7 prospects the Chicago Cubs should target in a trade at the deadline

Christian Encarnacion-Strand 3B Cincinnati Reds

This player may seem like the more likely of the Reds' prospects to be dealt in a trade as he’s not in the top 20 of overall prospects in baseball. However, he may have just become untouchable as he’s now made his way onto the major league roster and will be helping the big league team immediately (along with his absolutely massive season so far at AAA).

Trade logic changes over time. 

In the past, the Cubs were able to acquire Addison Russell, a top-five prospect in baseball that would make his MLB debut less than a year later along with another top-100 prospect in Billy McKinney and “a 25-year-old pitcher with big league experience” in Dan Strailey. 

The Cubs traded an MLB-ready top-10 shortstop prospect of their own for a rental of Aroldis Chapman in the 2016 season. 

That being said, teams have shifted their thinking and they now recognize the value to having young cost-controlled (cheap) talent that they don’t have to worry about leaving for six seasons and therefore a lot of teams are more willing to trade a teenager that is a top-prospect rather than a top-100 prospect that is knocking on the door of the majors. They’d rather risk a player becoming a star on another team than risk losing a major league contributor in the near term and that makes players like CES extremely costly.

If the Cubs were to pull him in a deal they’d be getting a guy that hit .331/.405/.637 with 20 homers and 21 doubles in 67 games at AAA this season playing a combination of third base and first base. The Cubs need power in the lineup and any level of production from first/third base so he’d be an ideal fit.