MLB Rumors: Cubs will 'almost certainly' trade at least one of their top prospects

Sunday is a travel day for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees as the World Series shifts to the Big Apple for Game 3 on Monday night. Thanks to Freddie Freeman's heroics and the continued October struggles of Aaron Judge, the Yankees return home with their backs edging ever closer to the wall, down 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.

For Chicago Cubs fans, the offseason began weeks ago after Jed Hoyer's club missed the postseason, matching last year's 83-79 record. This offseason has all the makings of a make-or-break effort for Hoyer and the front office, with a postseason-or-bust approach expected from the fanbase.

Free agency speculation is always fun. Well, it's almost always fun - except when a national writer pens a piece laying out the best fits for the top 45 free agents and your team barely gets a single mention. But, hey, the guy they were connected to, Blake Treinen, did his best future Cubs closer impression in Game 2 on Saturday, narrowly escaping with a save - with New York leaving the bases loaded in the ninth.

So if it's not going to come via free agency, how will Hoyer address the multiple areas of need this team has if it's going to hit the 90-win mark in 2025? Unloading some of its top prospects via trade seems the likeliest course of action - one that Cubs beat writers Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney said will 'almost certainly' happen in the months to come.

Chicago boasts an MLB-best eight Top-100 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline rankings. The problem lies in how the big-league roster is constructed, with long-term pieces blocking many of those young player's paths to Wrigley. The logical outcome, then, is a trade (or trades) to capitalize on their value and help round out the roster in Chicago.

Cade Horton probably isn't going anywhere - and after an injury-shortened 2024 season, his value is way down. But expect to hear a lot of mentions of James Triantos, Kevin Alcantara and Alexander Canario this winter - because all could be shopped (among others). The first domino to fall will be the Cody Bellinger opt-out decision - once we have clarity on that, it'll be easier to chart a path for a Cubs team in dire need of a transformative offseason.