No Ohtani

I have to say it is no surprise the Cubs lost out on the Ohtani sweepstakes.  They were pretty much a long shot to begin with.  Now that Ohtani is off the table, I rather think the market for a lot of the big pitching assets will start to settle.  As far as the Cubs are concerned, I honestly do not see them trading for either a starter or a reliever at this stage of things.  There are just too many front line and middle of the rotation guys available on the open market right now.  I kind of think they will make a play for Darvish, although this is far from certain.  Cobb is the more likely target.  As to relievers, it is not beyond imagination for them to try to land Davis, but, in a way, Davis is a costly piece who carries a lot of risk.  I'm not a fan of paying relief pitchers big bucks as in general, I believe that closers are overrated commodities and the shelf life of relief pitchers is pretty limited.  The Cubs have apparently made offers to Brandon Morrow and Austin Reed, either one of whom would be nice additions, Morrow presumably as the closer in waiting.  Should be an interesting week coming up.