Nah. Teams are still trying to pry Carlos Rodon away from the Giants.... some teams talking to the Reds and Pirates about guys. As for the Cubs? My guess is their front office is giving each other head and saying how great they are.
That return for Mahle looks pretty weak considering many thought he was on the same level as Castillo. Still, with what they got for those 2 and Drury the Reds farm is deep.
The Cubs has Anthony Rizzo, Chris Bryant, Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, Wilson Contreras, at, el. The “Golden Core” only got out of the NL once, and never sniffed the divisional round from 2018 onward. Not a failure, they did beat Cleveland, but not a good look when you forced yourself into a rebuild of your own doing, and refuse to get any prospects once you’re bad.
Dang he was one of my targets, although a rental. Man they are going crazy. It’s not a money dump for Cincy so they must be giving up something of pretty good value.
Ownership lost interest and was no longer willing to spend consistently like an elite franchise. They got the media deal and the complex around Wrigley Field approved and they no longer needed to try and win. As a result the best of the front office left as well.... and truth be told, a lot of the things that Theo Epstein championed as progressive and were immediately passed by smarter people in the front offices in Houston and LA and even Boston and NY. They now have fairly smart people in their front office and player development programs, but they lack the spending and resources needed and the really progressive teams steal their talent in the front office and coaching ranks. When they do get someone really smart in their organization, someone that is really progressive, they tend to force them out because the "wonder kids" in the Cubs front office now are middle aged and no longer ahead of the curve. They can still draft well when they put a lot of resources into a particular prospect (Nico Horner)..... but they are no longer pulling the gems out of the middle rounds, and when they do - they trade them. Like this deadline, they over thought it. They believed the market would wait for them - and it didn't.
Copy the 97 Marlins. If they win, it will be worth it. Can definitely see them trading away everyone to try and recoup some of what they've traded away. Look at the Nationals to see just how quickly it can all fall apart.
padres can get all these bats but it won't matter. their pitching isn't good enough to get pass the top NL teams
With Contreras they can at least offer him a QO and get a draft pick back. Happ though take whatever you can get.
