Chicago Cubs: Epstein getting “creative” to acquire starting pitching

hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2013 due to injuries, but could he be a contributor for the Cubs? Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Oakland Athletics

The A’s have a number of exciting young pitchers. Sonny Gray is their young ace and has been noted to be worth quite a haul in prospects–which would be valuable to a rebuilding A’s team.

Gray is a successful, young pitcher under team control until 2020, so getting him would probably require just about all the Cubs prospects previously listed. The asking price would be steep, but do-able.

Lesser known pitchers like Jesse Hahn and Chris Bassitt would not require quite so many prospects. But both have shown some Major League success in relatively small sample sizes, and both are under team control for several more years.

In other words, both would require an extensive number of prospects–especially corner infielders and outfielders, positions where the A’s are lacking at the major league level.

Jarrod Parker could be an excellent buy-low candidate and reclamation project–which the current Cubs office seems to love. He was on his way to becoming a household name before injuries derailed him in 2013.

He missed both the 2014 and 2015 seasons but is ready to return in 2016. It wouldn’t take much for the Cubs to pry him from the A’s, especially if they dangled someone like Dan Vogelbach or Matt Szczur, and Parker could pay off huge if he recovers from injury.