Chicago Cubs: Would deadline deal for Manny Machado have saved us?

For months, the Chicago Cubs and Manny Machado seemed endlessly linked in rumors. If they had acquired him, would this season have turned out different?

Let’s get this out of the way: with the unattainable gift of foresight, most Chicago Cubs fans would have traded Addison Russell for Manny Machado back in July.  Most fans probably would have included another prospect or low-level Major League guy as well if we could go back and do it again.

However, that’s not what happened.

With the information we had in July, most Cubs fans did not want to trade a one of the best defensive shortstops in the game (with admitted offensive shortcomings) for three months of control over a guy who doesn’t even play shortstop as his natural position.

Since we can’t go back and do it over again, we can only speculate on what could have been.  Let’s take a look at what we could have had and be honest and fair about what might have happened.