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2017 MLB Winter Meetings, day 3

The Cubs made a couple of moves on Tuesday.

What wizardry is this?
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

A brief summary of things that happened on Day 2:

  • The Cubs signed lefthander Drew Smyly, who’s currently recovering from Tommy John surgery. It’s a good, low-risk move for the future.
  • The Cubs made the Brandon Morrow signing official, via press release.

Over the past three seasons, Joe Maddon has been quite good at getting players to buy in to his vision of how players on the 25-man roster fit in and how they’re used. Mike Montgomery was far better as a reliever than as a starter in 2017; I’d anticipate he’ll be used in that “swing man” role again in 2018 — unless the Cubs do wind up trading him. He certainly has trade value. Response from management:

Drew Smyly is a Mike Montgomery fan!

Speaking of potential Cubs trades:

Sure, Danny Salazar would look great in a Cubs uniform. The Cubs don’t really have lefthanded hitting available in a potential trade — except for Kyle Schwarber. I’m not suggesting a Schwarber-for-Salazar deal, only that I don’t really see the Cubs with other LH hitting that’s tradeable.

Ex-Cub news:

Tommy Hunter had a pretty good year for the Rays in 2017. It’s possible he’ll wind up closing for the Phillies.

Other reliever news:

This leaves Addison Reed, who had been at one point Tuesday rumored to be going to the Phillies, still unsigned. I’d love to see the Cubs make an offer to Reed, who could either set up for Morrow or back him up at closer.

Here’s another, outside-the-box possibility for the Cubs in relief:

I’ve posted this video before, but have a look at Makita striking out Evan Longoria during a MLB/Japan All-Star game in 2014:

That ball... moves!

Late note, breaking just before the time of this post:

This will be your all-purpose Winter Meetings thread for Wednesday. As was the case for the last two days, if there’s any specific Cubs news or signings, I’ll break that out into separate articles. This is the last full day of the Meetings; they will end Thursday with the Rule 5 draft, which will happen at 8 a.m. CT. I’ll have a thread for that tomorrow morning.