Joc Pederson looked so much better before Nolan Arenado pulled up beside him.
Just four days after the Cubs took their deepest dive into this off-season’s free-agent pool to sign Pederson, the rival St. Louis Cardinals officially finessed away from Colorado the only infielder to ever win the Gold Glove Award in each of his first eight seasons in the Majors.
It’s not that anyone could ever even squint and mistake Pederson — the boom-or-bust outfielder formerly of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers — for Arenado, who set career highs batting average, OBP, fielding percentage, fWAR, bWAR, and on-base plus slugging in the last regular regular season.
It’s just that for each penny-pinching move president Jed Hoyer made this winter, it stood to reason that the Cubs could still find their way back to the top of the middling NL Central. That idea seems at least a little farther-fetched now.
Especially considering the Jon Lester-and-Jose Quintana-sized holes that still need to be plugged in the back of the Cubs’ starting pitching rotation.
Trevor Williams adds experience and depth, but he is neither head nor shoulders above the competition — Adbert Alzolay, Alec Mills, Shelby Miller, and Kohl Stewart — he’ll face for the right to anchor the arms of Kyle Hendricks and Zach Davies.
Luring Pederson to Wrigleyville for a fraction of what he reportedly sought from the South Siders in December is no less of a steal. In him the Cubs have not only found the statistical doppelgänger to fan favorite and non-tendered casualty Kyle Schwarber, but also a more versatile defender known for playing his best when the lights are the brightest.
But for Pederson to even have a shot at adding another chapter to his Joctober legacy, the Cubs as a whole need more tricking out.
BUY - White Sox Buy Low With Rodon, Who Could Intrigue As Comeback Story
It seems fitting that as far as subplots go, Carlos Rodon’s would be added to the host of them spilling from the margins of Guaranteed Rate Field.
Watching championship quests unfold is fun, but everyone still loves a good comeback story.
Rodon’s version has a few more chapters in it than is customary thanks to shoulder and elbow injuries, and, to a lesser extent, last season’s rocky experiment as a reliever. That the latest even features the unexpected twist of him re-signing with the White Sox after he was non-tendered in December is something not many people other than general manager Rick Hahn could’ve seen coming.
Not as Rodon continues to struggle to catch up to the expectations that relentlessly shadow former third-overall picks. Not after he gave up seven earned runs in the 7 2/3 innings he pitched last season. Not after he allowed each of the three Oakland A’s batters he faced to reach base in the deciding game of the AL Wild Card Series.
And yet here is his story, still set in Chicago for at least one more year.
Chalk it up to the zip still left on his fastball, his tiptop slider and the Sox’s need for more lefty hurlers. That the price tag to keep him here was roughly $1.5 million cheaper than what it would’ve been had they tendered him a contract two months ago didn’t hurt, either.
It amounts to a low-risk, high-reward flier. The Sox are banking on that with a new pitching coach, his firm desire to prove his worth and the less-pressurized role at the back-end of the rotation ripe for his taking, Rodon will more closely resemble the pitcher he was five years ago.
It’s more of a long shot than an odds-on possibility.
But what’s a captivating story without a little drama?
Drew Stevens is a Senior Writer for WARR Media, he lives and works in Chicago