2021 Opening Day roster and roundup

In Commentary And Analysis by berselius83 Comments

Baseball is back tomorrow, and so is OV’s erratic coverage of the 2021 Cubs season. Baseball has certainly been far from my mind since the weirdness that was the 2020 season. However, listening to the occasional radio broadcast during the spring has re-stoked some of that fan energy that I had forgotten I had.

For the rest of you who have been checked out this offseason, here’s the projected opening day roster:

  • C: Willson Contreras
  • 1B: Anthony Rizzo
  • 2B: David Bote
  • SS: Javier Baez
  • 3B: Kris Bryant
  • LF: Joc Pederson
  • CF: Ian Happ
  • RF: Jason Heyward
  • SP: Cyle Hendricks
  • SP: Jay Carrieta
  • SP: Zach Davies
  • SP: Trevor Williams
  • SP: Adbert Alzolay
  • CL: Craig Kimbrel
  • B: Austin Romine*
  • B: Matt Duffy
  • B: Eric Sogard
  • B: Jake Marisnick
  • RP: Rowan Wick
  • RP: Brandon Workman
  • RP: Ryan Tepera
  • RP: Dan Winkler
  • RP: Alec Mills
  • RP: Rex Brothers
  • RP: Dillon Maples?
  • RP: Jason Adam?
  • RP: Andrew Chafin?
  • RP: Jonathan Holder?

I guess the roster isn’t finally final so we don’t know who the back half of the bullpen will be. We’ll expect to see most of these guys anyway.

*Romine is dealing with knee problems and it sounds like the Cubs are going to bring in Tony Walters or one of the other end of spring roster cut types (Lucroy?) to start the year as Contreras’s backup.

Other offseason-y news

The rotation certainly looks a lot different from last year. Jon Lester is gone, signed by the Nationals for 1/$5m despite strongly signaling that he’d be interested in coming back for a discount. The Jose Quintana era also ended with a whimper after a 1/$8m free agent deal with the Angels, saving me from the need to reflexively defend the Eloy Jimenez deal every five days. Tyler Chatwood went to the Jays for 1/$3m, which eh. And most notably Yu Darvish (and Vic Caratini) were traded to the Padres for a bunch of barely-ranked 17 year olds and Zach Davies. Yeesh. The Cubs seem to be tripling down on soft contact guys and their defense this year.

It seemed like something freed up later in the offseason (probably attendance projections), so the Cubs were able to spend some of the salary they shed with all those guys, but it basically amounted to 1/$7m for Pederson, 1/$6 for Arrieta, and a bunch of fliers on bargain bin guys like Williams, Sogard, Maybin, and Shelby Miller.

As far as majors-ready types go, Nico Hoerner was sent to AAA to start the year to get some regular ABs/work on his approach at the plate, and Cameron Maybin and Shelby Miller are likely to be parked down there for the time being. As far as any other prospects go, it’s crickets as far as I can tell. I’m not exactly the best resource when it comes to keeping tabs on prospects though (dying laughing).

There was some vague extension talk over the offseason, and KB sounds much more amenable than he was in the past. That’s a pretty low bar to clear however, and chances going from 0.0001% to 5% is not that big an improvement (dying laughing). The guy that everyone figured was most likely to sign was Rizzo, but it sounds like he’s cutting off negotiations as the season starts. It doesn’t help that the Cubs offer was 5/$70, which seems pretty low for someone who’s been the face of the franchise for quite some time and has a lot fewer red flags than the other Cubs extension candidates. But I digress.

I’ll close with uncle dave’s updated lyrics to “Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel”

Hey, hey, holy mackerel,
no doubt about it,
the Cubs are gonna play!
The Cubs might get a hit today
six guys are gonna pitch today
stand in the field today
come what may,
the Cubs are gonna play today!
Hey, hey holy mackerel
no doubt about it
The Cubs are gonna play
we’ll call it hustle
they’ve got no muscle
the Chicago Cubs are gonna play
the Chicago Cubs have lost their way

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Comments

  1. Wenningtons Gorilla Cock

    I’m excited for baseball. I recently moved to Southern California, so the ability to (eventually) go watch good baseball is extra exciting (dying laughing)

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  2. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    CF Happ
    C Contreras
    1B Rizzo
    3B Bryant
    LF Pederson
    SS Baez
    RF Heyward
    2B Bote
    P Cyle

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  3. Author
    berselius

    Series preview: the Pirates are the worst team in baseball, so the Cubs should win one game in the series if a few things break their way.

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  4. SK

    Entering the 18th season of my yahoo fantasy league I deleted the Cubs themed team name from my profile and left it blank. The system default setting is teamname.

    Go teamname!

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  5. Author
    berselius

    Gotta love MLB’s tradition of rolling out new features/infrastructure changes for mlb.tv on opening day instead of during spring training. I could set my watch to my work firewall’s confusion each year.

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  6. Author
    berselius

    Perkins,

    I like Boog a lot more than most other broadcasters, but yeah it’s strange. I already switched to the Pat and Coom overlay (dying laughing).

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  7. Author
    berselius

    berselius:
    Series preview: the Pirates are the worst team in baseball, so the Cubs should win one game in the series if a few things break their way.

    bump

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  8. EnricoPallazzo

    berselius:
    Series preview: the Pirates are the worst team in baseball, so the Cubs should win one game in the series if a few things break their way.

    hey tone down the enthusiasm a little, we’ve already got one optimist ’round these parts

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  9. Author
    berselius

    six guys are gonna pitch today

    Looks like uncle dave was the optimist around here today (dying laughing)

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  10. Author
    berselius

    andcounting,

    I was going to say that it certainly didn’t bother him on opening day last year, but something tells me the weather was a little different (dying laughing).

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  11. uncle dave

    And now we got a congressman babbling about taking away MLB’s antitrust exemption. This is quickly spiraling into one of the most entertainingly stupid things I’ve seen in a while, and that bar is high.

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  12. Author
    berselius

    uncle dave,

    I think everyone is gobsmacked by MLB actually taking swift action to do the right thing on something, rather than setting up 15 consecutive delaying actions/blue ribbon panels.

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  13. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s be lated base ball squadron

    C Contreras
    3B Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    SS Baez
    LF Pederson
    CF Marisnick
    RF Heyward
    2B Bote
    P Carrieta

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  14. andcounting

    The sponsor of the Cubs’ cleanup hitter is a dumpster service. If that isn’t well-placed advertising, such a thing does not exist.

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  15. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    CF Happ
    C Contreras
    1B Rizzo
    3B Bryant
    LF Pederson
    SS Baez
    RF Heyward
    2B Sogard
    P Davies

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  16. Author
    berselius

    Davies is really filling in that “looks like a little leaguer” role that the Cubs left vacant when Edwards left last year.

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  17. Rizzo the Rat

    I love it when baserunners put up the safe sign as they cross first base. You’re not the umpire!

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