Jeff Passan drops clue that keeps Cubs’ MacKenzie Gore trade hopes alive

Matthew Boyd has been a revelation in his first year with the team and Shota Imanaga hasn't missed a beat in his sophomore season, IL stint aside. Still, everyone would feel a lot better about the Chicago Cubs' prospects in October if Jed Hoyer locked down a top-of-the-rotation arm in the next week.

ESPN insider Jeff Passan did nothing to temper fans' expectations in his latest trade deadline preview piece, calling Washington Nationals' southpaw MacKenzie Gore the best fit for the North Siders, who entered Thursday's off-day one game back of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central.

In outfielder Owen Caissie, Chicago has the sort of prospect around which a package for a controllable arm can be built. If not Gore or Ryan, perhaps it's Mitch Keller from Pittsburgh. Regardless, the motivation for the Cubs is there. They want to win the division, yes, but most of all they want to win a ring. Now is not the time to let what a model says about lost surplus value in a deal get in the way of that. The Cubs want to be all-in. We'll see if they are when it matters.

Cubs need an ace - will they push their chips in on MacKenzie Gore?

Passan doesn't shy away from the elephant in the room, either. To pull off a move for someone like Gore or Minnesota Twins right-hander Joe Ryan, it takes bold strokes - which isn't exactly something that's been commonplace since Jed Hoyer took control of the front office a half-decade ago.

Gore is in the midst of his best season as a big leaguer in D.C, earning his first career All-Star selection this month. He's piled up 144 punchouts in just 112 2/3 innings of work, pitching to a 3.20 FIP and 3.59 ERA that lines up almost perfectly with his 3.58 xERA.

He's got a mid-90s fastball and a knee-buckling curveball - the latter of which headlines an offspeed arsenal that ranks among the best in the game. Gore gets a ton of swing-and-miss, something this Cubs staff could certainly use more of, and he's under team control for two more seasons past 2025 - which would put someone like Caissie at the center of a prospective package.

Now, we wait. We wait to see if Hoyer and the Cubs can leverage their top-heavy farm system and big market resources to get the best fit on the board or if we're looking at another go-round of the value-driven approach Chicago's come to be known for in recent years.