I just don’t think I can write about Kevin Gregg anymore without immediately first thinking about just how implausible this all is. And how much of a credit that implausibility is to the front office.
ESPN’s Buster Olney just reported that the Chicago Cubs are receiving “multiple hits” on the aforementioned closer, whom Olney calls a “classic sell-high” piece. That is indeed what Gregg has evolved into, as he’s remade himself into a precise control/heavy-sinker/few-mistakes type of reliever. The numbers are great, but the performance to the eye has been just as good.
A robust market for Gregg can only help the Cubs’ efforts to shop him before the Trade Deadline, even if the value in trade isn’t going to knock your socks off. (I dug into it recently, and the kind of return the Cubs could see for Gregg might surprise you, though.)
“Multiple hits” on Gregg is also great news for the Cubs – assuming they want to shop him, which, like, duh – because it increases the possibility that they could find a team that wants multiple pieces from the Cubs, thus improving and consolidating the trade return. Gregg, alone, might get you a prospect or two worth knowing (but not loving). Gregg and Scott Feldman? Gregg and David DeJesus? Gregg and Matt Garza? Those are the kinds of deals that could really generate a serious return.
Apropos, perhaps, that, on the day the Cubs DFA Carlos Marmol because his trade value has vanished, the man who replaced him as closer – who happens to be the man Marmol, himself, replaced a few years back – is receiving “multiple hits” on the trade market because his value is surprisingly high.