Although the lack of outfield depth at Triple-A Iowa has gotten the bulk of focus around here – and from the Cubs, who’ve added Justin Dean , Dylan Carlson , and Chas McCormick in the last few weeks – the Cubs were in a spot where they could use a little more depth at Double-A, as well.
Consider that, although the Cubs have some very high-upside outfield prospects who’ll hopefully rise as high as Double-A later this year, the group currently at the level might lose Brett Bateman to Triple...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 3 days ago
| 1 read
It’s prospects week here at Bleed Cubbie Blue as today I’m starting the countdown of my top 25 Cubs prospects for 2026. Each day we’re going to look at five new prospects until we get down to the top five on Friday. The Cubs farm system is definitely down at the moment. It’s not the […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 3 days ago
| 0 reads
For personal reasons, I have stopped being the regular every-day person on Cubs coverage on the weekends. Among other things, our youngest kiddo’s extra needs have continued to grow over the years, and it had become increasingly difficult to be as present in both places as I felt I needed to be. So, for the weekend, the family wins out.
That said, it’s not as if I stop being a Cubs fan on the weekends, or stop obsessively following the news and rumors when I sneak peeks at my phone. I’ll ...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 3 days ago
| 0 reads
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various narrative paths. “Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire. Happy birthday Ronny Cedeno*, the Cubs go back to flannel, and other stories. Today in […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 3 days ago
| 0 reads
1950 In just the fourth transaction ever between the two Crosstown teams, the White Sox bought Herman Reich from the Cubs. Reich was coming off of what on paper looked like a very solid season for the ivy bumblers, slashing .280/.305/.360 over 108 games. However, in an offensively-charged 1949 season, those numbers were actually subpar. […]
From South Side Sox
| 4 days ago
| 2 reads
Credit where it’s due, I found the video below at this MLB.com article. This is nine minutes’ worth of various highlights from Ernie Banks’ career [VIDEO]. Your browser does not support the video tag. For this sleuthing exercise, we are concerned only with the first 14 seconds of the video. which shows Ernie hitting a […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 4 days ago
| 0 reads
Eli Morgan is a Royal. Or an Omaha Storm Chaser, on a minor-league deal, according to sources. David Robertson has retired. *means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments. Food For Thought: Please […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 4 days ago
| 1 read
The San Francisco Giants made no secret about their desire to acquire a second baseman this offseason. They were never really in on free agent Bo Bichette, it seemed. There was a little smoke with Nico Hoerner, but it never seemed likely that the Chicago Cubs would deal him. They surprisingly made a run at […]
From McCovey Chronicles
| 5 days ago
| 2 reads
The Nets won the ABA’s final game. Then they were forced to sell the best player in the world just to survive. Yeah, that qualifies as a justification for a curse. The Nets and Nuggets were the last two teams to play an ABA game: May 13, 1976. It’s the 50-year anniversary for the final […]
From NetsDaily
| 5 days ago
| 1 read
You might not think this photo has enough evidence or clues to figure out the date and situation. After all the sleuthing photos I’ve posted here, though… you should not doubt me. This photo is another from BCB reader Joe Coney. What do we know about this photo at first glance? Pete Rose is playing […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 5 days ago
| 1 read
Patrick Wisdom had an interesting four years (plus two at-bats in the 2020 pandemic season) as a Cub. He hit 28 home runs in just 106 games and 338 at-bats in 2021, setting a franchise rookie record. In a nine-game stretch not long after being called up from Triple-A Iowa, he hit .379/.438/1.138 (11-for-29) with […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 6 days ago
| 2 reads
A couple of weeks ago, I posted this article noting that former Cub Anthony Rizzo was being considered by NBC as an analyst as the network returns to national baseball broadcasts in 2026. Now, per Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, Rizzo is, in fact, going to join the network: The outgoing Rizzo has been […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 6 days ago
| 0 reads
The acquisition target made sense on paper. Eli Morgan was a guy who’d had lots of success as a big league reliever. The Cubs had some big needs in that area. He was cheap. He still had an option year left. And he was coming off a year with an injury that may well have kept the acquisition price down.
I didn’t love what that acquisition price ultimately wound up being – outfield prospect Alfonsin Rosario, who was looking like a breakout player with more to come – but I understood the trad...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 6 days ago
| 0 reads
The kids wound up getting the entire week off of school because of the massive dump of snow combined with the sub-zero temps. A little bonus winter break for them.
