They must be somewhat confident he'll be ready to go opening day. They were aware of it before they traded Davis.
So far with Peacock, Pressly, and McCullers we are 500k below MLBtraderumors arbitration estimates. They have been fairly accurate in the past.
Even without Davis, they've still got Yuli and Diaz who are probably starter-quality 3B. I liked Davis well enough, but he probably isn't as good as either of them.
It sounds like this was an issue Bregman had been dealing with for the better part of three years. Decided now was a good time to finally deal with it. Sounds like there's no reason to expect him NOT to be in the opening day lineup. But even if he needs to miss the first couple weeks of the season we should be able to manage without him (for a short stretch like that).
Cubs signed Addison Russel to an additional year. Where's the feigned outrage from the ESPN peanut gallery?
If that's true, I don't know why wouldn't have done it several months ago? Anything that interferes with spring training in a best-case scenario is not good, and it just makes potential setbacks in recovery much more problematic.
If you read McTaggart's article it has been bothering Bregman for 3 years. He didn't say anything to the Astros until just recently when his elbow "locked out" and was stiff. He expects to be back March 1st.
The Cole arbitration is concerning. DeGrom and Betts put up some high marks. It's possible that Cole could be north of 15 million and our salary cap number will be creeping towards 185 million.
If they can't find a way to agree on a one year arbitration amount....I don't think extension talks would go too well.