Commentary: Cubs should sell, not buy at trade deadline |
In a couple of weeks, Jed Hoyer will have some very big decisions to make about the future of the Cubs. In this Cubs fan opinion, it should be clearly obvious what he should do.
Anyone who has watched this team this year knows that it is a .500 team or maybe a little better at best. This team is nowhere close to competing for a World Series Championship. So, what should be done is clearly obvious, trade Marcus Stroman and Cody Bellinger and any other barging chips you have, and continue to build up the farm system. Some fans are saying, well, they are only seven games out of first place. Yes, that is true, but is the goal to win the division or the World Series? Do you really want the Cubs to sell some of their best future assets only to lose in the first round of the playoffs? The Cubs pipeline is strong led by Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cade Horton, Jordan Wicks, Miguel Amaya, and others, but some of the other young players have been injured this year, like Brennan Davis, or have not developed like they were hoping (Kevin Alcantara and Cristian Hernandez). If you trade Stroman and/or Bellinger, you could possibly get another player or two to help build an even stronger farm system. Take, for example, the trade made a couple of years ago with the A's. Trading Andrew Chafin for Daniel Palencia, who looked great in his major league debut earlier in the week. Trading a player away for a couple of months and getting a player that could pay huge dividends down the future, or better yet, striking gold like trading Scott Feldman for Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop. All Cub fans remember the summer of 2016 when Theo Epstein and company went all in to win the World Series by trading Gleyber Torres and Dan Vogelbach for Aroldis Chapman and Mike Montgomery, that team was close to the World Series, and they got the final pieces to the puzzle to make it happen. But what was even smarter was the year before when the team traded a low-ranked prospect for Dan Haren. They didn't sell the farm just to reach the playoffs. This is how they should approach the trade deadline this year, if they decide to keep Stroman and Bellinger, if a low-risk player is there, do it, and maybe you can win the division and get to the playoffs, but don't go all out to do it. So, in a couple of weeks, Cubs fans will see what the future holds. Maybe the team will get on a hot streak as it did before the London games vs. the Cardinals and have everyone believing again that they can win the division and get to the playoffs. Let's just hope the team doesn't sell its future, though, to lose to the Braves, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, or Marlins in the first round.
