Big-time Cubs trade bust quickly lands on his feet with a new team

The Chicago Cubs fell well short of expectations at the trade deadline, namely due to their lack of major rotation additions, but one area they notably improved in is the bench, acquiring switch-hitting utilityman Willi Castro from the Minnesota Twins.

The addition of Castro, who will hit free agency at season's end, spelled the end of the ill-fated Vidal Brujan experiment - to the dismay of, well, pretty much nobody. Despite a -0.4 bWAR and 51 OPS+, the 27-year-old landed on his feet rather quickly after being claimed by the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.

Last winter, Chicago sent slugging first base prospect Matt Mervis to Miami in exchange for Brujan, ending the fanbase's weird obsession with the former Duke standout and, despite initial cries of shock and horror, Mervis has... well, done pretty much nothing notable since joining the Marlins organization.

He went on a brief heater early in the year and then cratered. In 134 plate appearances, he's slashed just .175/.254/.383 - and hasn't appeared in a big league game since late May. At the Triple-A level, he's done what he's always done: absolutely mashed, slugging .614 in 35 games. Dude has AAAA player written all over him at this point. Just is what it is.

Willi Castro does everything the Cubs wished Vidal Brujan could do

But back to Brujan. Jed Hoyer hoped that his baserunning skillset and defensive versatility could make him a valuable bench weapon for Craig Counsell. Except, well, that never really happened. He was part of the revolving door at third after Matt Shaw scuffled out of the gates, but was only a marginal improvement over the Cubs' rookie and, no matter how you measure success, he didn't find much of it.

The exchange of Castro for Brujan marks one of the biggest improvements any team, not just the Cubs, made at the deadline if you're strictly looking at value. Castro's off to a scorching start with Chicago, with three hits, three runs and several nice defensive plays over the weekend with his new club.

Now, if only we could jettison Jon Berti, we'd be in business. I suspect the clock is ticking on that roster move - and one of the team's top prospects will likely take a bench spot down the stretch, regardless of how much the Cubs want their young players to play every single day. But, in the meantime, Castro's defensive versatility and league-average bat is a major boost to the bench mix.