New MacKenzie Gore rumor offers hope for Cubs fans just hours before the deadline

Trade deadline day is off to a roaring start - headlined by a blockbuster between the San Diego Padres and the Athletics that saw JP Sears and Mason Miller head to San Diego in exchange for a package of prospects, headlined by MLB Pipeline's #3 overall talent, shortstop Leo De Vries.

The Miller trade, Toronto trading for former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber, Philadelphia trading for Twins closer Jhoan Duran and the Mets' bullpen makeover has Chicago Cubs fans sweating - and laying into recently-extended president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer for his lack of major moves to this point. New rumors, though, suggest Chicago's front office is still working to add a top-of-the-rotation arm ahead of Thursday evening's deadline.

As Jon Heyman notes, the Washington Nationals don't need to trade Gore. He's got two more years of control remaining and the club could easily choose to hold onto him and either shop him again in the future or (shocking concept) enjoy the fruits of the left-hander at the top of their rotation.

MacKenzie Gore checks every possible box for the Cubs at the deadline

The former first-rounder would command an ungodly return in terms of prospects - but Cubs fans need to come to grips with the fact they can't have their cake and eat it, too. You can't ask for a playoff-caliber starting pitcher, let alone one with multiple years of team control, and expect to not have to come off a collection of top prospects. That's now how this works.

On the year, Gore, 26, has proven that win-loss record is an outdated metric to measure pitcher's success. He's 4-11, but earned his first All-Star selection, has already hit a career-high in WAR (2.7 bWAR) and is piling up strikeouts. Swing-and-miss slotted into this Cubs' rotation would be huge and we already know the organization isn't concerned with being too left-handed-heavy with Gore potentially joining fellow southpaws Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd.

A number of top starters remain available outside of Gore, including Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and Joe Ryan - and that's not to mention the relief market, which has commanded insane prices in the trades to this point. The Cubs aren't done. The additions of Andrew Kittredge and Michael Soroka are nice, with the former solidifying the middle innings and latter offering rotation depth, but they aren't headline-making moves.

And make no mistake: Hoyer knows what we all know - this is a team that needs some headline-making moves if they want to make the most of what could end up being Kyle Tucker's only year on the North Side.