Hall Votes, Festa Outrighted, Coulombe Signs, Bregman Playoff Odds, Spring Caps, and Other Cubs Bullets ...Middle East

Since no one else in my house does it, and I’m not even sure they are aware of the need to do it, I feel like a true hero every time I add rinse aid to the dishwasher.

“Just doing my duty for the family,” I tell myself quietly each time.

Today, the BBWAA published the Hall of Fame votes for the 321 of 394 voters who checked the box on their ballot to make it public. Surprise surprise, all 321 of those voters included Ichiro Suzuki on their ballot. Which means the one (coward) who didn’t vote for an extremely obvious Hall of Famer is staying anonymous. Not voting for Ichiro is bad enough. Doing so anonymously is beyond the pale. Cubs reliever Matt Festa cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Iowa, per the transaction log. Because he’s been outrighted before in his career, he has the choice of accepting the outright, or hitting free agency. Even if there’s a chance he is sticking with the Cubs, he might do the latter – by going to free agency, he would have a chance to negotiate, for example, an opt-out in a minor league deal with the Cubs. Either way, I do hope the Cubs can keep him. I recognize that they have a lot of reliever depth at this point, but, like the Cubs, I like guys who are a little weird. We’ll know soon whether Festa is going to accept the assignment, and if not, then it might be a little bit before he signs a new deal (with the Cubs or elsewhere). Bobby Nightengale reports that lefty Danny Coulombe is signing with the Twins for one year and $3 million. The very good reliever was not really on my radar as a possible Cubs signing, mostly because he’d missed about half of last season with an elbow procedure (bone spur), and because the Cubs probably already landed their lefty in this tier (Caleb Thielbar, whom Coulombe is kind of replacing on the Twins). Dude has a 2.69 ERA going back to 2020, but the elbow plus him being 35 clearly dented his market (the Orioles declined a $4 million option at the start of the offseason, so you already knew right there he wasn’t going to get a significant deal). Jeff Passan took some more swings at the Cubs over at Jomboy (starting at about the 31:45 mark), ripping them – ownership, mostly – for being like “the little sisters of the poor” and “crying poor,” rather than continuing to spend to add to this team. Passan in particular seems to have found Tom Ricketts’ comments about not being able to spend like the Dodgers to be off-putting. Interesting analysis from Dan Szymborski at FanGraphs, looking into how ZiPS sees Alex Bregman impacting various teams’ playoff odds. The Cubs are actually near the bottom of the list (3.6% boost in playoff odds), which may surprise you, but then you have to remember that the system really likes Matt Shaw (and Nico Hoerner is at second base already), so the upgrade at third base is not necessarily as large as it would be for other clubs. In the real world, we know the calculus is a little more nuanced, when you factor in the development goals for Shaw, the ability to move him around, and the small possibility that the Cubs shop Hoerner around for a pitching upgrade. Nevertheless, I do think it’s worth noting that ZiPS does not see Bregman as a huge upgrade for the 2025 Cubs, specifically, at least when compared to the Tigers (12.4% boost), Red Sox (10.8% boost), Astros (8.2% boost), or Blue Jays (7.2% boost). This year’s Spring Training caps have dropped:

Heads up, the 2025 Cubs Spring Training cap just dropped: fanatics.93n6tx.net/9WO47W #ad

— Bleacher Nation (@bleachernation.bsky.social) 2025-02-03T18:26:52.698Z

which spring training cap do you like the best? ?pic.twitter.com/PpwdAUkcKG

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) February 3, 2025 For me, I like spring caps that are either evocative of the team’s main look but tweaked slightly, or are just a totally alternate style. So, for example, the Cubs’ is pretty good in terms of the latter, though I’ll admit to never being a huge fan of the walking bear logo. The Braves’ is a really good example of the slight tweak. White Sox, too. The Mets is a good and fun really different one. The Cardinals and Reds are by far the worst – what are you even doing? – and the Pirates apparently don’t exist. If you missed the PECOTA projected win-total for the Cubs is quite good.

when the projection system drops 90 wins on the Cubs

— Brett Taylor (@brett-taylor.bsky.social) 2025-02-04T12:45:15.861Z

MORE FROM BLEACHER NATION: Check Out BN Fantasy | Subscribe to The BN Newsletter

Could Lonzo Ball be the next player on the move?

— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@bn-bulls.bsky.social) 2025-02-03T22:17:46.718Z

All-Star MVP Korchinski, HB Savoir-Faire, Red on the Road, Trade Buzz, and Other #Blackhawks Bullets www.bleachernation.com/blackhawks/2…

— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@bn-blackhawks.bsky.social) 2025-02-04T13:13:29.926Z

Adam Schefter Mentions the Bears in a Myles Garrett Trade Hypotheticalwww.bleachernation.com/bears/2025/0…

— Bleacher Nation Bears (@bn-bears.bsky.social) 2025-02-03T22:56:52.149Z

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