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The Cardinals are also sending $8 million to the Red Sox in the deal.

Here comes the parade

I do think the days of running a Palacios/Taylor platoon in RF for a solid month are behind us....I hope.

Lmao

Vaughn, Rojas, Palacos and Amaya being gone is already baked into that win rate after the ASB. Most of the worst was long gone by then. Pereira and some of that bullpen still indicates that '26 is going to be tryouts, still. Which means some dudes are going to snap and put up 1.4 bWAR, while others struggle. I don't think they're far off, being competitive requires a lot of the young guys to not stumble.

No, this team will not be competitive in 2026. It would take a historical event for this team to be competitive in the true sense of the term. What is the average win total for those teams the following season? Through the end of the 2025 season, teams posted an average win total of 68 the year after losing 100 games. How many teams finished the season after they lost 100 or more games with a record above .500? Of the 91 teams with 100 or more losses from 1961-2023, 13 finished the next season above .500:

I'm not expecting a whole lot, but I'd echo Eddy's sentiment that the team wasn't completely unwatchable after the prospects came up and we look to have a lot fewer Maton/Capra/Amaya/Noda types stinking up the place. Biggest question mark to me is the outfield, wide range of outcomes leaning toward really bad, whereas I think the pitching staff could be about average and I think Burke specifically might take a big step forward. Would still like it if we could solidify the rotation a bit with a free agent but I'd also be cool with just throwing guys like McDougal, Murphy, Thorpe out there and seeing what happens. I still think it's a "see what we got" kinda year, but I also don't think this team is too far off the Tigers and Guardians, especially if all the young guys take a step forward from last season.

If the season is going well they can.

From a WAR perspective, the collective output of some of the worst bats who saw considerable playing time - Vaughn, Rojas, Palacios, Amaya put up a whopping -6.0 WAR, while Civale and Cannon accounted for another -1.0 WAR on the starting pitching side. Replacing those with Murakami, and current projected bench players Sosa, Lee, Hill who all were on positive side of the WAR ledger, along with Kay who should at least be better than Civale or Cannon, could be a 10 WAR swing in itself. What I had noted in the OP, beyond Kay, we need a solid #2 or 3 type of guy along with another late inning high leverage arm to make this at least a respectable staff. Of course, a bit part of getting back to playing winning baseball would rely some of the other young, core guys taking another step forward, and building a winning and competitive culture in the clubhouse to maximize the talent on the roster. This to me would be the biggest factor in how fast this team can get back on track. I was using the 2022 Orioles as an example, but of course that level of win increase doesn’t happen often. However I do see the pieces being in place along with 1 or 2 more key FA additions that could make it a possibility.

They have quite a few levers to create material cap space, some of which just require minor moves around JJ and Edmunds contract (not even getting rid of them). And if they also have ability to make tweaks to Moore's as well (or trade him). Kmet has some flexibility in his deal too (or ability to trade). JJ same way. Than in another year - they have flexibility in terms of Jarett and the Colts guy being far more moveable, plus Edmunds deal coming off the books, so it isn't as if they are just pushing chips out a year.

lol. I just noticed Fajardo was in the deal. Actually a pretty good return for STL rather than a pure salary dump.

A 2 year, $34 million deal, making less than Benitendi and less than 5% of Ohtani, is not proof that he is not cheap. The point still stands.

Or on a more optimistic note: Add some guys that may be worth keeping in July?

I absolutely think this is fair. I would have done that for Abdul Carter. Maybe I would have regretted it given some of the leadership challenges he's faced, but he is an elite level talent and while I acknowledge there is always risk getting an unknown player, the value of that contract is not lost on me. Quite frankly - I almost prefer it, knowing what we are trying to accomplish here and if you do it right, you could trade up for a high end 1st round end and at the same time give a 2 year deal to Hendrickson.

I think we’re stuck with him for at least half of this season. I do think at some point they might consider cutting him.

This. Add some guys that may be worth moving in July

I'm excited...would be nice if they had a few more solid moves - even if it meant signing a player or two to decent money that could be good flip candidates. It isn't like losing really helps the club this upcoming season given they can't pick in the top 10.

Pereira is worth a gamble as the weak side platoon partner for Baldwin in RF. No guarantee there obviously, but he’s the exact type of player we should be taking a chance on for that role. The others I’m unsure on. I think people here are writing off Mead way too early though. He’s another guy I feel could eventually rotate in at a few spots against LHP, but he’s very redundant with Sosa. If we keep Robert, then Hill doesn’t do much for me. I think Lee is fine as a backup catcher, but he won’t serve much purpose other than injury insurance. I do think Antonacci will be a key bench piece by the 2nd half of the season. And one of our corner OFs will likely he delegated to a reserve role once Braden comes up. With the versatility of certain guys, I feel ok about a learn bench. But to me, that is assuming Sosa is the 10th man and playing quite frequently.

Looks to me that this lineup could be very good. Add Braden Montgomery in that lineup sometime in 2026 could make the lineup even better.

I'm told the Bears are meeting with the Indiana officials on January 6. I would think if Indiana comes up with the money package the Bears are looking for and Illinois doesn't, the Bears will go to Indiana. The latest thing I've heard is the Bears should try to purchase Soldier Field from the Park District , knock it down and build the dome stadium at the site. I think we're going to find out soon what the Bears are going to do. They want to start building the new stadium in 2026.

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We can all stand to take a hint from Muni

Star power. Charisma. 25. Confidence. But not quite cockiness. Self assured. Big personality. WBC warrior. Perfect leader to go along with Teel, Colson, Braden and Roch Cholowsky. Finally this team is building an identity in Chicago after three years of dystopian wasteland. Let’s f’n go!!! If that doesn’t fire you up, watch Sisu 1 and Sisu 2: Road to Revenge

Yeah, they were way off on that projection.