2015 Cubs-Related Trade Deadline Rumor Thread

[mul21]

I get the frustration with not getting more, but if it was Javy or bust for the potential trade partners, then I don't have a big problem with not getting the big target they were going for. It sucks, but Haren is better than the trash they've been throwing out there in the #5 slot.

[Rob]

I think if the Cubs were going for the division right now, you'd have seen the front office act a little bit more aggressive. But fighting a large group for the right to a play-in game... maybe that's not the best expenditure of high end resources.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to see the Cubs bring in a Ross or Carrasco. But I think Haren and Hunter should be enough of a bump to keep us competitive. We're already going to be relying on a bit of luck, so what's a bit more?

[Guest]

I think if the Cubs were going for the division right now, you'd have seen the front office act a little bit more aggressive. But fighting a large group for the right to a play-in game... maybe that's not the best expenditure of high end resources.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to see the Cubs bring in a Ross or Carrasco. But I think Haren and Hunter should be enough of a bump to keep us competitive. We're already going to be relying on a bit of luck, so what's a bit more?

 

I don't directionally disagree with you here, but the NL is not the AL in terms of wild card contenders. There are 4 teams for 2 spots, 5 for 3 if you want to call LAD/SF a tossup for the west.

[Lefty]

Hopefully they're spending a [expletive] of money this offseason, I guess.

 

If they can sign one of the TOR pitchers in the offseason and Baez hits, "the plan" will be hitting on all cylinders. The team remains competitive and we have a free option on Castro.

 

And if neither happens, we need a 2B, CF, and solid SP and hope that Coghlan/Denorfia continue their decent seasons next year.

 

Couldn't Castro be the second baseman? Oh, that also doesn't work out? Yeah, sometimes the worst possible scenario plays out. I guess that leaves us near the .500 mark.

[Flames24Rulz]

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Rofl on that one.

 

why is that so hard to believe?

 

You really believe that?

[Rob]

I think if the Cubs were going for the division right now, you'd have seen the front office act a little bit more aggressive. But fighting a large group for the right to a play-in game... maybe that's not the best expenditure of high end resources.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to see the Cubs bring in a Ross or Carrasco. But I think Haren and Hunter should be enough of a bump to keep us competitive. We're already going to be relying on a bit of luck, so what's a bit more?

 

I don't directionally disagree with you here, but the NL is not the AL in terms of wild card contenders. There are 4 teams for 2 spots, 5 for 3 if you want to call LAD/SF a tossup for the west.

 

Hey, I'm not even saying I agree with their philosophy. I'm just trying to figure out what kept them from making a big splash. And I think the records of the Cards and Pirates were a big chunk of that (in addition to AJ Preller losing his mind).

[Guest]

Apparently Dave Stewart is on Arizona radio claiming the Padres asked for Goldschmidt in exchange for Kimbrel.

 

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[davell]

Not sure I'd believe Stewart either, but that's awesome.

[ctcf]

Apparently Dave Stewart is on Arizona radio claiming the Padres asked for Goldschmidt in exchange for Kimbrel.

 

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[Outshined_One]

Conspiracy Theory:

 

AJ Preller thought the Padres were contenders and realized he could hamstring other contenders by pretending to be a seller and entertaining trade talks, only to kill their deals at the last second to keep those contenders from having enough time to go to their fall-back plans.

[KingCubsFan]

Apparently Dave Stewart is on Arizona radio claiming the Padres asked for Goldschmidt in exchange for Kimbrel.

 

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If that's actually true, it probably has more to do with the fact that Preller thinks Stewart is an idiot as opposed to Preller putting some absurdly high value on Kimbrel.

[toonsterwu]

I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted Starlin Castro ... and more ... in a Kimbrel deal, and the Cubs perhaps balked at the eventual price tag.

 

As for this trade deadline ... is it disappointing? Somewhat. Am I angry/frustrated/etceteras? No.

 

I came into it believing that, while huge moves were nice, we simply needed to add a solid rotation piece and maybe upgrade the pen. There were some clear issues that would limit our ability to make trades that came to fruition:

 

a) This was a seller's market. Looking at many of the trades completed, I feel like it played out that way. I mean, Parra netted a quality young arm in Zach Davies. I mean, Kevin Jepsen essentially netted a poor man's Jen-Ho Tseng and a lottery ticket (I much prefer our Tommy Hunter deal than doing something like that).

 

b) The Cubs lack of system depth remaining (totally fine as we graduated so many people) AND

 

c) The Cubs lack of pitching quality in the minors. For all the talk about a shifting paradigm on a broader scale, most of these trades still involved a quality pitching asset or two. Jeff Hoffman, Daniel Norris, Brandon Finnegan, Cody Reed, Keury Mella, Jake Thompson and so forth. Heck ... I thought Papelbon was the most realistic option for a big name for us, and he still netted something that we are thin on - an intriguing SP prospect ready for AA/AAA (to be fair, I think some of our guys are similar to Pivetta, but again, if they are similar, some teams will prefer some guys over others based on numerous factors).

