The young, upstart Chicago Cubs have gotten a little longer in the tooth this offseason—and that’s a good thing.
First, they signed 37-year-old right-hander John Lackey to a two-year, $32 million deal that was finalized on Tuesday, per Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. Then, later that same day, they inked 34-year-old super-utility man Ben Zobrist to a four-year, $56 million pact, per Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.
To help make room for Zobrist, the Cubs concurrently traded 25-year-old middle infielder Starlin Castro to the New York Yankees for right-hander Adam Warren and a player to be named later, per ESPN the Magazine‘s Buster Olney.
That move clears some salary off the Cubs’ ledger—Spotrac indicates that Castro is owed around $40 million through 2019—and gives the Cubs pitching depth and flexibility, as the 28-year-old Warren can start or come out of the bullpen.
Mostly, though, the Zobrist and Lackey signings were about the Cubs adding veteran pieces to a team that was high on talent but relatively low on experience.
Yes, left-hander Jon Lester—a teammate of Lackey’s with the Boston Red Sox—and catcher Miguel Montero are battle-tested. But the Cubs’ core is green.
Four rookies—Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber and Jorge Soler—featured prominently in last season’s playoff run. By contrast, Anthony Rizzo—a 26-year-old who’d never tasted the postseason—looked like a grizzled elder statesman.
Age isn’t everything, of course. In fact, in Zobrist’s case, you could argue it’s something of a red flag considering he’s locked up through his age-38 season.
But for next year at least, the versatile infielder/outfielder gives skipper Joe Maddon exactly the kind of weapon he covets. There is perhaps no manager in the game who likes to mix and match more than Maddon, and Zobrist arms him with a top-notch Swiss Army knife.
Maddon and Zobrist have familiarity, too, from their days with the Tampa Bay Rays. In his best seasons under Maddon—2011 and 2012—Zobrist racked up 14.4 WAR (wins above replacement) and capably manned four different positions.
He won’t replicate that production in Chicago, but he’s still plenty valuable, as he demonstrated by hitting .276 with an .809 OPS last year for the Oakland A’s and world champion Kansas City Royals.
Lackey, meanwhile, is coming off a renaissance campaign with the St. Louis Cardinals. After posting a 4.30 ERA in 60.2 innings for the Cardinals in 2014, Lackey sipped from the fountain of youth and put up a career-low 2.77 ERA in 218 innings in 2015.
He’ll slot nicely into a rotation fronted by Lester and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta. Lackey owns a 3.11 lifetime postseason ERA in 127.1 frames, which is good news as the Cubs look to make another deep October run.
“You walk into a three-game series and the other team calls for your pitching, and you say it’s going to be ‘Lester, Arrieta and Lackey,’ they don’t like that,” Maddon said with typical bravado, per ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers.
He’s right. That’s a sturdy top three.
And just as Lackey strengthens the staff, Zobrist bolsters the lineup. He doesn’t blow you away with power, but he’s a switch-hitter without dramatic splits who is essentially versatility personified. Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan highlighted Zobrist’s virtues:
You could argue that Castro, who is nearly 10 years Zobrist’s junior, has more long-term upside. And, again, it’s fair to wonder what Zobrist will be able to do—or not do—in the third and especially fourth years of this deal.
But the Cubs are in win-now mode after blossoming ahead of schedule yet falling to the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series.
Zobrist and Lackey, while not as splashy as David Price or Jason Heyward, are exactly the kind of complementary pieces Chicago needed on its long-delayed title quest. Don’t worry, we’re not going to mention billy goats. Promise.
The deals are sweetened from the Cubs’ perspective when you consider that Chicago snatched Lackey from the archrival Cards and Zobrist from the Mets, who were “pretty optimistic” they’d land him, per ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin.
The Cubs have shown interest in Heyward, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. And the Zobrist and Lackey deals are reasonable enough to make adding the 26-year-old outfielder a possibility. Heyward, another former Cardinal with legit five-tool talent, would certainly and instantly make the Cubs much, much better.
So far, though, president of baseball operations Theo Epstein—the architect of this rebirth on the North Side—has opted for restraint and chosen to tinker around the edges of an already-excellent roster.
The Cubs had youth. Now they’ve added experience. Is it a trophy-hoisting recipe? It’s still December, so the proper answer is “Wait and see.” But from where we’re sitting, signs point to “Yes.”
All statistics and contract information current as of Dec. 8 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
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