The Cubs have been a frequent topic of conversation this year (and the last couple) when it comes to the trade market. If they continue to be competitive, it’s certainly difficult to imagine a sell-off of their big brand stars. One interesting suggestion making the rounds (most recently from Jesse Rogers on ESPN) is that Chicago could continue to walk-the-line between short-and-long-term planning by trading star closer Craig Kimbrel. With Ryan Tepera, Andrew Chafin, and Tommy Nance providing good work out of the pen, the Cubs could conceivably back-fill the closer spot while adding to the farm system.
There would certainly be interest in Kimbrel, who appears back to his old self. The 33-year-old has locked down 14 saves in 24 appearances with a 0.75 ERA/1.27 FIP, stellar 45.1 percent strikeout rate, and much-improved 8.8 percent walk rate, his lowest such mark since 2017. He’ll be a name to watch, but for now, Kimbrel’s not going anywhere. The Cubs are more focused on getting healthy. On that front…
- Javier Baez buzzed his right hand hitting the ball off the end of the bat in San Francisco. His wrist, hand, and thumb were sore. He will be looked at further when the team arrives in San Diego, per MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (via Twitter). It does not sound like a significant injury, which is good for the Cubs, as they’re already a little short-handed in the infield with David Bote, Nico Hoerner, and Matt Duffy on the injured list. Sergio Alcantara and Eric Sogard will have to stand in at shortstop if Baez misses any time.
- Joc Pederson is also day-to-day after tweaking his back, per MLB.com. Pederson left Saturday’s game in San Francisco after running into the wall on an Alex Dickerson home run. Rafael Ortega has been seeing playing time in the outfield for the past couple of days.
Nance was a stellar find
Only been 8 innings for Nance, not so sure yet.
just to get anything of value out of an indy prospect is a win
Good to see Tepera having a nice follow up on the MVP finalist season he had last year.
how he got an MVP vote last season is beyond me.
It was an accidental misclick that got Tepera an MVP vote.
google.com/amp/s/www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/cubs-r…
Kind of embarrassing.
Bryant making the return quite nice now. If Kimbrel included, top notch. Jed playing the game at a high level.
The issue with Bryant, Rizzo, Baez is that they are all still rentals if they are traded. That will seriously suppress any return if they get to that point. Kimbrel, having an option, even at that cost, is a probably a little more palatable to a team looking for that final piece.
Only need one team that has to win that championship . Dodgers ? Padres ? Yankees ? One desperate team or one that thinks a player puts them over the top . Torres for Chapman steal for cubs . Won a championship. Yankees still trying
I think Bryant and Kimbrel bring you the most. Baez I’m not sure, superstar at times, but very inconsistent. Rizzo’s last 100 games have been down, not sure he brings you much right now.
At this point I highly doubt Bryant gets moved. Kimbrel is far more likely and has plenty of standalone trade value.
why are people trying to trade off the best players for a team that’s tied for first place in their division?
Because armchair GMing is more entertaining than living in reality.
Because they know the team will go another 108 years before winning their next World Series.
I found it odd that when they were trailing on Saturday Nance batted for himself and then was taken out of the game and didn’t pitch the next inning. He seemed a little ginger running down the line on his ground out.
There has been no report of him tweaking anything but why bat a relief pitcher when trailing and then take him out of the game if he wasn’t there to eat another inning???
Will feel a little bit better when he gets back on the mound. After Steele went on IL after running the bases it’s quite cringe worthy when relief pitchers bat.
Because with Pederson leaving in five minutes anyway, Ross didn’t want to be down to two remaining PHs.
Universal DH? I’m mostly old school baseball, but tired of seeing pitchers getting hurt swinging the bat and running the bases. Plus, most suck at it.
Nance was fine. Ortega could have PH but if he made the third out they would have had to put the new pitcher in the 1 spot when Petersen came out.
Wish the Cubs could just decide F*** it and just resign Bryant, Baez, Rizzo, Wilson and do nothing for the next 4 years while trading everybody else worth value away and get a bunch of prospects and then wait 4 years to contend.
I value your opinion on the future if you were two for three on guessing that Nance, Alcantara, and Wisdom were likely to be successful.
tim815 thinks he’s an expert because he’s on Twitter all day every day.
