Hot Stove: The Yankees are Gunning for Kyle Schwarber

I have been fairly consistent for three years that the Chicago Cubs would not trade Kyle Schwarber. This offseason some things have changed a bit. Theo Epstein told all of Cubdom that they would will probably look to move someone from their 25-man roster.

We have heard the rumors of trading Javier Baez, there was a weird rumor about Jason Heyward, tossed a little Albert Almora chatter in there, and even some Addison Russell talk. While fans talked about potential moving Kyle Schwarber, it seemed Theo and Jed Hoyer were resigned to keep the slugger.

But Tuesday night we heard talk from the Yankees about a trade including Kyle.

The NY Daily News’ John Harper suggests a Schwarber for pitchers Dellin Betances and Chance Adams swap. Betances would fill a large gap in the Cubs pen, while Adams fills that young budding starter the team could control for years to come. Schwarber on the other hand fills the DH spot for the Yankees, one they thought would be filled by Shohei Ohtani.

Coincidentally, a Schwarber trade could help the Cubs open a spot for Ohtani here in Chicago. With the Cubs needing to find creative ways to get Ohtani at bats, trading Kyle, who also bats left-handed, is a logical choice.

I don’t believe there’s legs to the rumor, and I don’t think we will know until after there’s an official word on Ohtani. But, and as someone who doesn’t want to trade Kyle, this makes sense. Betances can close, or be an effective high-leverage arm. Kyle would have that sand-box in New York to launch balls out of. Hell, if the last Yankee stadium was the “House the Ruth Built” the new one could be the “House that War Bear Built.”

We will know more come Sunday when the Winter Meetings begin. I’m super stocked for this Hot Stove League to start.

Jamie Baker

Hi, I’m Jamie and I run this site. I’ve published work on multiple other sites and through that experience I decided to create CHICAGO style SPORTS. We truly aim to speak for the Chicago fan. Additionally, as a member of the IBWAA (Internet Baseball Writers Association of America) you can be assured that all content you read will be written with incredible integrity.

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