Cubs sign George Kotarras and other notes

The Cubs have signed backup catcher George Kottaras.  George Kottaras settles with #cubs. $1.075M plus incentives. — Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 3, 2013 The Cubs acquired Kottaras the other day and Myles wrote about him shortly thereafter.  When you combine a poor batting average with an a noodle at backstop, you can make the case that Kottaras should linger in AAA all season. When you combine a 13.5% BB with a .192 ISO, you start to wonder why George doesn't start. Put it all together, and you have the platonic ideal of a backup; someone who is opposite-handed of your starter (Castillo is a righty), who has tools you can play up and serious deficiencies that prevent him from otherwise starting, and a guy who isn't likely to make much more than $1.4 million. I fully expect Kottaras to break camp as the No. 2 C, and play there acceptably all year.  The Cubs and Dioner Navarro parted ways at the end of the season. I had thought the Cubs might work out a team friendly contract to get him back next year, but Navarro filed for free agency instead. It turned out to be a good idea for the Cubs to acquire Kottaras and Navarro to hit free agency. Navarro inked an $8 million contract with the Blue Jays today. The Yankees have offered $160 million over 7 years to Robinson Cano, but the sides are reportedly far off. If Cano signs for that little, that really pushes the value of the other top free agents down. Jacoby Ellsbury could suffer the most. He's nowhere near the player Cano is, but some have talked about Ellsbury getting as much as $140 million. $160 million for Cano or $140 million or Ellsbury? If you think Ellsbury is the better buy, you should open a william hill betting account today! I think Cano gets a lot more than $160, but let's say that's all he gets. What is Ellsbury worth? I probably wouldn't pay him $100 million if I could instead get Cano for $160 million. Shin-Soo Choo would suffer too, but not as much. Rather than the $85-100 million contract that's been thrown around, he'd probably drop down to $75-85 million, which is probably still a little more than I'd like to pay for Choo who I very much like. I also would like the Cubs to go after him, but winning is of no concern to the Cubs. Not until they have 7 young players up at the big leagues producing like all-stars anyway. The non-tender deadline is tonight and earlier today the Cubs non-tendered Darnell McDonald.  A pretty big trade went down just a bit ago. Source: #Nationals acquire Doug Fister from #Tigers. — Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) December 3, 2013 Doug Fister is somewhat comparable to David Price and it appears at first glance that what the Tigers received in returned is not a whole lot. The Tigers got second baseman Steve Lombardozzi, Ian Krol, and a prospect. So what's that mean for Price who may or may not be available?