Ed Howard – Picture by Todd Johnson

This week is pretty much the calm before the storm. There was not a lot of big news, nor were there any major trades. The only transactions that took place happened a couple days before the international free agency signing deadline passed on December 1. The Cubs signed three young players, two pitchers and a catcher, and assigned them to the DSL for 2024. 

Jeremy Guzman is a 6-foot-4 lefty starter who is 19 and from the Dominican . Alberto Chala is a 5-foot-10 righty from Venezuela. He will be 20-years-old all of next season. As for catcher Ivan Cespedes, he just turned 18 and is from the DR while being listed at 5-foot-10 and 190. 

Big News Coming

This next week, however, is going to be extremely busy. On Tuesday, the draft lottery will take place. The Cubs have a minuscule chance of drafting first at 0.04%. More than likely they’re going to wind up with the 16th spot in the draft.

Come Wednesday, minor league rosters might change a little bit as the rule 5 Draft takes place at 2 PM. I don’t expect the Cubs to make any moves for the major league squad, but we could see a few lefty relief pitchers get picked up, maybe even a catcher or a corner infielder. I think the organizations is pretty good on outfielders and starting pitchers. 

When those two events are over, expect minor league free agency to take off like a rocket. The reason it’s been so slow is that any minor league free agent signing becomes eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. So, most guys have held off from signing. Here is the full list of available free agents at Baseball America who are eligible to be minor-league free agents. There’s a couple good ones in there like Justus Sheffield and James Kaprielian that might be worth a shot as relievers.

In the Actual News

MLB Pipeline published an article about teams with prospects to trade. The Cubs were listed among the six. Jim Callis wrote this summation and named some names. 

“Tradeability” Grade: 55 (Callis)

Another team with an intriguing combination of motivation and prospect depth. The bats are the draw here, with talented infielders like Matt Shaw (CHC No. 6) and James Triantos (CHC No. 9), outfielders like Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC No. 1), Owen Caissie (CHC No. 3) and Kevin Alcántara (CHC No. 4) and bat-first catcher Moises Ballesteros (CHC No. 7). The Cubs are a veteran team with long-term commitments all over the diamond (Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki), and are hungry to improve after narrowly missing the playoffs in ’23. Their position player prospect depth should be an asset this winter.

It was interesting to see which prospects he listed. Only the Reds, Dodgers, and Orioles were ranked higher in terms of “tradeability.”

In addition, Jim Callis pined about the top Rule 5 prospects available for each club. For the Cubs, he listed Pablo Aliendo. It was weird seeing Kevin Made as the choice for the Nationals.

Winter League Update

Ed Howard is playing for the Canberra Calvary in the Australian Baseball League, the same team Cole Roederer played for last winter. He’s gotten in 10 games so far, playing a mixture of 2B and SS. The bat, however, has not come around just yet but it is still early.

Alexander Canario only played 16 games for Aguilas Cibaenas but hit .246 with a .353 OBP and had 9 RBI. He is listed as the fourth youngest player on the squad.

In Puerto Rico, several Cubs are on the Criollos de Caguas team along with several former Cubs.

Coming Up on North Side Bound

Tomorrow will see the second base group be profiled in the position rankings. On Wednesday, I’ll be checking out reliever Jose Romero as a guy who could break out next year. Friday, I am going to preview South Bend’s possible starting pitching for 2024. And at some point Greg Zumach and I are going to go over what could be some of the top storylines for the draft once the lottery is done. That could be this week or a couple weeks from now, but it is coming.

Jam of the Week 

I still cannot believe Chris Whitley is gone and has been for over 15 years. I still love his music and just how original he was a musician and artist. He always sounded so familiar to blues music but he brought in so many different elements to his music. He was a very poetic lyricist.