Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Matt Spiegel reported Cubs, Red Sox had trade talks surrounding Matt Shaw

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote discussed what came of recent trade talks between the Cubs and Red Sox.

Rahimi Harrison Grody The great Kevin Harlan I just pulled through the Taco Bell Drive-thru and I've got a couple of big nasty Supreme Burritos right here waiting to beat. You know the first thing they ask you now are you using the app.

The app, no, I just want my burrito. I don't want to use an app. Bring a lot of mild sauce because I'm going to squirt it all over the way. Put some hot sauce on my burrito, baby. Rahimi Harris and Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. To 2 on the score. The 2-1 delivery, contrarish

Lines one caught by Horner through the first. They double up, Cheerio! Over! Zach Zadman on the call. This is Rahimi Harrison Grady on 1043, the score. And guys, don't be bugging modest bozzellis to the Oakville now, okay? He blew up his spot on his own. We got to have a code here.

We can't be bugging him when he's there. You just gave it away again, though. I know, but I'm just saying. No, don't bug him. Don't. Actually, he seems like the type of athlete or human. and who would be amenable to somebody coming up to him and saying, hello, Modis.

He'd probably say, hello, good to see you. Because he's 21 and not yet jaded. I appreciate the youth. He's in his prime. He seems like a very nice person. He does. And it was nice of him to even say that. So meanwhile, you know,

Kevin Harlan's going to Taco Bell and Modis is at the Oakville. I like it. There's levels to this. There are. People need range, dang it. Yeah. Kevin Harlan certainly has range. That's what I've learned from our conversations with him.

Gift to us. Kevin Harlan telling us about his life every day. We love it. So you just heard the baseball call. Guess what? People are reporting and talking in Arizona. And before they do that, there's also some news about really one of the

biggest questions we're going to have until we have a certainty when it comes to how this Cubs infield is settled. Alex Brebman gets signed Matt Shaw's many years of control. He's trying to develop. Nico Horner has a massive amount of value. When you put it all together, it creates a lot of questions.

to this roster and how it's going to shake out, even in spring training. This is going to be one of those things that we're going to be tracking every single day to try to figure out a good problem. Is there more talent than the infield positions allow? So Matt Spiegel yesterday on Spiegel and Holmes shared the information he received on the Cubs regarding Nico Horner and Matt Shaw. Take a listen. Nico Horner going to get traded?

He has not. And I don't think he will be. I think we can close the book on the idea that Nico was going to get dealt, because the last team that desperately needed a second baseman, and an infielder really to try and sort it out, was the Boston Red Sox. And some stuff went on this week. The Boston Red Sox did call the Cubs about Nico Horner. They ended up talking more about Matt Shaw than Nico Horner.

And then the Boston Red Sox traded with the Brewers for Caleb Durbin. that fills their need. They did not get what they wanted from the Cubs in terms of Nico and the Matt Shaw conversations apparently did not go well enough for both sides to consummate something there. But I think we can sit in good thought that Nico Horner will be a member of these Chicago Cubs.

We can relax about that. The Red Sox are your friends. They took Caleb Durbin from Milwaukee. get him out of there I like this news from Speeks because let's be honest none of us wanted to see Nico Horner traded if we were invested

in the Cubs success in the 2026 season it was never going to make sense to me to trade him before the season even started now at the deadline that's that could be different I'm not saying it will be but it could be different but like you want to start off feeling like you are full bore full go and Nico

Horner not in this lineup to me was going to be a failure on the Cubs front office. Well, it's the dichonomy of you have more qualified infielders than you have positions available, and you have a player arguably at the height of his powers right now. And that's what makes it so tempting. And then that also makes me understand more. The bigger question I have with this isn't just what Nico Horner's value is to the Cubs.

It's what are Matt Shaw's years of control to the Cubs? How much do they care about those? because in previous years, I would say that those may matter more than anything else, as far as a player's value is concerned. And when I hear that from Matt Spiegel, I think there might be a different tune now as far as that is concerned. Like, do you guys think it's enough of a game changer here? Talk about the Matt Shaw part of it?

