GALLEN POSSIBLE? | EXTENDED NICO? | Cubs Baseball Channel

All right, good news, guys. I'm not going to talk about Nico Horner being traded. Today, we're going to get into maybe Nico Horner getting a contract extension. How about the latest on Zach Gallin? Are the Cubs serious about making a move for one of the last hottest free agent pitchers? That and more right here on the Cubs baseball channel. Like, subscribe, thumbs up, hit the bell. Help us get to 10,000 subscribers. Help us do this. We can do it together. But we're here to do. Get on and talk about the Cubs. Let's go. All right, let's get this party started. Good to see you guys. And yeah, it's a new song. It's a new song. Thanks to YouTube, always giving you the songs and then all of a sudden they start charging you for them when they told you they were free. Hey, I'll tell you what is free. Unlike YouTube music right there, that QR code right there, Avenue D, McNation, that is your opportunity to win some cool stuff. And it's all free part of what we do on a daily basis. We pick games. We I mean, we just do fun stuff. We we give away hats. And some of you guys have said, hey, you love the hat. It's clean, whatever. I'm giving these away. So I got some in here. I want you guys to support them. And just remember, when you send the email, I mean, when you send the comment, I got you got to send me the email so I can get it back to you anyway. And we're going to pick some winners. So if I say on there, hey, give me your email. That's why. All right, let's talk Zach down now. Cubs went out and made a trade. They gave up Owen Casey for Edward Cabrera. Not sure I would have made that deal. Be perfectly honest with you. But you know what? You get a top end of the rotation type of pitcher. If you can get him to stay healthy and maybe the Cubs feel like he's been tipping his pitches, they're going to be able to help him there, you know, whatever. I mean, don't expect Justin Steele back until maybe June. And if he's back, who knows if he's even going to be any good. So you're going to have to have some depth in starting pitching. Zach Gallen was at one point even reportedly signing with the Cubs. And I felt like this was one of those deals where I could see it happening. You know, maybe the Cubs, they pay gallon and then they, you know, maybe they trade a Tyone. Some of you guys feel like Tyone who did have better numbers than gallon last year. Although I don't put Tyone as a, an ace on the staff. I think gallon in his career has proven that he can be an ace. But last year when he had that four 83 ERA and his 33 starts looked very hittable. Wasn't the guy that helped the diamondbacks prize everyone and get to the world series a few seasons ago. Right? So, so are the Cubs still a player in this? And I guess the question that I have is I don't think they're out of it, but Jim Bowden of the athletic is saying that he's got the list of teams that he feels likes in this mix. And it doesn't include the Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco giants, Detroit Tigers, no Cubs, no Cubs in this mix. Now, does that mean that, that, that he's right? No, but he's saying that the diamondbacks are kind of the front runners and then you got all these teams. So the diamondbacks would love to have him back. I feel like I just feel like the Cubs are still in this. I do. I think that they want to have top of the rotation pieces because they know even with don't sleep on Cincinnati. When you look at the pitching that the reds have in there, you know, with the Nicola dolos and hunter greens, and you start going through that rotation, those guys are going to be a year older and a year more experienced. I think that's a team that's going to be a contender in the division. I I've expected Milwaukee to drop the last few years. It's honestly been surprising that they haven't, but to win the division, to compete for a world series, to upend the Dodgers and some of the other teams, the Phillies, you're going to have the Mets. You're going to have to have ace type pitching. And, uh, you know, whether that be starting pitching or a bullpen that gets things done. So Cubs aren't listed here, but I would not be surprised if they don't find a way to be in the mix on this. Now, the second thing I wanted to talk about today was a Nico Horner extension. And there are some guys in the media that are saying that this is a possibility. And as you know, Nico Horner right now is in the final year of his last extension. That was a three year, $35 million contract. And he'll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, right? He's making $12 million. I think that's a great deal for a Nico Horner. There's a lot of trade rumors going around right now, including Boston and San Francisco teams that would love to have a Nico Horner, a guy that hit two 97 last year at two 73 the year before that two 83 and 23 at two 20 and two 81 and 22. He's not a home run guy, but he is a guy that is a constant force at second base, whether it's his defense, whether it's running the bases, whether it's the teammate aspect of things, you know, now that the