Over at the Baseball Prospectus main site, BP Wrigleyville’s Editor-in-Chief, Rian Watt, analyzed the Dexter Fowler deal. We thought you’d enjoy a preview here.
Well. There is a great deal to talk about with respect to this transaction, and only some of it has to do with the deal’s baseball implications. There’s the fact that, a mere 72 hours ago, we believed that Fowler had agreed to a three-year, $35 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles, there to play right field at Camden Yards. There’s the corresponding fact that nobody—not one person—had heard a whisper of this deal until a white-shirted Fowler strode out onto the Cubs’ Field 6 and greeted his cheering teammates. And there’s the CBA-driven oddity that Fowler, a 3.7 WARP player last year, was unsigned at this late date in the first place.
But we’re not here to talk about any of those angles, interesting though they are. We’re here to talk about the implications of a simple fact: On Thursday morning, the Cubs organization was home to (among others) outfielder Chris Coghlan, and this Friday morning it is home instead to Dexter Fowler and Aaron Brooks. What does that mean for Chicago?
The full article is available at Baseball Prospectus.
Lead photo courtesy Jerry Lai—USA Today Sports.