The Cubs Must Trade One of Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki Next Month

I understand the logic, but I think there's a real risk of making perfect the enemy of good.  I agree that Suzuki is not a starting RF defensively, and if I'm thinking about his primary position going forward I think DH is the spot since LF isn't going to mask his deficiencies at all.  Where I'd differ is that

1) Suzuki is not *unplayable* in RF and so can be plenty useful defensively to a big league outfield in smaller doses, preserving flexibility that prevents significant logjams

2) if I feel the need to trade from a relative surplus of 'positionless' bats, I'm going to trade Morel over Suzuki.  Morel will have more trade value, I'd rather have Suzuki's bat in a lineup over Morel's, and Seiya is not overpaid for his value so the freed up money doesn't go as far as a better return(or simply better fit) on Morel would be.

Matt…. We need to be thinking about trading Justin Steele! Let’s be ahead of the curve, FOR ONCE.

As the season goes along, I'm increasingly convinced the Cubs need to trade away some of their mediocrity. Neither Happ nor Suzuki are *bad* players but when you're trying to contend, it's hard not to have at least one of your corner guys be a monster with the bat.

13 hours ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I understand the logic, but I think there's a real risk of making perfect the enemy of good.  I agree that Suzuki is not a starting RF defensively, and if I'm thinking about his primary position going forward I think DH is the spot since LF isn't going to mask his deficiencies at all.  Where I'd differ is that

1) Suzuki is not *unplayable* in RF and so can be plenty useful defensively to a big league outfield in smaller doses, preserving flexibility that prevents significant logjams

2) if I feel the need to trade from a relative surplus of 'positionless' bats, I'm going to trade Morel over Suzuki.  Morel will have more trade value, I'd rather have Suzuki's bat in a lineup over Morel's, and Seiya is not overpaid for his value so the freed up money doesn't go as far as a better return(or simply better fit) on Morel would be.

Yeah I don't see any reason moving to LF would help Suzuki at all.  Do they not have lights or walls or rain in left field?

I agree I think the guy who goes is Morel, or possibly Busch.  I think the plan moving forward should be to pick one of those two guys as the going forward 1B. and use the other one as capital on the market.  Busch would clearly he the guy who stays if the decision was made today.  That frees up DH for either an external bopper like Vladito or to shift Suzuki to primary DH work and open up outfield PAs for some of the kids

Suzuki or Happ aren't bringing back anything of substance. They play above the level of their salary but not by a ton , couple that with the NTC and I'd be shocked if the juice was worth the squeeze on moving either.  Not even getting into any outside the lines considerations.

12 hours ago, Matt W said:

Matt…. We need to be thinking about trading Justin Steele! Let’s be ahead of the curve, FOR ONCE.

getting rid of great players with lots of control is not being ahead of the curve

Moving one of Happ or Suzuki, even for a light return, may be beneficial in terms of freeing up positions and dollars, even if it makes the team a little worse this year... it doesn't seem like this is a playoff team, so being worse isn't so bad if it means a higher draft pick next year, as much as we know draft picks in baseball are almost always 2-3 years away for even the best prospects.

There just isn't impact talent on this team right now... just a lot of guys who when they aren't slumping are pretty good... and that can result in a season around 85 wins if everything goes right, but this year shows how bad it looks when even just a couple things (health, bullpen) go wrong and the bats somehow all slump at once

Back in April through mid-May this was a pretty good ballclub. Right now it is not. The offense is sputtering and there seems to almost be a willingness to not advance the runners in lieu of swinging for the fences. The result. A staggering amount of strikeouts and an occasional moonshot. Not enough to put you back in contention, but at least think of it. Add to that, a bullpen that cannot hold a lead. Last count was in the past five games, 17 runs surrendered by the pen after the 7th inning. So if you don't score runs and can't hold leads, how many ballgames do you actually expect to win? Through seven innings this team is in most of its ballgames, only to be gut punched in the 8th or 9th inning. So trades. I think task #1 is to get a reliable closer in the pen. We don't have one. Alzolay, Neris, Leiter Jr. and Miller are all failing in that role. Just look at the amount of blown saves to validate that assertion. At the plate, there are a lot of similar hitters. Some power, and a ton of swing and miss. With the exception of Hoerner not much of an offense that considers taking a two-strike approach and driving the ball the other way, or maybe PCA could be an exception with the bunt. So if we were to trade for another big stick, is this also going to add to our strikeout woes? Should we maybe be looking at a high contact high average hitter? Maybe giving Bote a serious look at #2 in the lineup behind Hoerner is the way to go. I know its not the "Dernier-Sandberg" 1-2 punch of 1984, but its something we have on our roster now. I thought that the signing of Bellinger was vital to this teams success. I even spoke out about it. But, the numbers are showing that perhaps we should have kept the money in our pocket or looked elsewhere. He still could turn things around, and I hope he does, but it is not what I envisioned. So who do you deal? Busch or Morel will get you some consideration for a live arm. But trading away your leading homerun hitters from an already struggling offense might not be a smart play. Packaging up Madrigal, Mervis, and Wisdom might actually bring in somebody. The truth of the matter is though that standing pat just is not working.