Seeing Red

Much ado was made about the grindingly slow pace of last offseason's free agent/trade market.  Player movement across the board was slowed to a snail's pace for most of the break, initially being stunted by the high profile negotiations of Shohei Ohtani and Giancarlo Stanton, and then being further delayed by "totally not collusion-y" negotiating tactics of front offices across the league.  All in all, it made those already long winter months feel like an eternity as we rabid baseball fans constantly refreshed MLB Trade Rumors, desperate for any baseball news.

This winter has not been quite as sedate.  We've seen names like Andrew McCutchen, Michael Brantley, Patrick Corbin, Josh Donaldson, etc. sign on the dotted line with new teams; although, we are still waiting for the big fish, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, to settle down.  There's also been a surprising amount of trade activity, with guys like Yonder Alonso, Carlos Santana, Edwin Encarnacion, Paul Goldschmidt, et al swapping jerseys as part of this bizarre bazaar.  As such, there's been a good amount of activity on the old transaction tracker this holiday season, as clubs gift their fans with new heroes to cheer.

Well.... except for the Cubs.

 via GIPHY

At this point, the Cubs have made exactly one acquisition of significance (Ronald Torreyes) and then immediately non-tendered him away.  Last season - during the much-ballyhooed player movement drought - Theo and Jed had already added Tyler Chatwood, Steve Cishek, Brandon Morrow, and Drew Smyly to the fold.  Without commenting on whether or not these moves worked out, I just want to point out that this was the "measured" activity of  a "slow" winter.  Exacerbating the issue is that Cubs faithful are even more anxious to see adjustments after watching the offense fade away like a Marvel character when the going got tough last year.

Well, yesterday, they finally did something:

The Cubs agreed to terms with veteran infielder, Daniel Descalso, on a guaranteed two-year contract worth $5 million.  Additionally, the deal comes with a team option for the 2021 season should they decide to keep him around.  Here's hoping that that's a conversation worth having in three years!

Is this a sexy move? No.  Is this even an exiting move?  No.  But it is a move which supplements the current roster quite well and comes with a relatively small price tag. Daniel is capable of playing all over the diamond and swung a surprisingly resurgent bat last season.  It's quite likely that he'll see significant playing time at second base during Addison Russell's suspension (sidenote - f**k Russell) and then settle into a reserve role thereafter.  Essentially, as it stands now, Danny Boy replaces the recently traded Tommy LaStella and comes with much more positional flexibility; not to mention the club got a relatively intriguing taxi squad lefty in exchange for Tommy Boy.

Like I said, not sexy, but a positive move nonetheless.

Of course, whenever the Cubs make a move, I immediately dive into my trade boxes in search of a corresponding card.  Luckily, I just so happened to have two Descalso cards in my stash - the well framed, horizontal 2018 Topps single you see above and then extremely red (seriously, the man's uniform is blending into the outfield wall advert), 2014 Topps card which lead off the post.  When adding a new player to my beloved Cubs All-Time Roster Collection, it's always nice to have options.

Ordinarily, I would avoid a Cardinals card like the plague.  However, my OCD tendencies show that I prefer all of my cards to rest in my nine pocket pages in a vertical alignment.  Plus, I don't particularly care for the water slide design of last year's Flagship - it's distracting.  Therefore, I've gone ahead and selected the card that is so red that I could use it to stop traffic for displaying in my CATRC tome.  Hopefully, Daniel is around long enough to show up as a Cub in a forthcoming product or maybe do something heroic enough to earn a Cubbie Blue Topps Now card.  That immense pool of crimson is enough to singe your retinas!

With that, I've said all I can say about the Daniel Descalso signing.  It doesn't move the needle very much for those starving for a big ticket offensive boost; however, it does strengthen the bench and add a little depth for a team whose middle infield is somewhat in flux with the Russell crap and Ben Zobrist being another year older.  I'm just excited to be able to add a new name to my CATRC binder, even if the card is redder than Rudolph's snout!

We'll see what else this winter holds for Chicago.  Theo and Jed seem to be adamant that the lack of activity is due to financial constraints, as the deft moving around of money for Cole Hamels suggested. Is this all posturing?  My gut says yes and so does their continued rumored interest in Bryce Harper.  In the meantime, all we Cubs faithful can do is continue wait with bated breath.  If everybody who is currently on the roster plays up to their career norms, they should be pretty well set (they did win 90+ games again last year).  However, I think we'd all feel a little more comfortable with another bat and a bullpen arm or two.

Welcome to Chicago and to my CATRC, Daniel Descalso!  Hopefully another name or two will be joining you before the off-season concludes.