Chicago Cubs: Breaking down four potential outfield trade targets

With the weak free agent class, trading for outfield help could be a solution for the Chicago Cubs. Here we look at four potential targets for the club.

The Chicago Cubs will go into this offseason looking for help in their outfield, particularly in center field. That being said, there just isn’t much available on the free agent market.

According to MLB.com, Jarrod Dyson and Billy Hamilton are the only primary center field free agents with a positive WAR in 2019. I wrote previously that Brett Gardner could be a center field option, though such a move seems unlikely. With Albert Almora, Jr. coming off a rough year, if the Cubs aren’t comfortable with him as their center fielder, they may have to look at some trade possibilities.

Of course, the big question that many Cubs fans are asking this offseason is whether the team will bring back Nicholas Castellanos. The former Detroit Tiger was excellent in his short time with the team, leaving many fans hoping that the two sides can get a deal done. Such a move would likely put Jason Heyward in center field for 2020, thus addressing the need to fill that position.

Still, Castellanos is not going to come cheap, and many teams figure to be in on him, so it’s far from a guarantee that he’ll be back in Chicago next year. If he’s not, then the Cubs will have to come up with a different plan. The downside of a trade is that it would likely cost the team prospects, especially since the other four teams I will be discussing here will likely be in rebuilding mode in 2020.

All that being said, where could the Cubs look via trade to find outfield help? Let’s look at four possibilities.