Who will be the first Chicago Cubs player traded ahead of the deadline?

Chicago Cubs: Who wouldn’t want to add this guy to their back end?

On to the big names, the Saturday night FOX telecast discussed an interesting idea that I’ll go along with concerning Craig Kimbrel. As the most significant and coveted player on this year’s deadline block, Kimbrel could give a club a huge boost in the next couple weeks, thus increasing his value to a contender who would otherwise only get him for two months if they wait until the end of the month.

Getting a guy like that in a stretch where you might need him to save five games could make the difference between a Wild Card and Division crown come the end of September, so it’s plausible (maybe even likely?) Dirty Craig could go early to someone who throws down a huge offer. Also, with the bidding only getting more competitive for someone like that as we near the deadline, it would behoove another team to jump the market on him and lay their cards on the table.

Sure, it’s going to cost an arm and a leg (maybe literally one arm and two legs of elite prospects), but the cost might be less for the first team to bowl Hoyer over with either a top prospect or package of top 100-type guys.

That’s what it’s going to take for a guy who’s basically looking like the 2016 version of Aroldis Chapman, right?