![]() ![]() Higgins or Taylor Gushue take the gig, or maybe even think Miguel Amaya could get a shot late in the year? At catcher, the Cubs could add a veteran back-up to pair with Contreras, could let P.J. The Cubs already needed to add another starter or two, and even as Davies takes Darvish’s spot on the roster, that need remains. There is also theoretically now more dollars available to spend for acquisitions, both for the 2021 season, the coming 2022 class, and also internal extensions. That’s good for a whole lot of reasons, as you’ll remember well. If there’s internal progress like we would hope (based on investments in development), there’s the coming IFA class with Cristian Hernandez, another draft, and if there isn’t attrition elsewhere, yeah, this system could be stacked by next offseason. Long-term, the move sets up the Cubs to have a loaded farm system by this time next year. Let me set aside the loss of Darvish and Caratini for a moment and unpack on the fly a bit. Considerable risk here when you’re moving a player as valuable as Darvish, to say nothing of including Caratini. I mean, they may not have had a choice if they were dead set on trading Darvish (sigh), but these are high-risk, high-upside types. It’s surprising to me that the Cubs sought this return. But all are teenagers, and we’re coming off of a year with almost no meaningful scouting. These are good on-paper prospects, and we’ll dig in on them soon. 11, 13, 15 & 16 prospects - SS Reginald Preciado, OF Owen Caissie, OF Ismael Mena and SS Yeison Santana - along with Zach Davies in exchange for Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini: /TdhiqX22u5 Short version is that Preciado is 17-year-old shortstop and a top 2019 IFA signing, Caissie is an 18-year-old outfielder who was the Padres’ 2nd rounder this year, Santana is a 19-year-old shortstop prospect who is well-regarded (they all are), and Mena is a 17-year-old center fielder who was a big-ish IFA signing in 2019. Small bits on the prospects in there as a starting point. You can see the rolling updates here as the day played out. Absent other trades involving these prospects, that definitely won’t happen. That doesn’t mean the Cubs won’t aim to do it in other ways – I don’t think they’re tanking for years, folks – but I really thought any return in a Darvish trade would be pretty clearly impactful in 2022. ![]() In that regard, I just didn’t see it coming for the Cubs in advance of an otherwise winnable year in 2021, and when you could also try to reset your roster for 2022 and beyond. It’s moving a player with a substantial contract in a deal to get as much very young prospect value as possible (while offloading that contract). Make no mistake about the nature of the trade: it is a pure “sell” trade. Sources confirm to and me that the full deal is Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini going to the Padres and the Cubs receiving Zach Davies and prospects Reginald Preciado, Owen Caissie, Yeison Santana, Ismael Menaĭavies’ inclusion is more about salary and wanting to shift a pitcher from one team to the other, so while I’m not ignoring him, he doesn’t get much focus in terms of what the trade was “for.” It is not the package you were thinking about when these rumors started this morning:
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