Cubs trade electric fan favorite to Rays, bring back All-Star in deadline shocker

Holy cow. In a move nobody saw coming, the Chicago Cubs pulled off a jaw-dropping trade, acquiring All-Star infielder Isaac Paredes from the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, sending Christopher Morel and two prospects back in the deal.

Paredes, 25, earned the first All-Star selection of his career this year and is coming off a 31-homer, 98-RBI campaign a year ago. Capable of playing all over the diamond (although he'll almost certainly slot right in as the Cubs' everyday third baseman), he brings the power this lineup has lacked all season long - and does so in a long-term, cost-controlled way, under team control through 2027.

On the year, Paredes has been solidly above-average again boasting a 127 OPS+ while playing a solid hot corner. He'll immediately be an upgrade on both sides of the ball over Morel, who never got his feet under him at third and has struggled at the plate this year.

Christopher Morel will now look to live up to his potential with the Rays

Of course, any time you trade a player with Morel's tools to Tampa Bay, you expect him to put it all together and become a perennial All-Star, but it was clear there wasn't a perfect fit for him in the Cubs' plans moving forward. He went into the year with the opportunity to seize the everyday third base job and fumbled it, badly.

For months, it was all about expected metrics with Morel. But an improved approach at the plate never translated into results and, despite an electric personality and flair for the dramatic, the Cubs finally got to the point where they needed production, despite the promise and talent Morel showed.

The two prospects headed to the Rays along with Morel are right-handers Hunter Bigge and Ty Johnson. MLB Pipeline ranked Bigge as the organization's #29 prospect and Johnson fell outside the top 30. Given the Cubs' minor-league pitching depth, adding these arms in on such a major deal is something the team can certainly handle.

The Cubs and Rays were connected in trade talks over the winter, both about Paredes and Tyler Glasnow before sending the latter to the Dodgers. Tampa Bay showed a ton of interest in Morel in those discussions and, now, they get their guy while Chicago gets to turn the page with an impact piece in the middle of their lineup.

Paredes' name may ring a bell. He's a former Cubs prospect - one that was traded to Detroit along with Jeimer Candelario in exchange for Justin Wilson and Alex Avila back in 2017. Now, he's back in Chicago with a chance to play a major role for Craig Counsell for years to come and just maybe help the Cubs sneak back into the loaded postseason picture in the NL.