We have reached the part of the offseason where the edge-of-40-man-roster moves have started happening. I’m talking about trades, specifically, and the same kinds of ones we see at the a rostering deadline in the fall. Things are getting crowded on the 40-man, teams are contemplating who has options left and who doesn’t, waiv...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 6 days ago
| 2 reads
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various narrative paths. “Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire. Happy birthday to Brailyn Marquez*, Grover Cleveland Alexander threatens to retire, and other stories. Today […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 6 days ago
| 3 reads
The Royals announced they have signed 29-year-old right-hander Eli Morgan to a minor league deal. Morgan was excellent in 2024, posting a 1.93 ERA in 32 games with Cleveland in 2024, but appeared in just seven games with the Cubs due to an elbow injury. Morgan was originally an eighth-round pick by Cleveland out of […]
From Royals Review
| 7 days ago
| 1 read
Episode 47 of the Bleacher Nation Cubs Podcast is officially live!
In this week’s episode, Brett and I go through the entire crop of Cubs starting pitchers, from Cade Horton to the depth arms, to really dive into the potential risks and rewards in 2026 specifically. And, more specifically, we do that all while wondering if there’s actually room for another free agent like Zac Gallen.
Spoiler alert: I think there is.
Some time stamps for your convenience:
05:55 – Cade Horton...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 7 days ago
| 1 read
It’s been enough of a theme around here this offseason that, by the time farm system rankings were due to start rolling out, I would hope most of you already know that the Chicago Cubs are not going to fare especially well.
There’s a lot of young talent on the big league roster, and the Cubs have used prospects well in trade, but the natural thinning that has accompanied the trades and promotions tended toward a reduction in overall talent down on the farm. Combine that with relatively po...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 7 days ago
| 4 reads
Anthony Rizzo took a little time to settle in as the clubhouse leader of the Chicago Cubs of yore, with an outwardly quiet demeanor that belied the charismatic, funny guy who was lurking in there. But once we got to see it, you got the sense that Rizzo was an enjoyable guy to be around in the baseball environment.
And, having done a little mic time over the years in a media hit here and there, Rizzo is apparently ready to take that skill set to a wider audience:
NBC is set to hire fo...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 7 days ago
| 0 reads
Remember when everyone was excited about Matt “Mash” Mervis making the major leagues? In 2022, he had batted .309/.379/.605 with 36 home runs at three levels of the Cubs system, and got off to a good start at Triple-A Iowa in 2023. When both Eric Hosmer and Trey Mancini were found somewhat wanting at first […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 7 days ago
| 0 reads
Fifth in the series. Today we look at the Cubs’ newly-anointed utility man. Matt Shaw is a controversial figure in Cubdom right now. Not for his political beliefs (at this time), but because the signing of Alex Bregman necessarily leads to a change of position for the young man, and because it looks a bit like […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 7 days ago
| 3 reads
We’ve spent a lot of the last week discussing, describing, and unpacking the state of the Chicago Cubs’ outfield depth. Recently, the Cubs claimed a speed and defense guy for depth in Justin Dean , and signed two bounce-back types in Chas McCormick and Dylan Carlson . Add them together with Kevin Alcantara, and you have a reasonably decent mix of guys to compete for the 4th outfielder job in Spring Training, plus a good chance at keeping a few of them around at Iowa as depth for the year ahead...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 7 days ago
| 0 reads
Spring Training is just around the corner and so is the 2026 World Baseball Classic, which will begin March 4 in Tokyo and March 6 in San Juan, Miami and Houston. A number of Cubs have already committed to play in the WBC, and there could be others going forward — not all the rosters […]
From Bleed Cubbie Blue
| 7 days ago
| 2 reads
Michael Cerami, Published Children’s Author. He wrote a kids Cubs book! So freaking cool. If you missed the particulars, see here . And you can get your copy at Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Bookshop.org . Very proud of you, Michael. People probably don’t realize how much work goes into a book like that, and how hard it is to get from conception to publishing. It’s a lot, and you deserve some celebration (including a TV hit last night !).
If you were curious about the World Baseball...
From Bleacher Nation | Chicago Sports News, Rumors, and a Reasonable Level of Obsession
| 7 days ago
| 0 reads
We’re here to talk about the one thing on everybody’s minds: who is going to be the Milwaukee Brewers’ backup catcher when the 2026 season starts? There was a bit of news on this front on Tuesday, when the Brewers — after rumors swirled for some time — signed the Chicago Cubs’ 2025 backup, Reese […]
From Brew Crew Ball
| 7 days ago
| 1 read