Bryant value up, Rizzo value down. Very unlikely Cubs sign all 4. Good chance their agents want them to go to free agency unless Cubs overpay, which they shouldn’t. Cubs will have nice chunk of money after the year is over to spend how they want.
I can’t believe that Baez “buzzing his hand” is in the news. He hit the ball off the end of the bat and it vibrated….man up! Players are really soft these days.
Patrick Wisdom is giving the Cubs enough production for them to let Bryant walk at the end of his contract or trade him at the deadline
Wisdom is likely a flash in the pan, he will cool off big time once the pitchers get the book on him.
Cubs needs to resign Bryant.
He’s going to start seeing a lot of curve balls. Will see how he handles it.
I agree on Wisdom. The Cubs need to sign Bryant.
The pitchers will adjust to Wisdom,though I wish him well.
All respect to Wisdom, but the last guy who started this hot was the immortal Donnie Murphy. Still, Wisdom and Duffy have both earned spaces on the 26-man for the rest of the year. Heyward has to sit more.
Baez needs to use more insulation or rubber up at the base of his knob, then he won’t get that “buzz”.
That’s what she said.
Baez has chronic injury to the thumb. Was broken last year.
If the Cubs are still competitive, you NEVER subtract…. NEVER. And you especially don’t get rid of a guy who’s performing at an elite level (right now) out of the pen… you need guys like that for the postseason (see: Chapman in 2016, Davis 2107).
Trading Kimbrel while in legit contention serves 1 purpose: destabilizing the team so that they fall out of contention and then you can sell-off pieces.
What the heck do the Cubs do now? Go out and trade for an ace? Sell when the team looks pretty good? They put themselves in this situation. No good solution I can tell. If you sell when the team is good you will anger the fans. But if you don’t the team is going to be a mess in the near future.
If they decide to go for it, the one SP who makes a lot of sense from a performance standpoint is Max Scherzer. However, his contract status is just too complex. It would take from now until 7/30 to possibly hammer out some kind of deal, but the Cubs won’t be the only ones in pursuit. Rox Marquez is a possibility, but he’s not Scherzer. Tough call.
They moved Darvish to save money not knowing if there was going to be gate revenue. Now the seats will be full again and they are an ace away from taking the division. Lol. Probably the best team in their division. Watch them repeat last years division win and tank first round playoffs. Sure Cards have Goldy and Nolan. They also have many holes. Cubs did a nice job other than including Caratini in the Darvish trade of making minor moves to strengthen the club. I only see Rizzo coming back next season. Next years team will be the start of a rebuild. I’m also ok with seeing Heyward go back to the DL for the rest of the season. Just wishing…….
Jed Hoyer is in a tough spot. It’s well documented that the team has a lot of players in the final year of their contract or in Kimbrel’s case an option. If the Cubs are in contention by the trade deadline, which they likely will be, what does Jed do? Does he keep Bryant, Kimbrel, Baez and so on? Does he move some of these players and attempt to get the best possible return before they walk? At this point there’s no doubt players like Bryant, Rizzo and Baez explore free agency. If he adds, what does he add? Does he tweak? Or does he go for a heavy in attempt to put them in a stronger position for a deep playoff run. Does he move some of his valued prospects like Brennen Davis, Miguel Amaya, Cristian Hernandez, Ed Howard, Ryan Jensen, Kohl Franklin to get that player to push them closer?. The Cubs system is not a powerhouse, but it has improved over the past 3 years and they do have some talent worth monitoring over the next 2-3 years. Whatever his decision will be, Jed will likely get some criticism from fans and MLB media. The Cubs will be one of the more interesting teams to watch as the trade deadline approaches.
Don’t trade young good prospects. We done this in the past with very little chance of getting to the WS. This is not a championship team. It would be crazy to trade several good prospects to just win the division. I think this month will be hard on the Cubs and may clarify the situation. Not likely that a wild card team comes out of the division. If they are 4 or 5 games behind by end of June, they have to sell, at least to some degree.
Cubs will be buyers. They need an ace and they got a decent playoff squad
That ace is gonna be expensive, and it would need to be someone who is actually pitching like an ace this season.
Sure would be nice to have Darvish
You’re wrong about a decent playoff squad. They have a great chance of repeating as division winner. They also have a great chance of not winning a single playoff game.
