The premier free agents continue to come off the board with Aaron Judge headlining this year's class after agreeing to a nine-year, $360 million deal to re-sign with the Yankees. The Cubs are trying to make a major move of their own with Carlos Correa.
Signing Cody Bellinger to a one-year prove it deal was nice and adding a solid and reliable pitcher in Jameson Taillon helps the rotation, but the Cubs are starving for star power. The focus is on the free agent shortstops and the top name available is Correa. According to NBC Sports Chicago's Gordon Wittenmyer, the Cubs are hard at work trying to pry Correa away from the Twins.
Via NBC Sports Chicago.
And sources suggest they’re as deeply involved in trying to land him as anyone this side of the Twins — despite a price tag widely assumed to be bigger than Turner’s as the youngest (28) of the four big-name shortstops and the only one of the group not tied to a qualifying offer and the consequent draft-pick compensation.
The Cubs are well down the road with Correa, a player they’ve coveted since an eye-popping workout at Wrigley Field before he was drafted No. 1 overall by the Astros in 2012. And they’re talking seriously with Atlanta free agent Dansby Swanson as at least a possible Plan B (while the Ricketts mandate lends credence to reports suggesting they could be in play for both).
Of course, that comes after Wittenmyer talked with Correa's agent Scott Boras, who was also quoted in that article saying he's received multiple offers from teams for Correa and Xander Bogaerts.
As for Bogaerts, Wittenmyer said a source characterized the Cubs' interest in the Red Sox free agent as "kicking the tires." The Cubs reportedly met with Bogaerts personally within the past two weeks and have been strongly linked to him from a reporter out of Boston.
However, as bad as talks appeared to have been between Bogaerts and the Red Sox, they're not going away without a fight.
Back to Correa.
Boras will always try to prop up his guys and will use teams to gain leverage in negotiations, so I'm not ruling that out with the talk about the Cubs going hard for him right now. At the same time, it's obvious the Cubs are interested in signing one of the shortstops, so the pursuit of Correa is real. They made an offer to Trea Turner, who ended up turning down a monster deal from the Padres to sign with the Phillies.
According to ESPN's Jesse Rogers, the Cubs do have an offer on the table for Correa.
But things aren't going to be any easier for the Cubs. The Giants just lost out on Judge, who they thought was choosing them on Tuesday. And that's the key in free agency; choosing.
We've seen several examples of players turning down more money to sign somewhere else. In the past two days, the Padres have offered Turner and Judge more money, and neither signed with them.
In addition to the Twins and Cubs, we should fully expect the Padres and Giants to join in on the remaining shortstops available. And I guess we can't forget about the Braves, who could be losing Swanson.
We'll discuss it all on the Pinwheels And Ivy Podcast, live at 8 p.m. tonight.
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