Mariners still a threat for top Cubs' trade target - even after the Josh Naylor trade

When the news broke that the Seattle Mariners were acquiring slugging first baseman Josh Naylor from the Arizona Diamondbacks, my first thought was pretty simple. 'Well, that takes them out of the Eugenio Suarez sweepstakes. Good news for the Chicago Cubs.'

Wrong.

According to MLB.com's Daniel Kramer, the Mariners are still very much in the hunt for Suarez, who is enjoying a monster year in Arizona, leading the National League with 86 RBI and trailing only Shohei Ohtani in home runs, with 36 on the year. The two-time All-Star looks to be the top bat available on the trade market and, as a rental, he's drawing widespread interest with a week until the deadline.

Cubs aren't helped by Seattle acquiring Josh Naylor from Arizona

So what at first looked like good news for the Cubs doesn't turn out the way we'd hoped. If anything, the M's and Diamondbacks are now intimately familiar with one another's organizations and names tossed around in the Naylor talks could be re-visited in a discussion for Suarez.

If it comes down to it, the Cubs can outdo just about any other organization's offer, especially given how top-heavy their system is. But that's not how the Jed Hoyer-led front office operates: they've flat-out said they're not coming off top-ranked prospect Owen Caissie for a rental. Even so, Chicago has five top-100 prospects - all of whom are at Double or Triple-A. And that doesn't even take into account the likes of Ben Brown and Jordan Wicks, both of whom could be attractive change-of-scenery candidates to clubs.

Circling back to the Naylor trade, Arizona acquired Seattle's #13 and #16 prospects in left-hander Brandyn Garcia and right-hander Ashton Izzi. Garcia has been lights-out as a reliever in his professional career, with a 2.49 ERA over 159 1/3 innings, the majority of which came at High-A and Double-A.

The cost for Naylor falls well shy of what Suarez is expected to command, given the lack of major power bats available, and it's worth noting that neither Garcia nor Izzi falls within MLB Pipeline's top 100 rankings. On the season, the former Cleveland slugger boasts a 124 OPS+ but hasn't quite matched the run production that made him a first-time All-Star for the Guardians last year.

The big takeaway for the Cubs? Arizona is open for business - and is expected to keep unloading pieces over the next week. Suarez makes the most sense, but Chicago has been connected to Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen for weeks, so this move is just a sign of things to come as the trade market heats up.