Cubs rumored targets don't make much sense

Last night's RECRAP podcast detailed comparisons between the Bears' loss at Green Bay and the 2015 Cubs' second trip to St. Louis. Both ended in misplaced comfort for the team about to be usurped.

The Baseball Winter Meetings are underway in Orlando and the rumors are flying. Jed Hoyer is down there hanging out with Goofy...Carter Hawkins, and the players the Cubs have been most attached to make very little sense. That, of course, is an indication that those rumors are probably true.

Last year, the Cubs were one of the finalists in the Alex Bregman sweepstakes, which dragged on beyond the start of spring training. At the time, the Cubs being interested in Bregman made sense. They had a gaping hole at third base that they had left themselves just one option, a completely untested rookie, to fill. And Bregman had given up on trying to get a long-term deal last year. He was looking for a place to sign a "pillow" contract where he'd get good money in the first year, a player option for the second where if he bombed he could guarantee himself a second year of good pay and if he played well he could opt out and go back on the market merely a year older.

The Cubs could have outbid the Boston Red Sox for Bregman, but in typical Cubs' style they half-assed their offer. They wanted two guaranteed years of Bregman, but in the end their offer had far less money in it. The Cubs, and their legion of apologists blathered on about something, something, deferred money, and even Jed seemed irritated by the lacking offer he had to make for a player he clearly wanted.

In the end, it worked out well for Bregman, who had a good, albeit injury prone season in Boston. He slashed .273/.360/.462 in 114 games. All of his numbers reversed a drastic drop from the year before in Houston which had people wondering if now in his 30s, Bregman's best days were behind him.

Part of the appeal of playing his pillow season in Boston was that Bregman's swing seemed perfectly fit for the green monster in left at Fenway Park. But Bregman actually struggled at home: .246/.347/.414, and was very good on the road .296/.371/.504.

The lack of a deal probably didn't hurt the Cubs all that much. Shaw had an up and down season offensively, but he was a Gold Glove finalist in his first year at third, and not an Ian Happ Gold Glove finalist, but a real one.

The deal probably didn't help the Red Sox all that much. Bregman missed more than 50 games, didn't hit well at home and while they made the playoffs, they were bounced in the Wild Card round by the hated Yankees. Then again, if rookie outfielder Roman Anthony hadn't gotten injured late in the season, we might look at their whole year differently.

The Cubs keep getting linked to Bregman this offseason. And I'll be honest, I don't like it.

Last year was the year to get him. Despite his bounce back season, he's already had his best offensive seasons. And getting him on a short term deal was good idea. Committing to him on a longer deal isn't.

You wonder what the next move would be if the Cubs were to sign Bregman. The easiest dots to connect are that it would allow them to include Shaw in trade offers for top of the rotation starters like Mackenzie Gore or Sandy Alcantara.

The Cubs vaunted minor league system doesn't seem to have a lot of players in it that other teams seem to actually want (the Cubs tried to trade Owen Caissie and Kevin Alcantara at the deadline and nobody was all that interested in either...but I'm sure they'll be great for the Cubs. Sure.) You would like to think the Cubs could trade for either player without touching their current big league roster, but that might not be the case.

The other option...