It's Tuesday night here at BCB After Dark: the most-talked about late-night spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the fall chill. There's no cover charge. We still have a few tables available. We can check your coat. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last night I asked you how many free agents did you think would accept their qualifying offers? Thirty-eight percent of you thought that one player would accept and another 33 percent thought they would all recject the qualifying offer.
On Tuesday night. I don't normally do any movie stuff. But I want our evenings to be lively, so that means we need some music. That time is now.
I've often said that there is a lot of great jazz that serves as theme songs to television shows. Here's one you may not know unless you're an old school anime fan. This is composer Yoko Kanno and her orchestra "The Seatbelts" playing "Tank!," the opening credits song to Cowboy Bebop.
Welcome back to those who skip all that jazz.
The Cubs obviously need to rebuild their bullpen. While it isn't in team president Jed Hoyer's DNA to spend a lot of money on a relief pitcher, there is some reason to believe that he might make an exception this year. And as it would have it, there are two elite relief pitchers available in the free agent market: left-hander Adrián Morejón and right-hander David Bednar.
As luck would have it, Kiley McDaniel has an article up today that has contract estimates up for all the top free agents, including Morejón and Bednar. Now these are just estimates and could be very wrong, but we're going to use them for the purposes of voting tonight. Taking into account both the player and the contract, would you rather the Cubs sign Morejón or Bednar.
Morejón has been the Padres setup man behind Mason Miller the past few years, but he'd be a closer on pretty much any other team. The 27-year-old (28 by Opening Day) left-hander from Cuba went 9-3 with a 2.83 ERA and three saves. He's spent his entire career in the Padres organization and has been an excellent reliever over the past three years, posting ERAs of 2.83 in 2024 and a 2.08 ERA in 2025. His four-seam fastball averaged 99 miles per hour this past season, but that's not even his go-to pitch. That's his sinker, which also comes in at 99 mph with movement.
Morejón has excellent strikeout, walk and ground ball numbers. He struck out 30 percent of batters he faced last year while walking just eight percent. When batters do put the ball in play, 58 percent of the time it was on the ground last year. That ground ball number is a bit of a outlier in his career, but his career ground ball number is a still very good 50 percent.
Unlike Bednar, Morejón has never been an everyday closer because of Robert Suarez and Mason Miller. So if you believe there is something special about pitching the ninth, then Morejón is a bit of a risk.
McDaniel expects that Morejón will command a four-year, $88 million deal.
The other option is 31-year-old right-hander David Bednar. You're probably familiar with Bednar's from his time as a closer for the Pirates. He was an all-star closer for Pittsburgh in 2022 and 2023 before things kind of fell apart for him in 2024. Things got so bad that he was actually demoted to Triple-A for a few weeks in 2025.
But since his return from the minors, Bedar has been lights out. He did well enough the first half of 2025, with 17 saves, for him to be a deadline deal trade to the Yankees. He served all of 2026 as the Yankees closer, garnering 35 saves.
Bednar doesn't have the same kind of velocity as Morejón, but his four-seamer is still a very good 96 mph on average. But his go-to pitch is his 91-mph splitter, which McDaniel called the best splitter in baseball. He also has a good curveball, giving hitters a third look.
Bednar doesn't strike out as many batters as Morejón with 27 percent. But he also walks a bit fewer at seven percent. His ground ball rate of 51 percent was also a career-high for Bednar, over his career numbers of 41 percent.
If you care about saves, Bednar has 146 career saves compared to eight for Morejón.
Comparing their respective WAR numbers, both Morejón and Bednar had a bWAR of 1.9 last season. Fangraphs liked Morejón better, 2.8 to 1.9.
Both Morejón and Bednar have qualifying offers, so they will both cost the Cubs a draft pick should they sign one of them.
So, Morejón at four years, $88 million or Bednar at three years, $60 million? Which deal would you jump at if you were Jed Hoyer?
Thank you for stopping by tonight. Please get home safely. Tell your friends about us. Let us get your coat. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomrorrow night for more BCB After Dark.
