No mo' C-Mo

Jed has identified the problem to his lackluster team and it was Christopher Morel?

No mo' C-Mo

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For months now I’ve been imploring the Cubs to treat the deadline for what it is, one of two times all year (the Winter Meetings being the other) when teams are open for business on trades, and to not worry about “buying” or “selling” but instead use the opportunity to get better. And, at the same time to not be afraid to actually trade big league players for other big league players, something that seems to rarely happen these days.

Yesterday, Cubs President of “Didn’t We Used To Have That Guy” Jed Hoyer did just that, and for the second straight year he made a trade just before the deadline where he reacquired a player Theo Epstein traded in 2017 to get Justin Wilson1 (and, I guess Alex Avila).

Last year it was Jeimer Candelario, who should have played a lot of third base, but David Ross still wanted to waste time with Nick Madrigal there, so he played mostly first base. This year it’s Isaac Paredes, who it is far more likely plays third all the time, unless Craig Counsell gets a fever and the only prescription is more Bote.

Trading for Paredes is a good idea. He’s turned into a very productive player in Tampa (who acquired him in early 2022 from Detroit for the sad case of Austin Meadows). Paredes hit 20 homers in just 331 at bats for the Rays in 2022, then became a regular and hit 31 homers last year and made the American League All-Star team this year and currently has 16 homers. He doesn’t strike out a ton and he’s gets on base reliably (.353 on base average the last two seasons.)

He’d been playing first base lately with Yandy Diaz out of the lineup on the restricted list, so he can do that, too. He will be in his first year of arbitration this offseason (likely why the Rays were keen to trade him) and won’t be a true free agent until the 2028 season.

In return, the Cubs had to send Tampa three players, and that’s where this gets a little less certain. I know a lot of Prospect Perverts are very keen on both of the pitchers the Cubs gave up in this deal. There’s stocky Ivy League fireballer Hunter Bigge who throws really hard and walks mostly everybody. The Cubs just traded for a taller version of him on Saturday when they got Nate Pearson from the Blue Jays. They also sent high-A pitcher Ty Johnson to the Rays. I’ll bet you’ve got a lot of nice ties, Ty.

Oh, and the Cubs traded Christopher Morel in this deal.

Huh?