I struggle to find an answer to this, but let’s be real here – what % chance would you give the Cubs of winning the World Series this year even if they win the division? 10% fair? What % chance would you say they have to win the division? 40-60% fair?
Any team can get hot in October, I get that.
However, this team has so many issues and holes, and they are only atop the division after an extremely impressive hot streak. Their starting pitching doesn’t have a lot of swing and miss, their offense strikes out A LOT. Why hold onto these guys even if they are teetering at .500 or slightly above? If you can get some pieces for the future, do it. This is a business. I’d rather sacrifice 2-3 months of entertainment now so I don’t have to wait an extra 12 months for a longer rebuild bc they wanted to hold onto Baez, Bryant and Rizzo for a little longer.
With that logic why are the 3 still around? I hear you. But they are.
Covid killed the value of any player making a decent salary. So many teams are in salary cutting mode to make up for last year’s losses, so your trade partners are limited. There will likely be more opportunity as teams are seeing a better outlook forward, but still less than normal.
Baez is a flashy player, but he wants to get paid like a middle of the order hitter and he’s definitely not that. Show me other top middle of the order hitters and compare their OBP to Javy’s. I personally don’t enjoy him on the Cubs. He’s fun, but he’s not what a lot of fans think he is. He’s Alfonso Soriano as a shortstop. Get him 0-2 and just don’t throw him a strike. He’ll help you out.
Rizzo is a first basemen and how much better is he than Hosmer or Carlos Santana or even Colin Moran? Yes he’s good, but the gap of where he’s at and where the others are isn’t that significant to make teams pay a good amount for. I think he tests the market and returns to the Cubs at something like $90mil/5 years.
Bryant will either get held onto if they are contending or he’ll be dealt if they are sinking. I’d trade him either way and focus on the future.
I’d also try to package Rizzo and Baez to a team needing a boost on offense and hope to acquire a couple low level high-upside prospects.
downser, I’m with you regarding the state of this team. That’s why I believe the idea of a short rebuild could be something that could be accomplished without tearing apart and starting over. Jesse Rogers rumor is a smart way to go IMO. Trade Kimbrel, the bullpen is currently a strength. Trading Kimbrel for a young MLB ready SS, letting Javy move on, spend that money on a FA OF, and a reliable SP – and I think Cubs would be headed in the right direction.
Jeter Downs anyone? 🙂
Rizzo and Kimbrel to Red Sox for Jeter Downs.
Fits two needs for Red Sox and they get two players they’ve seen in their system before.
At $32M, no chance.
Well those salaries would most definitely be pro-rated based off remainder of the season. If the Cubs didn’t kick in any money at all and this deal was done at the deadline, the Red Sox would be eating around $12-$13mil or so.
Broken down individually, I don’t think either make sense for the RS. Even if they were inclined to replace Dalbec, there would be cheap alternatives. And I doubt they have any intention of replacing Barnes with Kimbrel.
The Cubs have no reason to do that. You can’t just ignore they’re in first place.
If the Cubs Ownership and whatever say Jed Hoyer has don’t believe that this Cubs team can win the WS, then it is completely ridiculous to not trade ALL of their impending FA’S. They have to not give in to Cubs fans wishes and look to the future.
They are currently in 1st, so they have to be contenders.
Past that, if they had any intention of dumping guys, despite being in 1st, they would’ve already done so. They played .567 last year, so a .559 this year should not be considered a fluke.
I think that not enough teams undergo tanking years, but this would not be the case.
I agree. But what do they do after 2021? Can’t sign them all. And if you don’t the team suddenly is no longer a contender. It’s a mess.
Make qualifying offers and take the draft picks. I would rather do that than get the kind of prospects you get in rental trades. In the meantime, they are very much a contender in that division. I’ve never understood people not thinking that.
You do the same thing that all big market teams do. Those guys get paid $63M, which is plenty of money to get replacements. While Bryant is having a good season, none of their FAs are irreplaceable.
And they still have Contreras, Kimbrel, Hendricks, Happ, Alzolay, and some other kids back. The Cubs are not really any different than any other big market team that’s in contention. Just like the NYY, RS, SF, SD, LA, etc., imo, they are all more likely to add than to subtract.
Dude you will get better prospects by trading them than you would get in the draft. Even at this point or in July. No question about that.
