The magic of the Major League Baseball trade deadline is that we never truly know what two teams could be thinking, and packages we could never predict wind up getting exchanged.
With that said, some hypotheticals are too wild for even the most enthusiastic of prognosticators.
On Tuesday, former MLB general manager and current insider Jim Bowden of The Athletic proposed a mock trade in which the Chicago Cubs would land Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara for a four-player package: right-handed pitcher Cade Horton, outfielders Owen Caissie and Kevin Alcántara, and shortstop Ronny Cruz.
That's four top prospects for a pitcher with a 6.88 ERA, albeit a former Cy Young Award winner, for those keeping track at home. It seems impossible, but just to confirm, it's worth hearing from the man who would be responsible for making the trade.
On Wednesday, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was asked what he thought of Bowden's proposal by radio host Matt Spiegel during an appearance on 670 The Score.
"Listen, I think the trade deadline is sort of like (the) NFL Draft in which it almost becomes its own industry," Hoyer said. "I know that a lot of people have opinions about what people should do, and listen, it's fun.
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"I like the fact that people are always talking about the trade deadline, but ultimately, I don't read that stuff for a reason."
That's a diplomatic response, as one might expect from a front office executive, but also one that, coupled with the wry smile you could practically see through the radio on Hoyer's face, suggests that the package is indeed far too absurd to consider.
So while Hoyer isn't categorically denying anything, and while Alcantara might still wind up a Cub after the deadline, don't expect a package of this sort of magnitude showing up in Miami any time soon.
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