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

has been mentioned often in Mets trade rumors. Could a landing spot be the Cubs? Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

New York Mets

The Mets have to pitch. The Mets have scary-good pitching. I kind of wish the Mets would trade someone, anyone, just to even the balance of pitching in the league.

If the Mets were willing to share some pitching they could trade one of the superb young pitchers to address their lack of depth in the middle infield–where we know the Cubs have players to offer.

For some reason, Matt Harvey has been mentioned as being on the trade block. I couldn’t imagine the Mets parting with their young ace. Nor could I imagine the Cubs parting with the players necessary to pry Harvey from the Mets (which might be someone like Schwarber plus Javier Baez).

But the Cubs could leverage Baez and some other players into a Jon Niese or Zack Wheeler.

Both Niese and Wheeler have a bit of a downside. Niese comes with a price tag: $9MM for 2016. His salary may not be good value for his performance the past couple years. Wheeler has been great when he’s pitched. But he missed 2015 due to injury. Perhaps the Cubs leverage those downsides into a more advantageous deal.