Cubs have traded or excuse me, have signed Alex Bregman, you got this dilemma with what are you going to do with Nico Horner? And maybe the Cubs go out and they make a Nico Horner extension happen. Now, the projections for him are 18 to $25 million a season, and maybe between five and seven years that that's what they expect him to get at his age and what he brings to the table this offseason, right? You know, he's going to have a great year. All these guys do when they're in these contract years. I don't know how they do it. I guess it's motivation. And but he's been so consistent as a second baseman for the Cubs and on this team. And a lot of us feel like they bat him too low in the lineup. Like, hey, I want to see this guy get around more. And, you know, he's just a model of, hey, I know what we're going to get from him and we'll throw him in there. Now, here's the other part of this. Say the Cubs make an extension and you don't see it as much in baseball anymore because these agents, they want to basically get as much money for the client as they possibly can. You know, there was a time when a player like a Ryan Sandberg would sign with the Cubs because he wanted to be a Cub. And it wasn't about the open market and getting every last dollar. You know, it was about the relationship that he had with the city and the fans. And I wish that it was still like that in the game. The game was like that for years. You know, Ryan Sandberg's a Cub, you know, and he was there forever. You know, Cal Ripken was an Oriole and he was there forever. And you start going through that list and it's like, man, guys just represented those organizations. And, you know, now it's a money game. But say the Cubs figure out a deal to extend them. Say Nico accepts it. They say, hey, look, let's make this happen. It happens. We know he's going to stay. What does that mean for Matt Shaw? I think if the Cubs plan on extending Nico that they should trade Matt Shaw, they should trade him. You know, they're getting interest from teams like the Red Sox. I bet you Seattle would be interested. He's a potentially good player because if you sign Nico, now there's no path for Shaw to be an everyday player at a position. And the value of a utility guy isn't that much. You know, even the great utility guys, Ben Zobris, Willie Castro last year is really good. Having an everyday starter, the value for that position, the value on the open trade market is going to be a lot higher. And right now he started as the Cubs third baseman last year. He's established he can do that. He played great defense. You saw basically him start to emerge at times a season ago as a really good player. You know, if the Red Sox are interested, maybe some other teams are interested. The Cubs have the they have depleted their minor league system so much with some of these trades. Maybe that's the move. And then you go out and you pay for a free agent type utility guy and you trade Matt Shaw and you get a lot back for him. I think his value is going to be as high as it's going to be right now, barring someone getting hurt and him playing every day. So the way that it's the same thing with pitching, if someone's like a Ben Brown, let's say Ben Brown, right? Ben Brown is a lot more valuable as a starter than he is as a reliever. So if you're going to make him a reliever, but you can trade him as a starter, you do that because once you make him a reliever and that's where his market is, the value goes way down. And I think it's the same thing with start with, you know, basically guys that have a position and start or bench players. And so with Matt Shaw, so much of what his future is going to look like is tied into what Nico Horner does. So I think that the obvious answer is this, that the Cubs have Matt Shaw ready to replace Nico Horner when they want to pay him at the end of the season. I think the fans, you guys would just like to see the Cubs extend Nico Horner, have him as part of this franchise moving forward and not really have to worry about it. And I think that if that happens, like I said, the value would be to go ahead and, and trade Matt Shaw. But what do you guys think? Tell me what you think that that's where we are right now with this. And it is, Oh, why are we talking about this every day? It's because this is the big topic right now. There's teams salivating to make a deal for Nico Horner. Some of those teams are probably waiting for the Cubs to decide that they're going to keep Nico because they might be able to steal a really good player and Matt Shaw. And for the Cubs, they have to decide if it's worth keeping Matt Shaw, if they plan on extending Nico Horner. And that's the logic behind what I'm saying today. All right, guys, thanks for being here. Always great to talk Cubs baseball with you. Hope you're having a fantastic weekend, like, and subscribe, be part of our YouTube channel. We're trying to get to 10,000 subscribers. Got to tell you, you guys are making this happen. It's so exciting every day. I look on there and we're closer and closer and closer. So thank you guys. Love you. And we'll talk to you tomorrow.