Spent most of yesterday horizontal in rest mode, which upgraded my back status from “everything hurts all the time, and I periodically get jabs of intolerable pain” to “everything is merely sore all the time, and I periodically get jabs of only significant pain.” I will take it.
The Qualifying Offer acceptance deadline looms November 18, together with the rostering deadline ahead of the Rule 5 Draft, and then the tender deadline is three days later. This period of time, therefore, is typically pretty quiet on the transaction front, since the market is about to transform in a whole bunch of little ways. That said, we typically see a handful of notable deals around baseball before the Qualifying Offer acceptance date. Not so much yet this offseason, outside of options decisions (which are required every year). That said, there are some incentives for some teams and some players in some situations to get deals done ahead of these deadlines, so I still think we’re gonna see a move or two between now and Tuesday. I wouldn’t necessarily put the Cubs in that group, though, since Shota Imanaga’s decision could fundamentally alter the trajectory of the team’s offseason in a couple key areas (how many rotation arms to target (probably only one if Imanaga returns), and how much payroll space is available to commit (a $22 million chunk for Imanaga would be sizable)). To be clear, the Cubs can and must have a successful offseason regardless of Imanaga’s decision – that decision can actually be regarded as a positive part of the process either way – I’m only saying that some of the possible paths diverge on its basis. (It also remains possible, albeit unlikely, that the Cubs and Imanaga could, before the deadline, come together on a win-win multi-year deal that falls somewhere between the Cubs’ 3/$57M option and Imanaga’s 2/$30.5M option.) Much more coming on this soon, but the fall top Cubs prospects list at Baseball America dropped late last night:Check out some Moises Ballesteros swings ?He's the best hitter in the Cubs' system ?Chicago's Top 10 + scouting reports: t.co/FecQZzkM9p pic.twitter.com/HZFtUaDEkJ
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) November 15, 2025 Exciting start for Baseball United, the new Middle Eastern/Indian baseball league:The first pitch of the first game of the first season of Baseball United. HOME RUN. pic.twitter.com/NIQW4iA8XZ
— Shawn Spradling (@Shawn_Spradling) November 14, 2025 Forget the bullpen cart. Embrace the bullpen camel:Baseball United’s inaugural season started today and starting pitchers made the trip to the mound riding camels(?: @BaseballUnited) pic.twitter.com/fCH9hcA24x
— World Baseball Network (@WorldBaseball_) November 14, 2025 Jason Motte was a lot better in my memory, but he rated out as just about average with the Cubs in 2015, albeit with some ugly-looking peripherals (3.91 ERA over 48.1 IP and 57 appearances, 16.5% K, 5.3% BB, 30.3% groundball). The average results came almost entirely on the strength of a 3.1% barrel rate. You just couldn’t hit him hard that year. Random thing I noticed when looking into that random Cub, because I knew that was an extremely low barrel rate but he wasn’t showing up as high on the leaderboard as I expected: in 2015, the early days of Statcast, there were 39 pitchers who posted a 3.1% barrel rate or better (40 innings min.). In 2025, that number was … 4. Holy crap. Either the Statcast data has fundamentally transformed, or hitters have become EXPONENTIALLY better at barreling the ball in the last decade! I think it’s probably an 80/20 situation, with batter improvement accounting for 80% of the change. With more data and better cameras available to apply to swings, I think there have been some significant changes. The pool of pitchers able to keep barrel rates as low as 3.1% gradually, but steadily, got smaller and smaller over the years, which suggests it’s a real transformation, rather than a data issue with the early years of Statcast. Oh, wait. There’s a percentage I forgot to account for: over that period of time, there were also some rules changes that probably tended toward helping batters achieve more barrels, including the three-batter minimum rule, the pitch clock, and modest tweaks to the strike zone (shape and accuracy of umpire calls). I wonder what the ABS challenge system will do further on that front. Nothing but respect and well wishes:Happening now: Jacob Misiorowski hosts A Night With The Miz to raise money for the Wisconsin Parkinson Foundation. It’s a cause personal to the Miz family, as his dad Tom has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. pic.twitter.com/hoJBtrBNby
— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) November 15, 2025 Congrats to Dansby and Mallory Swanson on the arrival of their little one:A post shared by Mallory Pugh Swanson (@malpugh)
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— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) November 14, 2025Let’s Talk About the Blackhawks Seven Defensemen Lineup (Again) #blackhawks t.co/V0hlsRoni8
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