The Chicago Cubs have one of the most dynamic offenses in Major League Baseball and sit one-game back from the first place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central.
In what could be Kyle Tucker’s only year in Chicago, the Cubs are reportedly “all-in” this season.
Which is why the Cubs had one of the worst trade deadlines out of any team.
Sure, Chicago traded for utilityman Willi Castro from the Minnesota Twins, shoring up the lackluster bench and adding third base depth, and acquired bullpen pieces in Andrew Kittredge and Taylor Rogers.
But starting pitching was a clear need and all president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer mustered up was Mike Soroka.
Soroka, 27, is 3-8 with a 4.87 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP in 16 starts this season with the Washington Nationals.
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Soroka’s advanced metrics show that he has run into some bad luck (3.32 expected ERA), but this was far from what the Cubs were after.
“Obviously a lot of time, energy and focus was spent on the really controllable starters, the guys that everyone’s been talking about,” said Hoyer after the trade deadline. “Ultimately, they didn’t move; none of those guys moved. Obviously, we didn’t match their price but nobody else did either. That’s the nature of those controllable starters.”
Guys like Joe Ryan, MacKenzie Gore, Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera weren’t moved. But the problem is, this was the chance for the Cubs to overpay for a playoff-caliber starter and to gain a leg-up on other contenders.
Chicago has the farm system to pull off a blockbuster trade and they failed to address the biggest need. The other powerhouses in the NL got better and the Cubs watched.
The Twins traded just about everyone. Surely they would have taken Owen Caissie and Jaxon Wiggins for Ryan.
This ultimately tells Cubs fans one thing: don’t get used to Tucker. Not moving Caissie means the likelihood of the Cubs shelling out over $450 million to lock up Tucker is slim-to-none.
Only time will tell if the Cubs’ trade deadline was a good one, but it was certainly a frustrating one to see unfold.
More MLB: Cubs address third base need, acquire utilityman Willi Castro from Twins