Step away from the roster, Jed

The Cubs' recent additions of Edward Cabrera and Alex Bregman have filled the two most glaring holes on the roster. They now have a big armed top of the rotation pitcher and they are no longer a bat short in their regular lineup.

I expect Jed Hoyer to weep at the Bregman press conference because there are no more worlds to conquer.

Well, actually...

No roster is ever "done" you should always be on the look for ways to improve. The Cubs regular lineup seems set now with Bregman kicking Matt Shaw to the bench and the trade of Owen Caissie opening all of the DH at bats for a far better player, Moises Ballesteros.

People are still assuming Jed might trade Nico Hoerner to save a few bucks. And on Monday I discussed why that's a terrible idea and that it would basically neuter the impact of the Bregman signing before it even gets started.

Also, we need to take a moment to appreciate the galaxy brain strategy of Red Sox GM and former Cubs' director of pitching something or other Craig Breslow. The Red Sox had a great third baseman in Rafael Devers. Devers was only 28, slugged .510 over nine years in Boston, and slugged .573 in 26 playoff games for them.

But Breslow signed Bregman and told Devers that Bregman was going to play second base. That lasted a day, and then he told Devers he was going to the DH and to "lose your glove." Fun.

And then Red Sox first baseman Tristan Casas ruptured his patella tendon in May, and the Red Sox asked Devers to move to first base. He reminded them that they told him to lose his glove, and to fuck off.

So they traded him to the Giants for a package that really needs Kyle Harrison to be good to get anything out of it.

But hey, they still had Bregman, and they told everybody how much happier they were with him than they'd ever been with Devers. (The same guy who slugged .615 in the ALCS against Bregman's Astros when Devers was 21 years old.) Nobody bad mouths players quite as efficiently as the Red Sox.

And now Bregman's gone.

No Devers. No Bregman. Nice job, Craig.

But that's not for us to worry about. We need to worry about what the Cubs' braintrust is dreaming up for what comes next.

Jed needs to think small. It should come natural for him, it's his default mode.

The rotation is full of good options with Cabrera added to Cade Horton, Shōta Imanaga and Matt Boyd, and then there's that festering pile of mediocrity behind them with Jameson Taillon, Colin Rea, Javier Assad and...I'd say Jordan Wicks, but I'd be perfectly fine with never having to watch him do anything. Sometime in the first half Justin Steele comes back, and he will be a much welcome addition. Jaxon Wiggins and his weird first name spelling should be up at some point.

Hey, maybe the Cubs should take their pitching surplus and...you know what? Never mind. Starting pitching depth is just a concept, it's never a reality. Every team who thinks they have more than enough pitching finds out about three weeks into the season that that's not really a thing. Injuries and badness can creep out of nowhere.

The Cubs have completely rebuilt their bullpen. If you are a white guy in your 30s who can throw 90 MPH or better and Jed didn't offer you a contract, it's time to pack it in.

The lineup looks good, and it's just one Ian Happ coffee roasting accident away from being even better.

I made the mistake of watching a REKAP with our buddy David Kaplan and my old best friend Gordon Wittenmyer (don't the fucking Reds have a podcast for that guy?) where they were talking about the Bregman deal, and both were fired up about it. But Kap was going on about how the Cubs could still trade Nico and sign Cody Bellinger so they could play Shaw at second, move Seiya back to DH and have Cody in right.

Nailed it! After finally signing a real free agent for the first time in forever, I'm sure the Cubs are just rarin' to do it again.