Chicago Cubs: 5 myths about the team’s trade deadline moves

A little over a week ago the Chicago Cubs sent most of their best players away in trades. The moves generated a lot of discussion about why and what comes next.

Rumors abound, talk of extensions, players returning and big spending in 2022.  I’ll go through the five biggest myths about what the Cubs did and will do moving ahead.

Chicago Cubs: Myth #1 This isn’t a tear-down/rebuild

Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer and owner Tom Ricketts have repeatedly denied this is a rebuild.

There’s an old saying, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”  That applies here in spades.

Since the end of last season, the Cubs have traded: Yu Darvish, Victor Caratini, Joc Pederson, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Craig Kimbrel, Andrew Chafin, Ryan Tepera, bench player Jake Marisnick and starter Trevor Williams.  That was the bulk of the starting lineup and the heart of the pitching staff.

In return they received, mostly, handfuls of magic beans, prospects whose status range from rookie ball to Triple-A.  A few others have MLB experience.

Folks, those are teardown moves designed to jumpstart a rebuild. They can talk all they want about how this is not a rebuild. But I’ve seen rebuilds, and this is a rebuild.

It needed to happen. The Cubs farm system was ranked in the bottom third in MLB and trending the wrong way.  It is now generally ranked in the top ten.  I’m not judging the talent we got back either.  No one knows what these guys will turn out to be. Time will tell.