Cub Tracks’ blue Xmas

#Puig now Cincinnati’s friend. Also Matt Kemp and Alex Wood, for soon-to-be-DFA’d Homer Bailey. Cubs get Descalso. Yee-haw!

Here’s today’s Cubs News and Notes, such as they are. It’s the season! No, the other other season. As always * means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome).

• Patrick Mooney, Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Cubs year in review: ‘The reckoning’ is coming. What about Bryce Harper? “...this has certainly been a depressing offseason for Cubs fans.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): Cubs haven’t closed the door on Bryce Harper, it’s just not wide open. “Reports of the Cubs’ interest have varied over the last month, as have interpretations of them.” And then there’s the Dodgers...
• Moshe Wilensky (Cubs Insider): Cubs need to outspend rest of NL Central just to keep pace. “...the Cubs are the only team in the NL Central that has never been eligible for the various “free” draft picks and benefits allotted by the CBA.”
• Andy Ziccarelli (Wrigleyville-Baseball Prospectus): Player profile 2019: Kris Bryant. “...there seems to be little reason to doubt that he will be a productive hitter in the middle of the Cubs lineup once again in 2019.” Brandon Morrow, by the same author.
• Jeff Agrest (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Sports media: For Marquee to be YES, Cubs must overcome new, bigger challenges. “What channel is Marquee?”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): From Sammy Sosa to Jon Garland: A look at the 35-man ballot for the 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame. “Along with the annual debate over PED-tainted candidates, the recent veterans committee selections, Harold Baines and Lee Smith — whose career numbers weren’t deemed worthy by writers during their eligibility period — has complicated this year’s ballot a bit.”
• Cubs birthdays: Elrod Hendricks. Also notable: Connie Mack, Steve Carlton (HoF).

Food for thought: