Cubs roll the dice in a trade with the Blue Jays; move suggests there's more to come

If this isn't a Jed Hoyer move, I don't know what is. A former first-rounder who has quite literally never lived up to the hype that surrounded him coming out of the draft? Sign us up.

The Chicago Cubs acquired right-hander reliever Nate Pearson from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for outfield prospect Yohendrick Pinango and infield prospect Josh Rivera, two Double-A players with no clear path to the big leagues in Chicago.

Before we dig in more on those two, back to Pearson. Velocity has always been the name of the game for this guy and, despite a lack of success in 2024, he still ranks in the top five percent of pitchers in average fastball velocity, clocking in at 97.6 MPH. But that hasn't translated into results at any point of his career and, at this point, he makes for a prime change of scenery candidate.

Over parts of four big league seasons, Pearson owns a 5.21 ERA and 5.11 FIP to go along with 10.1 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9. He's been worth -0.9 bWAR across those 115 2/3 innings - clearly not what the Blue Jays had in mind when they selected him with the #28 overall pick in the 2017 draft. Now 27, he'll have a chance to find his footing in Chicago, who can use the rest of the season to evaluate and decide whether to tender him a deal this winter.

Cubs aren't done - and will still trade away big-league pieces

To me, the addition of Pearson only reinforces the belief the Cubs plan on trading multiple relievers before Tuesday. We've heard numerous mentions of Mark Leiter Jr., Drew Smyly, Hector Neris, Tyson Miller and others - so now it's a matter of seeing if Jed Hoyer finds a deal to his liking for any of them.

This is a move that, frankly, makes sense. Pinango was never going to blow past the heap of outfield prospects ahead of him in the organization and he alone wasn't going to bring back a guy with Pearson's stuff. The system can handle the loss of its #23 and #29-ranked prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, and the hope is that the Cubs' vaunted Pitch Lab can iron the kinks out with Pearson.

Again, this does not mean the Cubs aren't selling. Hoyer made it clear: they weren't buying in the sense of pushing in chips on rentals for '24. But if there are opportunities to pick up long-term assets, that would be a different story altogether, as is the case here with Pearson.