Not really. The Orioles didn’t get any keepers for Machado, who was better then (and now) than any of those Cubs. Top prospects are not traded for half-season rentals. Just look around. It’s not what moderns front offices do. If I’m a GM of a rebuilding team, I would rather do it with my own draft picks than marginal prospects from other organizations.
At least you get the draft picks from Baez and Bryant by giving the QO. A real good move. Rizzo is going to sign something to stay with the Cubs. He is better than the players he was compared to above. It will be interesting to see if he can survive another rebuild with the Cubs.
Can’t wait to see what sucker bites on Kimbrel.
that has Mets written all over it.
Maybe your Chisox bite – then Hendriks can be moved to set-up. Chisox don’t have a reliable one, no matter what drivel comes out of Stones hyped up mind.
What’s your beef with Stone? I’d think all Cubs fans would love him for translating Harry’s blabbering into English for years.
A lot of the fans I’ve spoken with have tired of Stone. However 13 games over 500 first week of June. Team playing up to expectations and you’re already demoting Hendriks when you have three outfielders on the shelf, one underperforming, and one whose season has just started. Can shuttle a few relievers between the club and AAA to get by. They need an outfielder with a bat. You want a Cubs player trade for Bryant.
Especially after MLB cracks down on foreign substances.
MLB.com’s columnist, Anthony Castrovince was on the White Sox’s podcast two weeks ago talking about Kris Bryant with Chuck Garfien. Castrovince was correct when he said Cubs’ fans are going to be very disappointed with the return the Cubs get if they trade Bryant by the deadline.
It would be pointless to trade any of them unless they get a good return.
It’s hard to get a great return for players that are going into free agency. Good returns usually happen when a team has two plus years of control.
The only players arguably worth giving up anything of value for are Scherzer-type starting pitchers.
Thinking Angels here. And Adell.
Why would the non-contending Angels do that?
The Cubs would get a great return for Bryant if he had a few years of control and going into in his free agent year. If the Cubs move Bryant it be to the Braves. Bryant will fit in very well in that line up.
I think Kimbrel will stay as long as our Cubs remain competitive. If they wane during the summer, Kimbrel will be headed to a contender.
Two decades later another white flag trade in Chicago?
Next month should tell if they are buyer or sellers…to early to know right now..they were all but dead in the water in first month of the season then they got hot..they have had a lot of help from unexpected players during this hot streak…but are they legit contenders or just a hot team
If the Cubs are going to be buyers at the trade deadline please tell me what player or players they are going to be buying next month to which minor league players are they willing to give up for this player or players? I am curious since the Cubs’ farm system is very weak right now to be in the running for a Scherzer. It looks the Cubs are more likely going to sellers at the trade deadline.
I wouldn’t say the minor league is very weak. Most of the talent is Double A or lower, but it’s definitely been improving. I don’t see any chance that “if” Scherzer is even available that they would go after him. If they are buyers, which is questionable right now, I see them going after someone who maybe only require a couple of mid-level prospects.
To me, you only go after a Scherzer if you think you have a team that can win the WS. Otherwise, giving up your best prospects for a rental would just be a really dumb move.
The Cubs have good young players in their mid level system and that’s about it. It would be a bad idea to give away a few of these players for a few month rental. Any baseball fan knows the Cubs’ organization has to start learning to develop pitching in their system rather than breaking the bank in the free agent market rather than trading away a pitcher that was being developed like Cease. Adbert Alzolay might have potential to be a number two or three starter for the future but he needs to get through an entire season.
Based on the last 5 games. Cubs will be selling 🙂 Seriously, they have too many holes, especially in their starting pitching. When your starters have trouble getting into the 5th inning and you have to overuse your bullpen, it’s going to catch up with you.
It looks like the Cubs are going to be “sellers” more than “buyers”. In all reality, the Cubs’ starting rotation is weak and not something that looks like it’s going to help the Cubs from now into the end of the trade deadline. By then the Cubs can easily be 8 to 10 games out. Starting pitching is key in these next two months and that is the Cubs’ weakest link.
Actually the cubs farm system has been improving…but i agree that they probably should be sellers their starters are basically all 3 to 4s …however as we have seen in the past few years if they continue to overachieve they may try to buy…i will say they have done a nice job of rebuilding the pen and adding a couple bats that give them a lil more balance..which is a shame cause when they did have solid starting pitching in the past if they had what they have now then they may have added another ring