Cuzi

I already said that Tucker is better than Paredes. You don't seem to understand the value in years, though. Just because the Rays love Morel and we got Paredes for cheap doesn't mean you take that gift and turn around to trade it for 1 year of Tucker.

Dont see it. Tucker has 1 year left. Paredes has 3 years left. Tucker is better than Paredes but Paredes' years make him more valuable. Houston would be the team adding on in the trade, not the Cubs, and they have nothing to add on to make up the gap in years. I would say something like Alcantara + BJ Murray + Birdsell + Mervis for Tucker. I doubt the Astros have any interest in Triantos, given that they have Altuve at 2B. They have nothing at 1B now and will have nothing at 3B next year, assuming they dont re-sign Bregman. They've also got nothing in the pipeline at those spots.

Raleigh stands out, but he's also on a playoff team. So why would they trade him for prospects when Ford is still in AA. Nevermind that catcher is not a position where a prospect is blocked, so it's not like Raleigh and Ford can't coexist on the same roster. Raleigh still has 3 years or arbitration. He likely wont get moved, if he does get moved, til the end of that 3 years. Mariners situation mirrors what the Phillies went through a couple years ago. They had O'Hoppe in AA and Realmuto on the MLB team. You dont trade the successful MLB guy when you are a playoff team.

Well, there doesn't have to be a team. There probably isn't a team, unless the Cubs are interested in moving Nico Hoerner for a catcher and they believe that Shaw is going to be ready opening day next year. Cubs are probably looking at signing a guy like Carson Kelly in the offseason.

MLB ready? No one sticks out. The Royals are pretty close to being in the same situation as the Rays were at 3B. They've got Perez for another year, Fermin who has been solid, and 2 catching prospects in their top 5. Would they trade Fermin? Mayyyyyybe buy low on Bo Naylor? Ford and Teel for fast rising AA catchers looking at midseason callups next year that are on teams with established MLB catchers. The real question is, do the Cubs believe that Ballesteros can stick at catcher. If they dont, and they lock up the DH spot with Suzuki or someone else like Vlad, is there another team with a catcher that believes they can make him stick at catcher long term? Would the Angels unload O'Hoppe for Ballesteros and a couple other guys? Catcher is just bleak.

The only OFer potentially on the market I would trade PCA for right now is Kyle Tucker. I'm not trading PCA for 80 games worth of a 5 WAR skilled player. Even with an average bat, PCA will be a 3-4 WAR player.

The cost to acquire a guy that can only be counted on to play half a season never made sense to me. Let's just sign Soto and not worry about finding a lefty masher, and instead get a guy who mashes everyone.

Never really had a favorite singular player. I've had a bunch of players I liked more than others and it's the ones that do their job consistently, adequately or exceptionally, and aren't cocky doing it. Just professional and dependable. Ben Zobrist types.

Secretly the best team in baseball that can win a game on demand when facing a sweep. They just protest the rest of the series.

He's had a 37%+ K rate all through the minors, until AAA. Only pitched 10.2 innings in AAA so far, but the K rate has dipped 10%.

So they must reallllly like Neely. Sticking close to that fastball/slider 2 pitch combo.

Probably because the offers matched his value, which isn't much. You talk like missing out on trading Taillon at his high point is like the Cubs missed out on some high profile return. When in reality they are probably missing out on some 18 year old with moderate upside in rookie ball.

Because of his money owed. He's just not a good bet to give a team surplus value. Teams aren't going to pay with the type of prospects that would make sense for the Cubs to pull the trigger and pay his remaining salary. Been saying that for weeks.

Edgardo Henriquez and call it a day.

His defense is most likely getting padded quite a bit from how small Yankees stadium RF is.

I have questions about how well Paredes will be in Wrigley, but this is just a no brainer. 3 years of Paredes for 4 years of Morel and a couple of meh prospects. Where do I sign? Morel had no place in this roster since he could not play 3B and his bat wasn't the best option at DH going forward. He was so bad this year I was wondering if he could even pull a name like Paredes. So this is kind of shocking to me. Rays must really believe they have to key to unlock him at 2B.

No he's not.

Not the biggest Paredes fan, but if that's the full deal then I feel like we just robbed the Rays. They must really have a ton of faith in Morel, like the As did with the player they got in return for Murphy.

We arent the damn Pirates. I dont care if we get 50's for Imanaga if they are in A ball. Jed can horsefeathers himself if he makes trades like that after 4 years of garage baseball. I would hope Ricketts would veto the deal and promptly fire Jed right after.

Nico Hoerner is right at his career average. What is he bouncing back from? Swanson and Bellinger are the only 2 that "need" a bounce back, and including Bellinger in that is a stretch because what is he bouncing back to?

One of the main points to trading Taillon is to get out of his contract. How is his money not a detriment to his value? I would rather trade Assad because like Taillon, he's hot. He's got 235 innings of pitching under his belt with a 3.09 ERA. He's pre-arbitration so the controlled years are cheap. If you wanted to make a more significant move to better this team, it's with a guy like him. He's just as replaceable as Taillon, but worth more due to the cheap years of control vs moderately expensive years.

Robertson was arguably the best reliever on the market and he didn't have $42M left to be paid. Taillon isn't the best option on the market. He's the cheap option with a pretty big asterisk attached.

Outside of a team falling in love with the possibility of Morel being an answer at 2B, I dont think we'll be doing much. There's not much to do beyond dump Bellinger for literally anything and trade a couple relievers. The Taillon rumors dont make sense to me, because no matter how many teams are interested, the return probably isn't worth trading him. It's like Darvish all over again on a lesser level. His current and future value doesn't outweigh his contract, so what are you going to get? More CPX prospects? I'll finish packing Jeds bags, since they are already half packed.

McMahon has an elevated BABIP this season. His metrics are the best of his career, but are you really going to trade for a player on an outlier season, with a single elevated statistic that accounts for the only real difference in his batting line from when he has been a 90 wRC+ hitter, with only 1 guaranteed year of control? If the Cubs want to go after Soto or Vlad, they are going to have to think outside the box at 3B. The options are very uninspirational. That's why I've brought up Ronny Mauricio. Others have brought up Eguy Rosario. The Cubs are going to have to find their Joey Ortiz. The options at catcher are even worse. I truly dont have a clue what the Cubs do there. The chances guys like O'Hoppe and Langelliers get moved are slim to none. The best options seem to be ones that wont be starting the season on the MLB roster, like Ford from the Mariners or Teel from the Red Sox. But then you are talking strictly about the highly coveted prospect that works out on average like 10% of the time. Are the Royals willing to trade Fermin, given that Perez is still around for another year and 2 of their top 10 prospects are catchers? Or maybe you target one of those prospects and ask about Carter Jensen who just got promoted to AA and gets good marks on his defense and eye at the plate, though his bat sounds to be pretty passive similar to Ian Happ when he started. Danny Jansen has 2 straight years of regression and this season has lost 5 MPHs on his max exit velocity from his good years. He's turning into the catching version of a Paredes himself and he's not that great of a defensive catcher, so if he can't hit for power any more then what good is he? I truly dont have a damn clue what to do at catcher. Going the prospect route seems to be the best option.

He has all of those HRs because he has perfected the art of pulling the ball. Statistically speaking, batters performance is greater when they pull the ball. I dont have faith in his success being as great outside of a dome with the wind, given his launch angle and lack of raw power, and the fact that Wrigley has the deepest corners in baseball. The overwhelming majority of his power is right down the foul line.