Chicago Cubs: Shoring up the bullpen in the FanSided Mock Winter Meetings

As part of FanSided’s annual Mock GM Meetings, where the editors for all 30 MLB sites take the reins of a team, the Chicago Cubs are focused on the pen.

Even telling you all right here, in the first sentence of this article, won’t be enough. I know that. This is not a real trade pulled off by the Chicago Cubs. Let’s just get that out of the way right here and now.

Every offseason, FanSided’s MLB division puts on a Mock Winter Meetings, where we, as site experts, get to pretend to take over the role of general manager for a week. There are an array of rules and guidelines to make it as realistic as possible – and it always results in some crazy moves.

Essentially, as Mock GM, I have to operate under the same M.O. as the real-life front office. In this instance, it means keeping an eye on the payroll – and not spending $300 million. So, odds are you won’t see Bryce Harper or Manny Machado on this version of the Cubs.

But with an eye on a bullpen that lost Justin Wilson, got only half a season from Brandon Morrow and saw Carl Edwards fall to pieces late in the year, I pulled the trigger on my first move, trading Mike Montgomery and a pair of prospects to the Cincinnati Reds for hard-throwing right-hander Raisel Iglesias.