Balta1701

So which QB this year is guaranteed to be that since you know they are?

Because if the Bears aren’t terrible they won’t be replacing Justin Fields and won’t need a QB. Pretty straightforward.

Not what I said. If the Bears have 3 seconds and two firsts in 2025, and they’ve missed the playoffs to the point they’ve fully lost confidence in Fields so they’re at least holding one top 12 or so pick (probably two but not certain, let’s assume they traded for Washington’s 1st and 2nd round picks in 25) they’re in solid position to trade up for a QB without having to empty their full draft.

So has Soxtalk.com, for reference.

If the Bears were sitting there with what, 2 firsts and 3 seconds in 24 (after trading down to #3 for example), and they have Harrison and an O like that continues to have upgrades, and Fields is somehow THAT MUCH of a problem next year, they are still potentially in a place to move on from him.

I have to admit, I love the idea of picking up an extra 1st in ‘25 from either NE or Wash now that Arizona is out of the way, and adding MHJ. When Arizona looked like they might pick 2 I wasn’t sure this would work.

Why on Earth does Jerry Reinsdorf need this brought up? It would have faded away, no one wants to read this

Because supply and demand are very different at the trade deadline. LAA was clearly motivated by trying to make a wild card with Ohtani. They had a 2 month ticking clock and very few options. There are no ticking clocks right now.

This guy definitely fits the Swingman role as he’s been in it. If they think they need a Swingman fine, but they have one in Lambert. If they think they needed a bullpen lefty like the other guy they signed, fine sign him but they have Banks, why hold these guys when you are signing the same players? At the potential expense of the tiny bits of young talent you actually do have? It probably won’t matter this time, but eventually it does matter. Most of the time the guy you DFA isn’t very goo, but you do this enough and you’ll come out a loser on a player.

Which is a statement that still ignores that 2023 happened. Asking price for 2022 Cease, teams give offers fair for 2023 Cease.

Is there any new reason to think that Santos can pass a physical? Some report about him actually throwing somewhere?

If you paid attention to the leaks - we had a ton of them early that were “Cease is 90% likely to be moved” and “look at the great offers were Getzing”. About the only name attached was Atlanta. Then we had “The Reds asked but the price was too high”. The first batch was all the White Sox leaking to friendly reporters because they thought it would drive interest! The Reds article was a bit of triage after no one wanted to pay that kind of price.

And yet Perez was not one of those guys, I think most people would have said keep guys like Perez theyre more likely to be useful than a Martin Maldonado. For this guy I’d probably have dropped Lambert.

Look at the bright side. Rick Hahn saw Vince Velazquez have an ERA of 6 with the Padres, said “that’s worth $3 million to me”, and then insisted he had a competitive roster improved by that move. Think of the savings, another guy with an ERA of 6 with a west coast team in a big ballpark, but $1.2 million cheaper! And yeah, at least no one is telling us how this will be a key part of competing this year.

He also lost 1 mph on his fastball (actually on all his pitches) after 2021.

They were never going to consider bringing him back after the lockout.

That’s a made up name.

To me, the biggest thing with Fields comes down to the "Daniel Jones" question. Is anyone here ready to pay Justin Fields >$40 million a year? Right now, that is the going rate for holding onto a free agent QB, and the franchise tag is currently $36 million for that position and presumably going up. I can't see how I would justify that after the season he's had.

Even if they were willing to do that...they still need OF depth. Their 40 man roster has Benintendi, Robert, Sheets, and Colas as the only 4 OFs. There's clearly zero plan for what to do if someone hits the IL or even needs a day off other than playing Gavin Sheets out there, and every time I write that I feel ill. But on top of that, they were already willing to block Lee completely - as far as I know they haven't publicly ripped Lee and despite that they didn't give a hoot about having him consigned to the minors potentially for the only season they have him under control. They've been far more negative on Colas, publicly, and they can bury Colas for a full 2 years before they have to make a decision on him. I would fully expect them to block Colas and see how things shake out during the year.

Well you've got a guy who has been worth 0 and 0.7 rWAR the last 2 seasons. That's not a guy who is going to get a big guaranteed contract and a starting spot on a competitive team. So, he has to decide on his priorities. Furthermore, his career earnings are $27 million, which is a lot for me but not a lot for a baseball player. A team offering him $5 million might get him even if a better team offers him $4.5 because $500k is a pretty decent boost to his career earnings.

Worth pointing out that as of now I have no idea who would be the backup CF on this roster either. Last year the lack of a backup CF led to Robert almost never getting a day off until they acquired Thompson midseason. I do continue to think that "pushing Robert to play 155 games" is pretty foolhardy, so someone who can play some CF like Phillips could be a better fit for the roster - assuming they're not finding 2 people and dumping Sheets.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/2023-24-mlb-free-agents.html Former Royals here include Whit, Soler, Brett Phillips

First, Williams has to make a decision by January 15, so there will be a complete decision by that point. He can't pull out of the draft the day beforehand. If he were to go back to college, then there's still seemingly a worthy #1 pick QB in Maye. The Bears then have a choice between Maye and Fields. You're going to have a lot of work to do to make a choice there, I'd probably still lean towards the drafted QB, but you have other options. Washington, New England, NYG all seem very likely to give you multiple picks to move up to #1 for Maye, they're currently in #3, #4, and #5, and this could of course change if Arizona wins one of their final 2 games (Admittedly moderately tough against the Eagles and Seahawks, but the Seahawks could potentially have a playoff spot locked up by the time that game starts). If the Bears want to stick with Fields, they could certainly take a worthy #1 pick in Harrison as well. If Arizona stays at #2 and Williams were to go back to school, it seems like MHJ probably goes to Arizona. If both QBs are in the draft, then I don't know what Arizona will do, but I'd be surprised if the 2 QBs didn't go 1-2. If Arizona wants a QB they'll take one, if they decide they don't want a QB they would be dumb not to trade back one slot to grab an extra pick. If he does the "insist he won't play for the Bears" thing, you can take that into account if you decide to trade the pick, but boy that's just hard to believe actually happening. You literally don't want to play for a team in one of the biggest markets in the country? Why?

While I get all of this, I also think I’m scarred by the decision 10 years ago to fire Lovie Smith and then replace him with Mark Trestman. Seemed like it was time to move on, I thought they could get better with a more offensive coach, and they only got worse.