Jed Hoyer talks Kyle Tucker, corner infield plans

The Cubs made a huge deal last week, acquiring the outfielder Kyle Tucker from the Cubs in exchange for the third baseman Isaac Paredescurve to the right Hayden Wesneski and perspective Cam Smith. President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer spoke with the media today (including Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score and Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times), addressing Tucker and the corner outfield options of club.

While Tucker is a big upgrade for the 2025 team, he is set to become a free agent after that. That means he currently provides the Cubs with no value beyond next season, other than the extra draft pick they would receive if he turned down a qualifying offer at the end of the season and then signed elsewhere.

The Cubs could always change that future by signing Tucker to an extension, something Hoyer hinted at a bit. “I don’t know what the future holds,” he said. “But obviously Chicago sells very well. And so, I’m excited to bring him on board this year, and we’ll see where he goes next. But clearly this was the type of player we were missing.”

It’s fair to assume that the Cubs would love to have Tucker beyond just one year. They clearly value the player, based on the strong talent package they gave up for that season alone, plus the aforementioned QO compensation. Tucker himself also spoke today (per Levine) and said he is open to talks before hitting the open market.

While it’s nice that Tucker is willing to discuss, agreeing on a price could be a challenge. Tucker has been one of the best players in baseball in recent years and is expected to hit free agency before his age 29 season. Getting a really good player to sign an extension just before hitting free agency before his 30th birthday isn’t cheap, as shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. Some recent examples include $365 million for Mookie Betts$341 million for Francesco Lindor and $313.5 million for Raffaele Devers.

It is a situation somewhat similar to the one that has just occurred in the meantime Juan Soto and the Yankees. He was acquired by the Padres with one year remaining before becoming a free agent, said he was open to contract negotiations at any time, but ultimately became a free agent and signed a mega-deal with the Mets.

With the Cubs, it’s probably even less likely to get done. Tucker’s earning power isn’t as high as Soto’s, but the Cubs have never made deals even at that Betts/Lindor/Devers level. Jason Heyward‘s $184 million deal is still the largest in franchise history, even though it’s nearly a decade old at this point. Since Hoyer took over, the club’s largest deal was $177 million Dansby Swansonthe only time it went over $85 million. Maybe they’re willing to break this mold for Tucker, who they evidently like, but that would probably require them to actually double down on the Heyward/Swanson deals.

Hoyer also addressed the third base situation at Wrigley, as the Paredes trade created an opening there. The club was expected to be willing to give prospects Matt Shaw to take that place. Hoyer appears to be open to that, saying Shaw would take a “long look,” though he wouldn’t simply call it a done deal. “He has to earn that job,” Hoyer said. “I’m not going to give it to him on a conference call in mid-December.”

It’s a right position to take. While Shaw performed very well in the minors, even the best prospects can struggle when first called up to the majors, so nothing can be taken for granted. Selected 13th overall last summer, Shaw has slashed .303/.384/.522 in 159 minor league games at various levels so far. That includes a .298/.395/.534 line in 35 Triple-A games to finish his 2024 season, so there’s certainly an argument for him moving up to the majors to start 2025.

But since there’s no guarantee he’ll hit the ground running, the Cubs will have to have backup plans. The Cubs have had six players spend at least 85 innings at third base this year, but Miles Mastrobuoni he is the only one of the six left on the roster. As mentioned, Paredes was involved in the deal with Tucker. The Cubs traded Christopher Morel to Raggi to acquire Paredes first. Nick Madrigal AND Patrizio Sapienza they were not awarded at the end of the season. David Bote he was permanently dropped from the roster in August.

Internal Gage Worker he was just taken by the Tigers in the Rule 5 draft, so he has a roster spot for now, but he doesn’t have any major league or Triple-A experience. Ben Cowles AND Luis Vázquez there are other multi-positional infielders currently among the 40-man roster. Perhaps the Cubs will look to add to that group by signing a veteran, whether it’s to a modest major league deal or a minor league pact.

One thing that apparently isn’t taken into account is movement Michael Busch through the diamond. The club had a hiccup in the outfield but Cody Bellinger they can play first, so it was theoretically possible for them to open up that spot for Bellinger by moving Busch to the hot corner, a position in which he has 99 1/3 innings of major league experience. But Busch got high marks for his first base defense this year, and Hoyer suggested their goal would be to keep him there. Bellinger was traded to the Yankees after Hoyer’s comments this afternoon.

Unrelated to Hoyer’s comments, there was another noteworthy Cubs story this week. Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic report that the club has considered extending the right-hander Nate Pearson as an appetizer.

There is some merit to the plan, but it may be difficult to carry out. Pearson was a notable starting pitching prospect with the Blue Jays before injuries pushed him into a relief role. As recently as July, he expressed interest in returning to a rotation role, shortly before he was traded to the Cubs.

Bullpen-to-rotation conversions have been all the rage lately. Some recent success stories have included Michael King, Seth Lugo, Reynaldo Lopez, Garrett crochet and others. It doesn’t always work with the AJ Puk experiences an attempt that was unsuccessful, but the clubs seem to be enthusiastic about the idea. The Mets signed Clay Holmes with a plan to stretch it next year and there have been some reports suggesting that Jeff Hoffmann he might have a rotating gig next year too.

With Pearson, it’s hard to see a path next year. The Cubs have already done it Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon AND Javier Assad in rotation, with reported interest in Jesus Luzardo even some Marlins. They also have Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown, Horton falls and other potential starters around, so all those guys might not leave much room for Pearson to make big league starts. Therefore, Mooney and Sharma admit that Pearson is very likely to maintain a prominent role next year.