Chicago Cubs: Player development has been cornerstone of this rise

You have to give up to get sometimes

In July, the Cubs had to make a difficult decision. In order to get Aroldis Chapman and Mike Montgomery, they had to part with two of their top prospects. Dan Vogelbach had been a fantastic hitter for the Cubs farm system but was blocked by Rizzo. So the Cubs got Montgomery (recorded the final out) for Vogelbach.

To acquire Chapman, they game up the young Gleyber Torres. With the rise of Javier Baez and Addison Russell, the Cubs saw him as “expendable”, to an extent. While Chapman had his issues, he was critical to winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years. Torres on the other hand? He won Arizona Fall League MVP–the youngest player to do so. At just 19, he won the AFL batting title with a .409 average. Some Cubs’ fans may look at this as “we gave up too much” for Chapman. We won the World Series. It’s EXACTLY why we were willing to give him up.