(Photo Courtesy Buck Davidson via Flickr)

The Promise of Eloy Jimenez

Capitalizing on Assets is a must to save the Cubs Season

Mired in perpetual mediocrity with no obvious escape route, the Chicago Cubs may need a pre-trade deadline shakeup to propel themselves to the postseason for the third consecutive year.

The MLB rumor mill has already churned out rumblings of potential Cubs trade targets. Various rumors have connected the Cubs to Gerrit Cole, Sonny Gray, Johnny Cueto, and Chris Archer. And as the July 31 trade deadline draws closer, this field of potential trade targets will only grow larger. Starting pitching is the primary need for this Chicago Cubs team because of how badly the starting rotation has struggled to this point in the season(14th in MLB; 4.48 ERA).

However, adding starting pitching (or any other positional need for that matter) isn’t a one-way process. Blockbuster trades require the buyers in the market (the Cubs) to forfeit assets. The price for established talent isn’t cheap.

The question is, who should the Cubs consider centering their trade package around? It’s a question that President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein must ponder over the next month — as he looks for ways to jump start a team that has been stuck in neutral for most of the season.

The Cubs demonstrated last season that they won’t shy away from trades where they must forfeit key assets if it nudges them closer to winning a World Series title. Last July, the Cubs relinquished four players to acquire New York Yankees flame-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman who was in the last year of his contract and ended up pitching in just over 40 innings with the Cubs. One of the prospects the Cubs surrendered to obtain Chapman was highly regarded 19-year-old shortstop Gleyber Torres who has ascended through the minor league ranks since the trade. Torres is now the second ranked prospect in all of baseball according to MLB.com.

Although the trade drained the talent pool in the Cubs farm system, Chapman was an invaluable contribution to the Cub’s World Series title. This season, the Cubs are in a similar win-now mode. However, their .500 record could make them more desperate than they were a season ago to make a splash in the trade market.

Do the Cubs have a prospect talented enough to move the needle on a trade that would send them reinforcements in the starting pitching department?

(Photo Courtesy Michael Grennell via Flickr)

Eloy Jimenez: Perfect Trade Bait

If the Cubs follow the precedent they set last year, outfielder Eloy Jimenez is the perfect prospect to headline a trade package to acquire a win-now pitcher that can fortify the starting rotation.

Jimenez is probably the best Cubs prospect you’ve never heard of, as guys like Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez, and Ian Happ have stolen his thunder since the Cubs acquired him at age 17 during the 2013 international signing period.

Jimenez is now 20 years old and occupies the №8 spot on the list of top 100 prospects on MLB’s official website. After struggling at the beginning of his professional career, Jimenez posted a .329/.369/.532 slash line with 14 homers and 81 RBIs in 112 games with the Single-A South Bend Cubs last season. His excursions with the high Single-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans this season have been slightly less successful, but the fact he’s increased his walk rate and decreased his strikeout rate from a season ago is encouraging.

He has an advanced approach at the plate for such a young hitter, showing the ability to make adjustments on the fly and use all parts of the field. He’s even generated comparisons to Miami Marlin’s slugger Giancarlo Stanton with his bat speed, and ability to not sell out for power on his swings to hit homers.

Jimenez is young enough to continue to improve substantially as he works to refine his skills. Yet, he has shown enough so far in his young career to pique the interest of any team smart enough to pay attention. Like Torres from a season ago, Jimenez could headline a pre-trade deadline, prospect-heavy trade package that lands the Cubs the starting rotation piece they covet.

Dangling Jimenez also ensures that Baez and Schwarber remain in Chicago for the rest of the season. Baez’s superstar-level play defensively at multiple positions and his improved work at the plate make him a must-keep player for this team. Schwarber’s struggles have probably watered down his trade value to a degree, plus Epstein doesn’t appear willing to pull the trigger on a trade involving the slugging left-handed catcher should one materialize. Happ and Albert Almora both look like the outfielders of the future, plus Schwarber also needs a spot to play in the outfield assuming Willson Contreras and Victor Caratini remain with the team.

Losing an outfielder prospect when the Cubs have an already crowded (and talented) outfield at the MLB level isn’t the worse thing in the world, especially if it makes the team better in the short term. The Cubs have too much established MLB positional talent to worry about losing a prospect in Single-A.

Additionally, as stated earlier, acquiring talent in a competitive market requires sacrifices on the part of the buyer. The Cubs could package together other prospects in a trade deal. However, Jimenez is the most highly-rated position prospect by a significant margin and would likely garner the largest return(Jeimer Candelario, who is the Cubs second-best position prospect, is 83rd best in baseball according to MLB.com).

Finally, parting ways with Jimenez may not be as devastating as moving Torres was for this team last season. Unlike with Chapman, Gray, Cole, and Archer don’t have expiring contracts and will be under the Cubs control beyond this season, should they join the team via a trade(Cueto has an opt out option after this season in his current long-term contract). It’s likely that the Cubs won’t acquire a rental like they did with Chapman last season, making parting ways with Jimenez more bearable.

Like last season, the Chicago Cubs will face tough roster decisions over the next month. Parting ways with a top prospect isn’t ideal, but it may be a necessary evil for a win-now team that needs a mid-season wake-up call. Parting ways with Jimenez makes sense because his talent could net a solid return and the already established talent on the MLB roster at his same outfield position makes him expendable at the right price.

Paul Steeno spent 11 years pretending he was good at running. After hanging up the track spikes and officially becoming an elite hobby jogger, he decided to do something that he was actually good at: like writing about the Cubs. He is also a perpetually frustrated Chicago Bulls fan. This one time he got super lucky and ran 3:52 in the 1500 meter run.