Chicago Cubs Rumors: Local Insiders offer offseason reset

The Major League Baseball Winter Meetings are one week from Monday and the Chicago Cubs are expected to be active as the team's plan for this offseason is to spend intelligently with the goal of returning to contention in 2023. The Cubs have missed the postseason in each of the past two seasons and Cubs' president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and chairman Tom Ricketts have pledged to use their available resources this offseason to change the recent direction of the team at the Major League level.

With the expected activity from the Cubs this offseason and the Winter Meetings, Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic offered a reset on the Cubs' offseason on Friday Morning as they offered updates on several fronts.

The Cubs are continuing to monitor a group of starting pitchers that includes Kodai Senga, according to sources familiar with the club’s planning. Senga is represented by the same Wasserman agency that negotiated Yu Darvish’s six-year, $126 million deal and Seiya Suzuki’s five-year, $85 million contract.

It is encouraging to see the Cubs connected to Senga once more. Senga is becoming a popular name on the free-agent market with teams such as the New York Mets and San Diego Padres being connected to the Japanese free-agent starting pitcher. With the Cubs being unwilling to shop at the top-end of the free-agent starting pitching market, as confirmed once more in The Athletic article, Senga makes complete sense for the team.

Mooney and Sharma also offered up a new name to monitor on the starting pitching front in free agent Jameson Taillon. Taillon would be a change of pace for the Cubs' rotation as his fastball averages in the mid 90s. In a tick over 177 innings pitched last season with the Yankees, Taillon did post a 3.91 ERA (3.94 FIP).

Yes, the shortstops were also discussed in the latest from Mooney and Sharma as they continued to emphasize the importance of star power and why the Cubs need to be involved in the markets for Carlos Correa and Trea Turner. If the Cubs miss on their pursuit of one of the free agent shortstops after how their pursuit has been framed, it will be a failure for the front office and one that will bring legitimate questions as to what is happening with the organization.