The impending MLB lockout, set to begin at midnight on December 2, has helped create a flurry of free agent signings in November — a time when such activity is typically minimal.
On Tuesday, the Cubs signed veteran catcher Yan Gomes for 2 years, $13 million with an option for 2024. Chicago has not been an especially big player in this offseason’s free agency period, and this signing on its own is not particularly significant.
The possible ripple effects it creates are, however.
Early speculation following the Gomes signing (the team issued a press release making the signing official on Wednesday) was that it could be a precursor to the Cubs trading Willson Contreras.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweeted as much, and even Contreras himself sent a cryptic tweet very shortly after the Gomes news broke:
It’s understandably tempting for fans to want to draw conclusions from this, especially given the timing of Contreras’ tweet. It can easily be read as a thinly veiled reference to him either expecting to be traded or knowing a deal is already in the works.
But it’s also quite likely that his tweet is a coincidence. Unlike baseball writers and fans during hot stove season, Contreras probably isn’t monitoring Twitter all that much. He could very well have had no idea that his team had signed another catcher.
The Cubs adding a veteran backstop to go along with Contreras rather than replace him would make a lot of sense, anyway. They used a record nine backup catchers in 2021, and as a result, Contreras logged his highest number of innings behind the plate since 2018.
After the Cubs traded their Kris Bryant-Anthony Rizzo-Javy Baez nucleus at the deadline in July, Contreras told reporters he hoped to be a centerpiece of the next winning team in Chicago. Obviously, going on from there to be a part of a 91-loss team in the months after that might have changed his mind, but Contreras has not expressed a desire to play his home games somewhere besides Wrigley Field.
And for what it’s worth, team president Jed Hoyer has been consistent in sticking to not calling what he’s doing with the Cubs a rebuild. That concept in sports has a nebulous definition, but most agree that rebuilding a franchise is a multi-year process. Last summer, Hoyer preferred to compare his plans to teams like the Red Sox and Yankees, who have gone through short down periods and put together winning teams without engaging in full-scale rebuilds.
In order to do that, Hoyer and new general manager Carter Hawkins will have to spend some money. Hoyer has said that his crew will engage in “intelligent spending” but whatever that means is not clear yet. They took a flier on former Yankees prospect Clint Frazier Tuesday and picked up pitcher Wade Miley a couple of weeks ago, but the Cubs roster still has a lot of holes.
If signing Gomes is really about creating the ability to trade Contreras, then fans in Chicago should settle in for a long rebuild, even if Hoyer wants to quibble over semantics and won’t use that word to describe his process.
What is more likely is that Hoyer and Hawkins know that to even field a serviceable team in 2022, they have to address glaring needs. One of those was the lack of a reliable backup catcher last season. Though Gomes is a ten-year veteran with plenty of experience being a team’s primary backstop, it’s not a reach to think that the plan for him will be backing up Contreras.
There’s also the reality that once the owners and the players’ association reach a new collective bargaining agreement — hopefully not before too long — it will very likely include a universal designated hitter. We got a glimpse of the DH in the National League during the shortened 2020 season, and it’s very possible that 2021 was the final season of pitchers hitting.
If that proves to be the case, then having two starter-worthy catchers on the roster would not be a problem. Getting Contreras in particular more at-bats while saving his knees would bode well for the long term.
It is still possible that Contreras is headed for the trading block. Like Nightengale tweeted, Contreras would be a valuable trade piece and could be flipped for more major-league ready pitching or deeper farm system help. But the more likely scenario at this point is that the Cubs plan to keep Contreras and Gomes will be there to fill the need that was so obvious in 2021.
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