Newest Fad: Segura to the Cubs
Seattle Mariners' Jean Segura bats during the second inning of a spring training baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Monday, Feb. 27, 2017, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
The Seattle Mariners have begun their Black Friday door busters early. In early November it was let out that the Mariners would be selling off quite a bit of their parts, then Monday afternoon, the Mariners sent James Paxton to the New York Yankees. Of course this trade set off a litany of trade proposals and guesses on which team would benefit most from one of the Mariners’ parts. That has been no different with the Chicago Cubs fan base.
It seems that since the trade had happened, Cubs fans have been salivating over one of the Mariners players, shortstop Jean Segura.
Jean Segura
Segura has found himself offensively since 2016, slashing .308/.353/.449 with a personal best season in ’16 with a .319/.368/.499, 33 stolen bases, 20 HR, and a league leading 203 hits. The former Arizona Diamondback, Milwaukee Brewer, and LA Angel seems to have finally figured things out as an offensive player in the league, leading all SS in average since that 2016 season.
Defensively, Segura is just adequate. He isn’t bad, but his defensive skills will likely be left off the first three or four paragraphs on his Wiki page.
He has also been the lead-off man in 350 games, which he’s performed very well. As the first batter in a game Segura has hit .319/.364/.475 in 326 at bats. He has added 9 HR and 18 doubles in those ABs. In his 1,607 plate appearances as a leadoff hitter (not just his first at bats) he’s hit 35 HR and stole 71 bases. It’s also pretty nice to have a leadoff hitter that has an OPS over .800 too.
What it would take
The deal would likely need one of the either Ian Happ, Albert Almora, and potentially someone like Mike Montgomery or David Bote. These are all guys that split time with either each other or others in 2018, and as they continue to develop will likely need more opportunity.
A deal like this would require the Cubs to take on salary, which isn’t ideal with their already escalating payrolls and the need to add players over the next three seasons as current roster guys become eligible for free agency. Segura is paid $14.85 million in each of the next fours seasons. There is some security in having another position that is affixed for years to come, even if it isn’t considered a cheap deal.
Why it makes sense
Considering each of those players will likely share time in 2019, as they did in 2018, moving any of them will help with playing time, which (like mentioned earlier) will allow them to grow. This will allow for the Cubs to get more out of the player they don’t trade, and it will let them sure up the shortstop position.
Oh, and why do they need to sure up the shortstop? Well, cause the current option is going to be gone for at least until May 3rd, and potentially on the trade block. There is some sense that would say the Cubs current shortstop would be involved in a possible Seattle trade, as the Mariners hold several events a year to raise awareness and money for domestic violence survivors. Bringing in the Cubs shortstop would seem to be a slap in the face to the people that they help, regardless of how much help he is trying to seek to improve personally.
There is a possibility that an offer of Happ and Montgomery wouldn’t be enough – which, if you recall, originally came to Chicago via Seattle. While Montgomery has been excellent for the Cubs, he is one of the guys that has been pitching his way to the point of earning a bigger role. But with question marks around guys like Tyler Chatwood and Yu Darvish, Montgomery just might be too big of a price for the Cubs to pay right now. That said, maybe this is where they attempt to flip Bote instead and even include a Minor League pitcher like Duane Underwood or someone of that build.
There isn’t a real rumor out there, there is no link between the two teams, and it doesn’t solve what the Cubs will do with their current SS. But I have seen enough people in Cubs social media pages and on Twitter that I wanted to put this out there. So is this a possibility? Would you like to see this happen? Let us know in the comments.
