Cubs Non-Tender Reese McGuire, Eli Morgan
Reese McGuire filled in admirably for the injured Miguel Amaya, hitting a career-high nine home runs over 140 plate appearances as Carson Kelly‘s backup. That wasn’t nearly enough to entice the Cubs to tender him a contract at anything approaching his $1.9 million projection, so they told him to beat it. Or, more accurately, they simply chose not to tender him a contract for the 2026 season.
The No. 14 overall pick by the Pirates in 2013 out of Kentwood High School, McGuire progressed to Double-A in Pittsburgh’s system before being traded to the Blue Jays. He debuted in 2018 and saw sporadic playing time over the next four seasons, logging a career-best 274 plate appearances in 2022 between the Jays and White Sox. He changed his hose to red for two seasons, then caught on with the Cubs last year.
Even though he’s only accumulated a little over five years of service time over parts of eight seasons, McGuire has put up positive WAR in all but one season. He’ll never live up to the promise of his draft spot, but he won’t turn 31 until March and should be able to hang around for a few more years as a journeyman. The only problem is that he’s always going to be in danger of getting whacked because he’s always going to be a backup.
The Cubs also non-tendered righty reliever Eli Morgan. Acquired from the Guardians last November, Morgan tossed just 7.1 innings over seven appearances before an elbow injury shut him down. He was projected to earn around $1.1 million in arbitration, which was apparently too much to pay for having him under control for two more seasons with an option remaining.
Those were the only two question marks when it came to Friday’s non-tender deadline, as no one doubted whether the Cubs would want to keep Justin Steele and Javier Assad around at a combined $9 million or so.
Ed. note: The original version of this story was written with the assumption that the Cubs had tendered Eli Morgan a contract, as there had been no word to the contrary at the time.
