Yesterday afternoon, while I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off at work, the Cubbies mad their first major transaction of the off-season. I've been furiously monitoring Twitter and MLB Trade Rumors for the past several weeks, in anticipation of Theo Epstein and crew making a move, with the biggest nuggets being a minor Dario Alvarez signing and selling a prospect to Japan. Then it finally happened... when I was busy hopping from classroom to classroom, trying to figure out why printers are jammed or holiday music won't play through Chromecast. Such is the life of an IT guy at a middle school - oh well.
No matter, I'm still thrilled the Cubs signed a starting pitcher, to an actual Major League deal:
He's not Shohei Ohtani, but he'll do... for now...
Chatwood was inked to a three-year, $38 million deal to slot into the regular starting rotation, as well as my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection binder. Luckily, I just so happened to have the above 2017 Topps Series One single in my Rockies stash, ready to jump in place. This move basically guarantees that Jake Arrieta is gone; we might have figured that would be the case, but this money takes any sort of reunion off of the table. With now two spots in the starting five vacant (John Lackey is also a free agent), the Cubs needed to acquire a couple of starters this off-season. Chatwood isn't the sexiest option; however, if you dig into the statistics, there's plenty to like about the signing.
On the surface, as the back of this card indicates in the write-up, Chatwood has twice ended up under the knife for Tommy John surgery. Obviously, injury and durability is a serious worry about Tyler. Additionally, his ERA of 4.69 in 2017 isn't exactly impressive and he also happened to lead the league in losses (15), if you're into that sort of thing. In summation, there are some warts on this frog.
On the other hand, Chatwood is an extreme ground ball pitcher, which fits in well with the Cubs outstanding middle infield defense; plus, it's not like Wrigley is a cavernous park and the less balls hit in the air, the better. Furthermore, Chatty (spoiler alert) looks sharper on the road than in the band box that is Coors Field, with a much more eye-catching 2.57 ERA since the start of 2016. Lastly, the hurler has also seen a slight velocity uptick in the last year, which isn't too uncommon for a player on the mend from TJ. Oh... and he's only 28.
When you consider that the Cubs are still in the market for the likes of Ohtani, Alex Cobb, and maybe even Chris Archer or Yu Darvish, it looks as though Chatty is lining up in the fifth spot of the rotation, replacing John Lackey. That's an awful lot of positive potential for a number five.
Here's Chatty making the Cubs look foolish last summer
Of course, any money spent on pitching is a gamble, so only time will tell if investing in Tyler Chatwood is worthwhile. Nevertheless, as Theo himself put it in the media session after the signing, "starting pitching was an area where we thought there was more demand than supply." In short, to acquire anyone worthwhile, you were going to have to open up the wallet.
With this signing, the Chicago rotation is, so far, made up of Lester/Hendricks/Quintana/Chatwood and a big question mark - not bad, not bad at all. You know who else would look really nice in that list? That Japanese, free agent prospect... I believe his name is O-tawny, or something... heard of him? In all seriousness, the Cubs are one of his seven finalists and word is that the two-way star may make his decision by Monday. Not to mention the fact that the annual winter GM meetings are set to begin next week, which will surely keep the hot stove on and break off the switch.
It's happening!
In the meantime, I'm not going to get too greedy - I'm very happy with what the Cubs have gifted us, thus far, with Chatwood. Welcome to the Windy City, Tyler!
I don't get too excited about early off-season acquisitions, but I'm excited to hear that anybody is replacing Lackey. I'll be sorry to see Jake leave, though.
ReplyDeleteI'd feel better if Chatwood didn't have the two TJ surgery history. I hope someone has helped him rework his mechanics so he doesn't need a third.
ReplyDeleteI like the signing overall... get him out of Coors and see what he can do!