NEWSLETTER
Interesting report tonight from Sahadev Sharma at The Athletic, who writes among a series of notes that the Cubs are “likely” to move a pitcher off the 40-man roster to make room for Cody Bellinger when his deal goes official. And more specifically, Sharma reports that because the Cubs see all the pitchers on their 40-man as having real value (all the players, really), they are aiming to pull off a trade, rather than go the DFA/waiver route.
Sharma cautions that it’s possible they won’t be able to make the timing work, but it’s also possible that even if the Cubs have to pull the trigger on a DFA sooner than they want, that can still precede a trade if talks are advanced enough.
This would presumably not be a significant trade – likely a 40-man reliever type for a low-level, non-40-man prospect – but it would be a lot better than losing a useful player for nothing.
Stay tuned, then. A more major trade coming together is also possible, of course, but that isn’t indicated in Sharma’s reporting, and we also know the Cubs haven’t otherwise been able to put together something like that this offseason, outside of the Michael Busch/Yency Almonte deal.
It’s a very interesting report for the specificity of it being a pitcher trade possibly on the horizon, despite the Garrett Cooper addition (minor league deal) making a position player or two potentially redundant. I’d think the Cubs would really want to keep as much of their pitching depth as possible, and, candidly, this makes me think the Cubs already have a pitcher or two in mind that they believe the market values more highly than they do. One of the most quietly valuable skills an organization can have is the ability to scout your own players well enough not to make mistakes in these situations.
