The Cubs picked up Cole Hamels’ $20 million contract option for 2019 and traded Drew Smyly to the Rangers, along with a player to be named later, for a player to be named later.
Besides the PTBNL for PTBNL oddity of this deal, which likely won’t be decided until at least after the Rule 5 draft and maybe not till spring training, here’s how all the various parts of the money and players added up for these transactions, since Smyly never threw a pitch for the Cubs despite being paid $3 million for 2018 (and a $5 million 2018 luxury tax hit, on which the books are closed at this point).