Oh, yeah, because, I mean, literally yesterday, I was saying, I don't know how the Cubs at this point, just as a player, what they project out of Matt Shaw, based on one season. Do they still look at him as a core member of their team? Did they look at him as just even a valuable bench player who doesn't play every day? Like I don't know how they project him. Now, based on what Spiegel reported, it does sound like, okay, the Cubs might be willing to shop Matt Shaw

and officially because Alex Bregman, because Nico Horner, there may not be a spot at the inn for somebody like that. although first round pick don't know what he's going to be there is value with matt shaw not just value because of that but also because let's be honest there's going to be some type of work stoppage next year nico horner last i checked is a free agent at the end of this year sure is and you have matt shaw under many many years of control so that's not something you just go around giving away again you you hit the hammer out yeah with the value of the with the value of first round pick this guy was drafted to be someone he's already showing you that he's already showing you you as a glove gold or excuse me gold glove finalist how good he can be now that's it is uh you you

know the upside you also have a little bit of upside for just getting regular reps right like that's the part of this that also helps in the equation so that's why this is a it's fascinating to play out and see understand real time what's going on with with how they value this so here's another thing that happened today Craig counsel has spoken in mesa and listen to what Craig Counsel had to say about where Alex Bregman might fit into this thing. Of course, yeah, that's a possibility. But it's not, Alex is the third baseman. I think that's just a season thing.

And you play it, play it and see how it goes during the season. But yeah, that's certainly one of the ways we can go. Wait, what's the, we didn't get the beginning part of that. What was he talking about? So apparently there's a possibility of, Alex Bregman moving to D.H. Ah, okay. So he's saying there's a possibility that he could be D.H.

Okay. Now, I didn't take that as to he's going to be the D.H. I took that as get him off his feet a few days, DH him and Matt Shaw get some reps. They have that luxury with the extra end filter. Yeah. Yeah, I need more on that one. Yeah, I couldn't tell from the context.

It sounded like Craig was saying, yeah, that's, yes, we'll play him at D.H sometimes. Exactly. Well, and I didn't know if there was a question, though, that was going to be included. So we're chopping this audio up and remixing it for you, not necessarily remixing it. We're just trying to get it on the air, real time, because that just happened a little bit ago in Mesa. So there is a possibility that Alex Breggman could DH, which will also make it make sense. You know, if you're trying to get people regular reps, if you're trying to get everybody fitting in, you know, I know there's been some discussion

about Moises by Asteroes in all of this. But Alex Breggman, at least immediately, is a much better prospect if that's where he's going to go. Yeah, I mean, Moises by Asteroz, Kevin Alcantara, do we start to talk about James Trianta, like some of the bench guys that are on his team. Let's not get too far down that bench. I know, I know. Let's not get too.

This is the time to do it, though. This is the time to do it. You get too far down that bench, and then you're left with those options as regular players because of injuries. Things are not going to go the way you think they are, or you would hope they would go. Well, and that's why I love. love the Matt Shaw part of this, that it puts him in the, because they couldn't quite figure out

Matt Shaw last year. The ups and downs were real, and that should be allowed for a rookie. But the signing of Alex Bregman put everybody in their proper slots of importance in terms of people are not over-promoted. It might have been an over-promotion to think that Matt Shaw is an everyday player at this point. Now you don't have to think about that. Well, there's more. Oh. Yeah. So Craig Counsel also today spoke on Matt Shaw getting work in the outfield. I think Matt kind of heard what he wanted. What he was hoping to hear is that we're going to play him in multiple positions. And I think he was, you know, in his mind ahead of it a little bit and excited about it.

So it really just, I think the outfield is the thing that's going to be newer for him. You know, there's a number of positives we have working for us. One, Matt's a really good athlete. I think he's demonstrated that. I think he's demonstrated last year a position change and very much I think we all saw it improved as he worked as he put in work for it. That's a very positive step. He's going to have some work to do this spring. He's not afraid of that.

He's a worker. He loves that part of it. He loves the challenge of it. So I, this is like not on my top three list of things to worry about, I'd say. I think Matt's going to do this great. And we were a healthy group as a position player unit last year. Very healthy group. You know, if that happens again, great.

But I think you anticipate probably a little more happening. And that's where Matt's going to be very important. Oh, man. Okay. So does that change your mind when you hear that? When he said not top three, I was like, is it number four? That's the first thing that comes from our. So unnecessary.

Like, this is not, honestly, guys, this is not even top three. But I'll answer your whole question. Maybe, but top three is just too narrow of a focus. It's so funny, man. I love it all because it's like, okay, so it's there, but it's not there.

Right. It's going to take a lot of work. Look, we've seen it before infielders converted to playing outfield. We've seen it on the Kyle Schwerber as an example. He was a catcher. They had to teach him how to play left field. I'm not saying he'd ever be yet. Yeah, that's fair, Leila.

It did not start well. No, it didn't. No, it didn't. Some of us didn't think he was going to make it, but he did. Ian Hap is a great example. Ian Hap played in field. He played a couple games, I think, at second base on the Cubs watch, but he's become a gold glove left fielder.

