So, a funny thing happened on International Free Agent Signing Day … the Cubs didn’t sign anyone. Yet.
At least not anything officially reported (which always happens on day one), and no pictures of happy prospects and families (which always happens on day one). So even if everything is proceeding as normal behind the scenes – and we have no reason to believe the Cubs won’t eventually finalize their class! – this chronology is definitely not normal as far as the public view is concerned.
Thus, despite having a well-known and well-liked IFA class lined up, the Cubs didn’t actually make any of their deals official, as they have every year prior since time immemorial.
Why?
For now, we can only speculate, but any prevailing theory about a truly unique situation is necessarily going to connect in some way to the other truly unique situation: the Roki Sasaki free agency.
No, no, no, I don’t mean the Cubs are shockingly still in on Sasaki. I believe the reports that indicated they are out. I just mean that his presence on the market is causing hold-ups in the normal course of business for some clubs.
We know that’s why the Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays – the Sasaki finalists – didn’t close any deals today, and it’s probably why a handful of other teams are also in a holding pattern. Indeed, it was pre-speculated that this could happen for some teams: that even if they weren’t directly involved in Sasaki, their use of bonus pool funds in trade, or desire to acquire more, or the general way the typical IFA market is being moved around by the tentacles of all this stuff, some teams may hold up on making things official until Sasaki is all done.
The Cubs are apparently one of those teams. (And Yankees, Royals, and Rockies it looks like? I’m trying to think of any other clubs for which I haven’t yet seen any pictures or an officially-reported signing at Pipeline.)
This is truly unusual stuff, even if just for one day. I have been doing this for a long time. The Cubs always lock down their class on day one.
Where does this go? Well, so far, none of the Cubs’ projected prospects has signed elsewhere, so it’s a good bet that they have the players all lined up to be signed, and that part isn’t a direct worry. The deals will almost certainly get done eventually.
Instead, there’s something POSSIBLY going on with the IFA pool space, somehow related to Sasaki fallout, and that could shift things around in the IFA class. It’s possible the Cubs’ front office has something cooking.
For example, it could be that the Cubs are trying to acquire more space to pick off a player who falls out of the Sasaki winner’s class (or one of the other classes in a holding pattern). It could even be that the Cubs already have tentative deals lined up to sign more than their bonus pool (something that wouldn’t happen in a normal year, but is happening here only because of extra available prospects), so they NEED to complete a bonus pool trade to make it happen
Or, it could be that the Cubs are considering trading AWAY some pool space to the Sasaki winner for a legit prospect, while simultaneously trying to steer to a Sasaki loser a prospect who WOULD have received those funds from the Cubs. Then you feel a little less bad about bailing on whatever prospect(s) you’re bailing on.
Or, it could simply be that the extra available prospects this year have the Cubs trying to massage their bonuses at the margins to squeeze in an extra prospect or two, regardless of any IFA funds movement.
Or, maybe the Cubs are just holding back in case some opportunity presents itself … and then ultimately, nothing special will happen, and they’ll just sign their expected class a little later than usual.
This is uncharted territory for us in the IFA era, so we’re left to speculate. I presume fans of the other teams waiting on signings are doing the same thing, and fans of the Sasaki Finalists are hoping they can scrape together a decent class if Sasaki doesn’t choose them. It sucks to lose out on Sasaki, but among those teams, I’m definitely glad the Cubs are possibly in a position to advantage themselves in this market, rather than lose out on their entire class for nothing.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
