{"id":65270,"date":"2024-01-03T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=65270"},"modified":"2024-12-28T10:55:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T15:55:40","slug":"cubs-new-years-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/01\/03\/cubs-new-years-resolutions\/","title":{"rendered":"5 New Year&#8217;s Resolutions for the Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every other team in baseball has made some player move since the end of the 2023 season. It&#8217;s time for the Chicago Cubs to make their offseason moves.\u00a0 With the new year comes resolutions.\u00a0 Throw out the old, in with the new.\u00a0 Chicago&#8217;s Northside team should be following this same policy. They have their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/craig-counsell-introduced-as-cubs-manager\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new manager<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/counscr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Counsell<\/a>. GM Jed Hoyer and the rest of the front office should be looking at moving forward with some movement before the end of January. Therefore, here are five New Year&#8217;s resolutions the Cubs should make to ensure 2024 ends better than 2023:<\/p>\n<h2>5 New Year&#8217;s Resolutions for the Cubs<\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Re-Sign Cody Bellinger<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bellico01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cody Bellinger<\/a> might be the biggest name left out there but that should not prohibit the Cubs from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/11\/08\/cody-bellinger-potential-destinations\/\" target=\"_self\">signing him<\/a>. Unlike with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=sotoju01,soto--004jua&amp;search=Juan+Soto&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juan Soto<\/a>, Bellinger only costs money. The Cubs would not need to give up any of their prized prospects ready to join the major league ballclub. The rumors coming out of the Boras camp are that Bellinger is looking for more than $250 million, which might be an overpay. However, without re-signing Bellinger, it will take at least two players to reproduce last year&#8217;s productivity next season.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Sign Rhys Hoskins<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Similar to Bellinger last offseason, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hoskirh01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rhys Hoskins<\/a> will be looking for a &#8220;prove-it&#8221; deal after missing the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL suffered during last spring training. The Cubs should be able to shore up a corner infield position for at least the 2024 season at a reasonable rate.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Sign Sh\u014dta Imanaga<\/strong><\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A reminder that Shota Imanaga has 10 days left to to sign with a MLB team before his window closes.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jimmy Randazzo (@JimmyRandazzo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JimmyRandazzo\/status\/1742215847551042040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Although he doesn&#8217;t have the same degree of fanfare as the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/12\/21\/yoshinobu-yamamoto-signs-dodgers\/\" target=\"_self\">new Dodger<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=yamamo004yos&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=imanag000sho&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shota Imanaga<\/a> should still be able to slot in as a reliable starter for whichever major league team ends up signing him. Don&#8217;t forget, Imanaga was the winning pitcher against the USA in last spring&#8217;s World Baseball Classic. He has a wipeout splitter that should allow him to get swings and misses.\u00a0 Imanaga would certainly take the place of the departed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stromma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcus Stroman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Promote the Kids<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Cubs have given fans a tease of what is to come. Although several names may be a year or more away from being consistent contributors, they need to play in the big leagues. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/crowape01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=horton000cad&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cade Horton<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=brown-009ben,brown-015ben,brown-014ben&amp;search=Ben+Brown&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Brown<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wicksjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Wicks<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kiliaca01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caleb Kilian<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/littllu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-02_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Little<\/a> need to see time early on and show that they belong.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Act Like a Big Market Team<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Last year, Jed Hoyer used the term &#8220;intelligent spending&#8221; when addressing the future of free agent signing. The Dodgers just spent over $1 billion in the last month.\u00a0 The Mets and Padres both have payrolls in excess of $300 million.\u00a0 The Yankees traded for Juan Soto.\u00a0 These are all moves endemic to big market clubs.\u00a0 With several years of saving, 2024 needs to be the year some of the Ricketts&#8217; money goes to their assets.\u00a0 It started well with the hiring of their new manager. Now it needs to continue before pitchers and catchers report in six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every other team in baseball has made some player move since the end of the 2023 season. It&#8217;s time for the Chicago Cubs to make their offseason moves.\u00a0 With the new year comes resolutions.\u00a0 Throw out the old, in with the new.\u00a0 Chicago&#8217;s Northside team should be following this same policy. They have their new [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4995,"featured_media":65282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,2,1071],"tags":[899,2133,285,69,2262,645,3683,1654,28268],"class_list":["post-65270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-featured","category-mlb","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-juan-soto","tag-marcus-stroman","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-nl-central","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-rhys-hoskins","tag-shota-imanaga"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4995"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}