Cubs: The Gleyber Torres-Aroldis Chapman trade looking better every day

In the wake of the Chicago Cubs winning the 2016 World Series, fans and pundits alike loved to re-hash the biggest trade the team made that season – trading a package of prospects headlined by Gleyber Torres to the New York Yankees in exchange for fireballing left-hander Aroldis Chapman.

Personally, I’ve always stood in favor of the deal. Parades > prospects, all day, every day. My mind won’t ever change on that front. But after the confetti stopped falling along the parade route and Chapman turned around and re-signed with New York, people wondered if the front office paid too high a price for that ring.

No one particularly worried about what Rashad Crawford or Billy McKinney, the other two prospects sent to the Bronx, along with veteran hurler Adam Warren, would turn into down the road. It was all about infield prospect Gleyber Torres – who had all the makings of a perennial All-Star and potential double play partner for Javier Baez.

At the time, Chicago was swimming in middle infield depth and Baez, along with Addison Russell, looked like the future. The Cubs also had Ben Zobrist for three more years as an insurance option, so Theo Epstein was content trading from an organizational position of strength.

But, as we know now, that depth quickly evaporated. Russell, who isn’t even part of an MLB organization at this point, wound up washing out following disturbing domestic abuse allegations, Zobrist saw his career cut short due to personal matters off the field and Baez has been consistently inconsistent for virtually all of his big league career.