Cubs will trade these players before this summer’s trade deadline

Next summer, the Cubs will undergo a dramatic transformation at the deadline.

In an ideal world, the Chicago Cubs would be spending like the big market team they are. Instead, they’re poised to tear this roster down to the studs, extracting value wherever they can – as evidenced by this week’s trade of Yu Darvish.

That deal netted four prospects and big leaguer Zach Davies, who is heading into his final year of team control in 2021. Cubs fans were seemingly caught off-guard by how far off the minor league talent that came over in the deal is and it sent a pretty clear message: the future is the focus.

While we’ve seen new president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer already make some big subtractions to the roster, there has been little in the way of additions. That could only get worse as the 2021 season gets underway. With (hopefully) fans in the stands and revenue streams opening back up across the league as the COVID-19 vaccine is distributed, teams will be more apt to make big moves – and the Cubs will be right in the thick of it.

The first guy I suspect will be on the move? Davies himself. Teams in the postseason hunt always want more pitching and given he’s affordable and in the last year of his deal, the soft-tossing righty checks a lot of boxes.

He’s coming off the best season of his career with San Diego, in which he made a dozen starts and complied a 2.73 ERA and 1.067 WHIP. Davies allowed just 55 hits in 69 1/3 innings of work, keeping hitters off-balance with his mix of off-speed stuff. He brings short-term value to the Cubs in an arm that can fill some of the void left by Darvish – and could pay off big-time if he picks up where he left off in 2020 and Chicago can flip him at the deadline.