 

When you couple that with some teams not selling because they are hanging around, or under pressure (Padres/Mariners come to mind), and it was going to be tough to net the monster trades. It sounds like they tried hard, but with so many elite chips called up, if they weren't moving them (and they shouldn't), it was going to be tough, and it seemed it played out that way.

 

Haren/Hunter is okay, and the cost was just fine ... but I don't particularly care for either. At the cost, okay. I think we got better, but okay. We didn't lose any flexibility to pursue the trade market this winter, and we have financial flexibility this winter. I'm not ruling out this year, but this year was always the start of the window. They will need to thread the needle this winter in some respects - it's going to take some time, maybe a year, to really rebuild the system, so they'll need to land that critical SP FA to lengthen the rotation, and shore up some other areas.

[Outshined_One]

Apparently Dave Stewart is on Arizona radio claiming the Padres asked for Goldschmidt in exchange for Kimbrel.

 

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If that's actually true, it probably has more to do with the fact that Preller thinks Stewart is an idiot as opposed to Preller putting some absurdly high value on Kimbrel.

 

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/aoz8kgx8pzknypz7z38n.jpg

[Deeg]

If you want to take the really, really pie in the sky, Brett Taylor-level Pollyana optimistic view... This leaves us more money for Eddy Julio Martinez.

[CubColtPacer]

I think if the Cubs were going for the division right now, you'd have seen the front office act a little bit more aggressive. But fighting a large group for the right to a play-in game... maybe that's not the best expenditure of high end resources.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to see the Cubs bring in a Ross or Carrasco. But I think Haren and Hunter should be enough of a bump to keep us competitive. We're already going to be relying on a bit of luck, so what's a bit more?

 

My guess is this is the main reasons they were so focused on players with control. They didn't want to expend too many resources on rentals, so they went for the home run players. They didn't land any of them, so at the last minute they pivoted to rentals that wouldn't cost very much.

 

It feels like they saw this season as a good opportunity, but the seasons upcoming as even better. So they tried to balance out those two thoughts.

[BigSlick]

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I refuse to believe this

[treebird]

If you want to take the really, really pie in the sky, Brett Taylor-level Pollyana optimistic view... This leaves us more money for Eddy Julio Martinez.

 

the super optimistic scenario is that we get to desperately try to outspend the dodgers for an a-ball outfielder. yippee.

[Guest]

It seems like Preller read every article from the last few months that crushed him for all the deals he made in the winter and decided unless he was 100% going to win the trade, he wouldn't do it.

[Guest]

Do get a decent reliever for a spare part and solidify the 5th spot in the rotation for a couple guys we might've lost in the Rule 5 draft anyway. Certainly not sexy moves and a bummer we didn't do anything big but hard to be too disappointed. Got some help without really giving up anything.

 

Yeah, I get not being happy with what the Cubs did at the deadline, but I'm certainly not sad or whatever.

 

People have been complaining for the last month about how we keep having to run Beeler or Richard or Roach out there every five days and how it sucks having a rotating bullpen spot for Medina/Schlitter/Coke/German. Haren and Hunter are upgrades over that.

[Guest]

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what

I refuse to believe this

 

Yeah, me too, that would be stupid. Castro is not likely to be worth something like Kimbrel ever again.

[Little Slide Rooter]

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what

I refuse to believe this

 

Yeah, me too, that would be stupid. Castro is not likely to be worth something like Kimbrel ever again.

 

Depends what they mean by wanted Castro in the deal. Because if it means they wanted Baez and Castro or even McKinney and Castro, I can very much believe it.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Conspiracy Theory:

 

AJ Preller thought the Padres were contenders and realized he could hamstring other contenders by pretending to be a seller and entertaining trade talks, only to kill their deals at the last second to keep those contenders from having enough time to go to their fall-back plans.

 

That's SCS levels of ridiculous.

[Little Slide Rooter]

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what

I refuse to believe this

 

Yeah, me too, that would be stupid. Castro is not likely to be worth something like Kimbrel ever again.

 

I wouldn't say that. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if in 2 years time, Kimbrel's arm is held together by Duct tape and thumb tacks, and we're baffled at the thought that we were once seriously talking about trading Castro for him.

[Clem Fandango]

You responded to the same thing twice in 7 minutes.

[Backtobanks]

I have my doubts the Padres wanted to do Castro for Kimbrel straight up.

 

My guess is that in the framework of Baez + ???? + ???? for Ross + ???? that the Cubs wanted to include Kimbrel and the Padres countered with adding Castro to the Baez package.