NEWSLETTER
For your wee hours entertainment – don’t take it for too much more than that – you can review MLB.com’s Trade Deadline Day predictions, which feature two big Cubs moves.
For one prediction, the Cubs send David Robertson – and only David Robertson – to New York:
Not with the Yankees but with the Mets, who are in need of a high-leverage reliever. The Mets also have a need at DH but haven’t been in love with the supply and price tags. It would not be a shock, though, to see them land J.D. Martinez (perhaps with Dominic Smith involved). That would give them multiple DHs named J.D., which we can assume without checking would be a record.
I think this is probably not discussed enough, since the heavy focus with the Mets stuff is about how aggressively they are pushing back on Willson Contreras rumors (because, I’m quite sure, they want both Contreras and Robertson). But there’s a chance Contreras goes elsewhere, and Robertson winds up a solo piece going to the Mets.
Even for the best rental reliever on the market, you’re not going to get a prospect from an organization’s top tier. But I wonder if the Cubs could land Matt Allan, the way over-slot 2019 draftee who had Tommy John surgery last year, and thus hasn’t pitched competitively since 2019. You’re not getting a guy like Allan if he’s been healthy, and certainly not in a deal for a rental reliever. But after the injury? With him not having returned yet? Maybe so.
Of course, the Mets would probably see that as another Pete Crow-Armstrong kind of risk …
For another MLB.com trade prediction, the Cubs send Willson Contreras AND Ian Happ to the San Diego Padres:
Speaking of the Padres, if they don’t get Soto, then how’s this for a backup plan? The Padres and Cubs have made a handful of deals with each other in recent years, most notably the Yu Darvish trade. This would be a way for San Diego, having already gone all-in by adding Hader to the bullpen, to address its offensive issues in a meaningful and flexible way.
Happ would improve what has been one of the worst-performing outfields in baseball, and Contreras augments the offense at the catcher position (where San Diego has a combined .679 OPS) while also giving the Friars another option at DH. The market for Contreras is not as robust as some might think, but Happ is definitely a hot commodity right now. The Padres should be able to put together a package for this pair that doesn’t involve C.J. Abrams or top prospect Robert Hassell III.
I think this is certainly possible, and even if it were true that the Padres would not include Abrams or Hassell (reasonable, unfortunately), it’s not as if they don’t also have guys like James Wood and Luis Campusano and Jackson Merrill and Adrian Morejon and many more quality prospects to form a package. I’ll keep dreaming about a deal where the Cubs also take on Eric Hosmer’s salary and the package expands to include one of Hassell or Abrams, but, yeah, I’m probably dreaming.
