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Craig Kimbrel has yet to get his physical training, but he seems to have headed to Wrigley Field after signing a $ 43 million three-year contract with the Chicago Cubs, earning $ 10 million for the rest of the season and 16 millions of dollars in 2020 and 2021. (with a purchase / purchase option of $ 1 million for 2022).
As successful as Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon have been, the quest for stability in the ninth inning has been a revolving door, even as the Cubs have made the playoffs in the past four years. Revise:
2015: Hector Rondon had a 1.67 ERA and made 30 saves and was the closest to the playoffs.
2016: Rondon led with 18 saves, but the club traded against Aroldis Chapman. He finished with 16 saves and was the closest to the playoffs.
2017: With Chapman as a free agent, Epstein acquired Wade Davis of the Royals and made 32 saves with a 2.30 ERA.
2018: After Davis' departure as a free agent, the Cubs sign Brandon Morrow as a free agent. He made a good start with 22 saves and a silver of 1.47, but did not start in the second half and Pedro Strop took a closer lead and finished with 13 saves.
2019: with Morrow still unable to launch, Strop and Steve Cishek share the closest tasks.
By entering Wednesday's action, the Cubs market had in fact not been terrible, ranking eighth in the majors (and third in the National League) with a deserved points average of 4.02. I like to look at Win Probability Added for earnings, as these statistical factors better influence the game score and clutch results than the gross ERA, and the Cubs ranked 16th in the majors . OK, so the Cubs office was in the middle of the pack. It's probably worse than that, but there has been a lot of bad spending this year.
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Kimbrel should help. We all know that Kimbrel was struggling to control his control last October and, although the batters escaped him at .146 in the regular season, he allowed the worst of 18 successes in his extra-base career. The 31-year-old is not sure he'll be one of the best defensemen in the league, but he should be much better than Strop and Cishek, which will push them to play other roles. I would say that it will help Maddon in his fights, except that the Cubs do not really have a reliable southpaw in the paddock.
The effect of training is the way other teams in Central NL could possibly improve their own lists. While the Cubs have a 9-8 win on Wednesday in the Rockies and the Brewers are defeated by the Marlins, they have a margin of one game over Milwaukee and a half to 3½ over St. Louis, while the Pirates and the Reds are a little further back. The Reds, at 28-32, hold the Division's second best-play differential, so do not write them down.
Let's see where each team needs to improve:
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Milwaukee Brewers: Milwaukee made one of the most questionable decisions of the season earlier this week by turning Travis Shaw off the injury list and sending Hiura back to the miners even as Hiura hit .281 / .333 / .531 while Shaw struck .174 with 50 strikeouts in 41 games. I understand that it is difficult to make Shaw a bench player after he has hit more than 30 homers at home over the last two seasons, but the Brewers clearly have confidence in the fact that Shaw's problems were related to an injury. I imagine that Shaw will have a short leash where Hiura will be quickly reinstated.
Be that as it may, the Brewers will be looking to improve the rotation that ranks 20th in the majors with a 4.66 ERA. Zach Davies was huge with an ERA of 2.20, but it's not sustainable, and Jhoulys Chacin and Gio Gonzalez have just landed on the IL. Milwaukee had a possible boost Wednesday with the return of Jimmy Nelson, who made his major league debut since September 2017, when he was injured in the shoulder at the race. Remember that he had become one of the best players in the NL.
Against the Marlins, he conceded a run in the first run and then a grand slam to Brian Anderson in the third. His fast four-sided ball speed peaked at 94.0 mph and averaged 92.4 compared to 97.8 and 94.1 in 2017, but it's a match and he's had a day busy, his twin daughters, prematurely, returned from the hospital earlier than it was his birthday).
Possible targets: Dallas Keuchel, Madison Bumgarner, Marcus Stroman. There will not be a lot of training at the start, even if the market could become interesting if the Indians withdrew from the race and made Trevor Bauer available. Keuchel would be the easiest addition since it only costs money to sign it. Bumgarner is a free agent and 2014 dates from five years ago. So there's no guarantee that you'll get that playoff ace for which you might think you're trading – he's got a 4.05 MPM for the Giants – but, man, I think Craig Counsell would like to send him in the first game against the Dodgers.
Cardinals St. Louis: The Cardinals are eighth in Newfoundland in points per game and seventh in points per game. As their 30-29 record and 16 plus point differential suggest, the Cardinals are in the middle of the field in attack, in the middle of the peloton at the start and in the middle of the pack. This has been the Cardinals' problem for the last three years, because they missed the playoffs: they never had huge weaknesses, but they did not have enough positive aspects to reach October.
Really, the best hope of the Cardinals is to improve the performance of their best players: Matt Carpenter hits a warm .225 / .337 / .402 and Paul Goldschmidt is at .271 / .359 / .449, below his level usual. Miles Mikolas was not the same guy as last season, with a target of 4.41 this season. Jordan Hicks and Andrew Miller have not been extinguished, as expected. The rotation was much too long in April, but was better in May. The return of Carlos Martinez will help the concealer, and I am still waiting for Jack Flaherty to continue on a dominant momentum.
Possible targets: Pitching … of some sort. I would think that a beginner is more likely – I mean, a pen with Hicks, Martinez, Miller, John Gant (who at John Brebbia should be pretty good. Here is a raging thought: If Carpenter continues to struggle and the Cardinals are still close in July AND the Nationals continue to weaken, why not attack Anthony Rendon and make Carpenter a utility? The Cardinals have some pitcher depth and have some minor league third base prospects that should be of interest to the Nationals.
Pittsburgh Pirates: FanGraphs gives Pirates a 5% chance to play in the playoffs. Only the Giants have a worse differential in the National League. These are the pirates. They are not going to make a major move.
Cincinnati Reds: The Reds are in an interesting position as they have essentially played on the mat for 2019 with the Dodgers exchanges and Tanner Roark and Sonny Gray agreements. Throw coach Derek Johnson has done wonders for this staff as the Reds are neck and neck with the Dodgers for the smallest number of races per game – a minor miracle given their home park and the magnitude of the rotation of recent years.
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The surprising aspect is that the Reds have struggled to score points – and this is not entirely the fault of Joey Votto. Jose Peraza was terrible, Jesse Winker was not as serious as the OBP. 400 like last year and Yasiel Puig was a big zero with 0.0 WAR. (In fact, how bad the Dodgers' trade was: Matt Kemp was released, Alex Wood did not throw and Puig was a flop.)
The problem is how do you upgrade? You do not go on the Votto bench or on Puig. Derek Dietrich strikes a .700 ball and became the left-hand side of the pack at second base. Like the Cardinals, the Reds just need their good players to play better. Plus, if you look at the team likely to make a deal – the bad teams of the American League – none of them will have a lot to position themselves as players in the market.
Possible targets: The Reds might consider replacing Anthony DeSclafani with the starting pitching market, and a reliever like Will Smith of the Giants would help. Stroman would be a potential solution as he signed up in 2020 and his ground ball game enrolled in the Great American Ball Park. They could go for outdoor depth with someone like Hunter Pence, who has a year with the Rangers, or Adam Jones of the Diamondbacks (although the side defenders have a better record than the Reds at the top of the podium). ;actual hour).
Will Kimbrel's signature teams move faster than usual at the trade deadline? Perhaps. The Cubs were already considered the division's favorites – the FanGraphs gave them a 67% chance of winning the Central before adding Kimbrel – so there's certainly more incentive for the Brewers and Cardinals to take action.
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