Is it easy? Probably not easy, but it would seem that Craig Counsel, not on his top three list, thinks that this could be your versatile player. We have luck in our game. Did anybody follow up and ask him what the top three is? Did anybody go that far? We need that. Okay, so what are your top three?

What should be his top things that he is most concerned with on this team right now, like something that he can be hands on with? What would that be getting PCA back together? I would argue it would be the health of fill in the blank. Like that's number one. Like health, maybe health overall is like number one. Want to make sure we're healthy as we start spring training. I'm going to make sure Kate Horton's good to go.

Justin Steele is coming along nicely. Is that what you mean guys like that? The rotation is what he, that should be. You're right. Getting the starting rotate after what happened, after the Cubs fizzled out last year with the pitching, that probably should be number one. Well, what about also the,

what about also just the availability of pitching? Like if that was really his main concern was they didn't have enough pitching. And he didn't specify as to whether or not it was starting or relieving. Based on their actions, you would think it might be relief. But. Oh, Edward Cabrera and maybe he's at Gallen. Right. We still don't know what's happening with Zach Gallen.

So is pitching still the main priority for him? At the moment. That's what Jed focused on as well. Well, I guess the bullpen is probably something that he's anxiously await. Well, at least the putting it together. You know there's Daniel Palencia. You know that Caleb Thielbar is back. Ben Brown, always there.

Always there for you. Always there. Good old Ben Brown. Ben Brown is always there for our discussion, it feels like. Porter Hodge, does he become something? So as a manager, ultimately... I hope he becomes something different than what he was at the end of last year, I hope so too.

Yeah, I mean, but good arm. So maybe it's the bolt that. So here's what we do. We get Connor Bedard, modest Buzellis, PCA, and Caleb Williams together at this dinner. And then now that we've got Buzellis and we're like, hey, who told you about better on your pancakes? It was us. You owe us.

And they're like, can you get PCA to ask Craig Counsel? What is top three? concerns are. And that's how we'll get it done. What do you guys feel about the efficiency of this process? I like the length to which you went. And it seems logical to me. I like the one favor I need is for you to ask PCA to ask her a council to tell us. Listen, the PCA thing for me is the number one like question going into the season. What version of PCA are you getting? Because I think that is the difference maker. Even with Alex Breggman, if you just get standard Alex Breggman production, if you don't get first half PCA or something closely resembling it

and you get something much closer to second half PCA, I think the Cubs are going to have a problem. Guys, I think we have to do the Dare to Dream segment at some point. Just like municipalities in northwest Indiana and Iowa, just like every Bears fan who wants Max Crosby. At some point, we're going to have to dare to dream. The PCA is adjusting his pitch selection. and that he has made the off-season adjustments that we have requested of him as a hitter.

The blue-haired kid hits the ball really hard. Dare to dream. You know what I am most curious about going into this Cub season? Like which player I am most curious about? Someone on Pat Murphy's team? No, not somebody on Pat Murphy's team. I don't concern myself with the Brewers or predictions. We know.

I don't, can I stay out of Milwaukee business? Although I am glad that they, because Caleb Durbin is really good. what is Michael Bush's ceiling? Because he at times, and you can make a case that he was their most productive player last year. When allowed to play? When allowed to play, like what is, like, what do you have 31 home runs last year? Give me 40 bombs. What is that man's ceiling?

I'm very curious about that. I mean, are you kidding? That's, first it was just get him to play every day. Now we've got to figure that out. And if his ceiling is anything like his playoff performance, sign me up. Right. Like, who are you, Michael Bush? don't know who you are yet. Who are you? I am. I'm Batman. I'm not Batman. But I'm not the

Joker either. Are you weed man? No, that's weed, sorry. That's Dan Weider. You're definitely a superhero. No, I'm not a superhero. I'm just regular guy. I like regular guy. I can blend in with the crowds. You can do both. Hoodie up and then nobody even knows I'm coming in the shoes. Come on, is this like when Joelle Embed M. Bede would be out and about and he'd put his hoodie on and we're like you're seven feet tall, Joelle and Bede. Like everybody knows it's still you with your hoodie. Listen, Joel and Bede, so many Shirley Temple so little time. Now, that's a metabolism. Oh, yeah, we'll tell you that story.

In the meantime, I think we have to do this. It was the least likely place I think I've heard a confession. Oh, you're Olympic story. Hey, hey, yay, yeah, yeah. Oh, I didn't want to give a... Sorry. We got to do it next, because there's more to it than we even think. Uh-oh.