Chicago Cubs in talks with Ryan Dempster’s representatives – MLB News
Chicago Cubs' general manager Jed Hoyer said on Thursday, November 1, that the club is in talks with the representatives of Ryan Dempster as he is currently a free agent. During the offseason, the Cubs want to sign contracts with players who can later be traded during the deadline, or be kept with the team the way they did last year.
Ryan Dempster, owing to the experience and effectiveness he brings as a pitcher, will certainly be one of the good choices for the Cubs. However, Hoyer – while avoiding to categorically state if the Cubs were signing a long-term contract with him, indicated that the talks were preliminary so far.
"It's preliminary," Hoyer said of the talks. "A lot of players will end up expressing interest. ... Certainly [Dempster] pitched well here for a long time and people in Chicago respect what he's done here and they should. Obviously, there's mutual respect there."
That which the Cubs are currently keeping in mind is the fact that they mostly go for the young players given the rebuilding phase of the team. Last year as well, they traded a few of the veterans and brought in the relatively younger players from the Minor League and other teams.
Dempster, it is pertinent to mention, is 35-years-old and was recently a part of the Texas Rangers.
"You look at the free-agent list and so many of those guys are in their 30s, and that's the thing we want to be aware of," Hoyer said. "We don't want to end up with a bunch of declining years on our books because we were eager to do something right now. The prime years usually start with a '2.'"
With limited options available, the Cubs want to make decisions that have positive bearing on the team. They had lost more than 100 games this year, something they would not like to let happen in the coming season.
It is therefore interesting to see which players the Cubs sign during the offseason, especially when they need a couple of pitchers for the rotation.
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