Thanks.

Also, I didn’t realize that Cespedas got a deal that eliminates arbitration. Very interesting.

Tim Dierkes:
In terms of Major League control, the years on the contract don’t really matter. He’d be under that team’s control for six years of Major League service regardless, as he’s not going to get the no-arbitration clause Cespedes did. Kind of like how Adeiny Hechavarria signed a four-year deal.

Nobody’s offered anything yet, and nobody’s bid yet. Right now, it’s just speculation, so quoting those numbers as fact is ill-advised. Remember that Cespedes was expected to sign for a much bigger contract than he did.

Anyway, I find this whole cubs thing really strange. In the past, you always knew who the cubs were targeting because they either couldn’t keep it out of the media or wanted to always assure their fan base they were doing something.

I thought all this would change with the new regime, but with them publicly going after Cespedes well before he was even a free agent and then getting pushed aside by the Marlins before he eventually signed with the A’s. And now them basically telling every other team they target Soler and exactly how much they plan to spend on him makes me think things haven’t changed quite a much as I thought they had on the North Side.

Don’t get me wrong. Theo and Hoyer are miles better than Hendry (sad face….) but what is the point of publicly announcing who you’re targeting and how much you’re going to pay them? How does that help anything?

And now, it comes out that there are a bevy of teams interested in him and the Yankees are REALLY interested. Why would the cubs brass subject themselves to this?