There’s the Lefty: Cubs Acquire Andrew Chafin from the Diamondbacks (UPDATE: It’s a Conditional Trade)
Another lefty reliever rumor for the Cubs, and this one sounds like it has legs. Oh, wait, as I type, it’s done. The Cubs have acquired Andrew Chafin.
The Diamondbacks have started to sell off, and the Cubs are now snagging one of their lefty relievers:
Hear #Cubs are working on acquring Andrew Chafin from the #Diamondbacks
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) August 31, 2020
Cubs have been hunting for a left-handed reliever to go alongside Kyle Ryan and get it in Chafin, who has had a rough year but for the last three years has been very reliable. https://t.co/i3ZiUw7T14
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 31, 2020
Chafin, 30, was quietly excellent for the Diamondbacks for a long time, and although he’s struggling this year, some of the peripherals are still great:
I’ll dig in deeper soon, but the short version is that he owns lefties, is very good against righties, and this year’s struggles are almost entirely about an enormous volume of hard contact (which may be concerning or may be a small sample fluke). For a rental lefty – he’s a free agent after this year – that’s about exactly the type of guy you could realistically hope for the Cubs to land.
The trade cost here should also be extremely minimal, given the struggles this year, the rental, and the fact that Chafin has been on the IL since August 19 with a left finger sprain. I’ll presume he’s ready to return, but I’ll also presume that the Cubs aren’t giving up much at all in trade. You probably also hope that the finger was a lingering issue that impacted performance, and now he’s all better?
UPDATE: It turns out Chafin is not yet ready to return, and this is something of a conditional trade:
Dbacks are paying Chafin down to the minimum. They are hoping he can return in a couple weeks. If he can, Dbacks would get low level prospect
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 31, 2020
Basically, if he comes back soon enough, then the Diamondbacks get a modest return. If he doesn’t come back soon enough, the Cubs don’t owe anything except a small bit of cash to him. I like that structure as a protection for the Cubs, but, uh …
They need to get another lefty now. Is that what the Osich rumor is about?
