The Chicago Cubs have made the news for all the wrong reasons the past few days. Losing out on Masahiro Tanaka and the deal with the rooftops falling through. Today the Cubs made moves but not in a bad way.
The Cubs announced that they have avoided arbitration with starting pitcher Travis Wood. Wood will make 3.9 million next season. Last friday, Wood and the Cubs did not reach an agreement on a deal avoiding arbitration and both sides exchanged numbers. Wood was at 4.25 million and the Cubs were at 3.5 million.
Now with Wood under contract for next season, the Cubs only have 3 players arbitration eligible that are not under contract for next season. Starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija, outfielder Justin Ruggiano and second baseman Darwin Barney.
Spring training is about a month away and the Cubs announced their spring training invitees today. Plus, all the players on the 40-man roster. The Cubs invited 24 players:
Catchers: John Baker, Rafael Lopez, and Eli Whiteside
Infielders: Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Ryan Roberts, Chris Valaika and Jeudy Valdez
Outfielders: Albert Almora, Chris Coghlan, Aaron Cunningham, Ryan Kalish, Mitch Maier, Darnell McDonald and Casper Wells
Pitchers: Marcus Hatley, Kyle Hendricks, Tommy Hottovy, Eric Jokisch, Carlos Pimentel, Jonathan Sanchez, Armando Rivera, Brian Schlitter, and Tsuysoshi Wada
Last night on MLB Network, MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo named off their top 100 prospects going into this season. The Cubs had 7 players in their top 100 prospects.
Javier Baez came in at 7, Kris Bryant was 9, Albert Almora was 18, CJ Edwards was 42, Jorge Soler was 29, Arismendy was 89 and Pierce Johnson came in at 100.
We will see all those players at spring training besides Edwards and Johnson.
Side note: According to Matt Eddy of Baseball America, the Cubs have signed 1st baseman Lars Anderson to a minor-league deal. Anderson was a Theo Epstein guy back in Boston.
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