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目前小熊希望和光芒换投手, 据说目标锁定 Alex Cobb
9:05pm: The Cubs may be targeting Alex Cobb, Topkin tweets. The outstanding
righty had his UCL replaced back in May and will obviously miss a good
portion of the coming season. But he projects to earn just $4MM next year (an
exact match for his 2015 salary) and would come with another cheap season of
control thereafter.
5:45pm: Tampa Bay’s target in talks with Chicago is “definitely Baez,”
Topkin tweets. He adds that the club is chatting with several other teams on
deals at the moment.
Meanwhile, ESPNChicago.com’s Jesse Rogers tweets that Moore and Cobb appear
to be more likely possibilities for the Cubs to pursue than is Archer, which
is hardly surprising. He also says that, while relievers are “in play” in
talks, the Cubs would “have to get a starter back.”
2:22am: The Cubs and Rays are in discussions about a deal that would send
Javier Baez to Tampa in exchange for pitching, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay
Times reports. Topkin isn’t sure how developed the talks are, or if a trade
is likely to happen. On Sunday, 670TheScore.com’s Bruce Levine reported
that Chicago and Tampa had been in talks.
Chicago has been looking for both starting pitching and bullpen help this
offseason, and the Rays are a potential fit in either department. On the
relief side, Jake McGee and Brad Boxberger have drawn widespread interest
from several teams looking to reinforce the back end of their bullpen, and
the Cubs fit that description according to recent reports.
Tampa Bay has already dealt Nathan Karns to the Mariners but it’s possible
the club could continue to trade from its starting pitching reserves. One
would think that it would take one of the Rays’ more established arms (Jake
Odorizzi, Matt Moore, Drew Smyly or possibly Erasmo Ramirez) to land a major
power prospect like Baez, and it’s also probably safe to assume that Chris
Archer continues to be unavailable in trade talks.
Baez was the ninth overall pick of the 2011 draft and a consensus top-seven
prospect heading into the 2014 season. He has yet to make an impact in his
brief time at the MLB level, however, as Baez has posted a .201/.252/.346
slash line and 10 homers in 309 career plate appearances, with a whopping 119
strikeouts. He struck out at a near-record rate in 2014, so while he
improved in that department in 2015, Baez almost had nowhere to go but up.
That propensity for swinging and missing has also been apparent at the minor
league level (426 K’s in 1678 PA) but Baez has also crushed minor league
pitching to the tune of an .888 OPS and 89 homers.
Baez was drafted as a shortstop but has seen time at second and third as the
Cubs have tried to find him a position amidst their other top youngsters
(Kris Bryant and Addison Russell) and Starlin Castro. With the Rays, Evan
Longoria is locked into third and Logan Forsythe emerged at second last year,
so Baez’s best fit is likely back at short, though they did just get Brad
Miller from Seattle. Baez could also see some time at DH or possibly even
first, even how the Rays are traditionally flexible position-wise.