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3 off-the-wall Chicago Cubs trade deadline possibilities
Nobody not named Jed Hoyer knows what the Chicago Cubs will do over the next two months. The team enters Memorial Day weekend just one half-game back of the rival Cardinals in the National League Central and a plethora of key players poised to hit free agency at year’s end.
So I took a crack at three possible moves Chicago could make between now and July 30, two of which have the team selling and one that would send a clear message that they’re all-in one last time.
Chicago Cubs: Trade Willson Contreras to the San Diego Padres
The mere thought of sending Willson Contreras to the Padres is likely enough to make plenty of folks reading this post visibly angry given the sentiment San Diego fleeced the Cubs in the Yu Darvish deal last winter.
But given the fact the Padres have a .571 OPS from the catcher position this season, you can bet that AJ Preller has his eye on upgrades behind the dish. They’re not looking for a long-term answer given top prospect Luis Campusano is waiting in the wings, but we saw early this year that he’s definitely not ready for big league action.
We’ve been focused on the likes of Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Craig Kimbrel – but Contreras is one of the best offensive catchers in baseball and has that extra year of control the other four lack.
If you’re one of those folks still angry about the return in the Darvish deal, this could be the perfect opportunity for the Chicago Cubs to snatch away one of the Padres’ blue chip talents. The biggest detractor in such a deal? Chicago already has a major depth issue at the big league level behind the plate and losing Contreras would be devastating.
Chicago Cubs get Max Scherzer and push in all their chips down the stretch
Look. If you’re keeping the core through the end of the season no matter what, you have to give them the best chance to pull off the improbable and win one more ring. If the Chicago Cubs have any chance of doing that, they’ll need to add to the starting rotation in a big way.
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In the final year of his seven-year, $191.4 million deal with the Nationals, the 36-year-old Scherzer has been around the block. The right-hander has three Cy Youngs to his credit, along with seven All-Star appearances and a World Series title, to boot. He’d immediately supplant Kyle Hendricks as the ace on the team and give David Ross a rotation capable of doing some damage come October.
In a best-of-five, with Scherzer and Hendricks kicking things off, he could play the matchup game in a big way from there, playing the hot hand – whether that be Adbert Alzolay, Jake Arrieta or Zach Davies.
He wouldn’t come cheap – nor should he. Even at his age, the veteran continues to get the job done, carrying a 2.27 ERA into the weekend to go with an impressive 6.54 K/BB mark. He’s one of the fiercest competitors and best clubhouse guys in the game and if Hoyer pulled this off, he’d be telling us all he’s doing whatever it takes to win one more before the end.
Chicago Cubs: A Kris Bryant trade with the Houston Astros
Most of the teams we’ve seen loosely rumored to have interest in Kris Bryant have been located out east, including the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals. But there’s one team that has to be interested given the amount of time the Chicago Cubs slugger has spent in the outfield this season: the Houston Astros.
The team has definitely felt the loss of George Springer more than they’d hoped to and Bryant would immediately remedy their lack of offense in the outfield. Like the Cubs, Houston faces an impending loss of their star shortstop in Carlos Correa – so adding some firepower in hopes of making one more run with him could prove enticing.
Bryant is enjoying the best season of his career through the first two months, smacking 15 doubles, 11 home runs and tallying a .405 OBP en route to an OPS north of 1.000. He’s been near-twice as valuable as the league average player to this point and, as I’ve said before, he’d be hard-pressed to raise his trade value any higher at this point.
Next. Javier Baez, once again, leaves us utterly speechless. dark
In the same way a trade for Scherzer would tell fans the front office is going for it, a Bryant trade will send the exact opposite message: the rebuild is on and you need to come to terms with the closing of the most successful chapter in Chicago Cubs history. One thing’s for sure: no matter which way the team goes, the next two months are going to be quite a ride.