Cubs just keep unloading stars
Matt Mervis is the latest can't miss prospect to be traded



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Jed Hoyer’s wheeling and dealing knows no bounds this offseason. If you thought trading for Kyle Tucker and trading away Cody Bellinger for a bag of non-magic beans was enough, Jed didn’t.
Yesterday he made a trade of a guy you probably didn’t even realize was still in the organization, much less inexplicably taking up a spot on the 40-man roster.
The Matt Mervis Era is over, as the overhyped, overmatched first baseman has been traded to the Miami Marlins for another overhyped, overmatched former top prospect, infielder Vidal Brujan.
Brujan was recently designated for assignment by the Marlins, even though he posted by far the finest season of his (portions of) four year MLB career. In 102 games last season, Vidal played second, short, third, center, right, left, first and he pitched. And he hit .222/.302/.319/.622, with two homers, 16 RBI and 54 strikeouts in 248 at bats. Ugh.
The Cubs must have been really impressed by Brujan’s pitching appearance. It came against them in August. He got Cody Bellinger to fly out, he struck out Isaac Paredes (of course) and Petecrow popped out to end the threat.
Hey, pretty good!
Well, the highlights in that link kind of glossed over the two batters who hit in between Paredes and Petecrow. Mike Tauchman singled and Patrick Wisdom hit a homer that landed in Biscayne Bay.
Mervis was highly touted as the best free agent signing in the 2020 draft. If you remember, the draft was shortened to five rounds, and the Cubs outbid some other teams to sign him after the fifth round ended.