Theo Completely Rejects the Thought of Machado
FILE - In this June 15, 2012 file photo, Chicago Cubs President Theo Epstein talks on his phone before an interleague baseball game against the Boston Red Sox in Chicago. Kathleen Kearney, 44, of Canton, Mass., appeared in a Cook County courtroom, Tuesday, July 17, in Chicago, where she was charged with two felony counts of stalking Epstein after she was arrested on Monday trying to deliver a birthday present to his young son at his Chicago home. Prosecutors say Kearney had tried to contact Epstein several times when he was the general manager of the Red Sox. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
We spoke about the whole Manny Machado deal yesterday, and there were some mixed thoughts on it. Chicago Cubs President, Theo Epstein, told The Score’s Bernstein and McKnight that they are not in the business of buying rentals with future assets.
“As a rule, we will not be paying premiums for rentals. We just won’t. It’s hard to build an organization that way.” Theo told 670 The Score on Thursday morning.
When asked about acquiring rentals, similar to Aroldis Chapman, Theo was clear that the Cubs will not be using their future assets to pull off a deal for rentals. When questioned further, he mentioned that they have done it once (Aroldis) to address a specific need when they were a clear favorite to win a World Series. It worked.
Theo also spoke about how the organization has used a lot of its assets to build around this core, and they cannot continue to support this core with prospects and build an organization at the same time.
When you look around the league, Gleyber Torres is tearing it up in New York, hitting .333/.381/.491. Eloy Jimenez is having an incredible season at Double-A Birmingham- .346/.375/.704. Even former left fielder, Jorge Soler is tearing up the league in Kansas City – .321/.431/.545.
When asked about the group of hitters that are succeeding elsewhere, Theo told Dan and Conner that he’s happy and proud of those guys and it only helps the Cubs in the future. The more teams see that Cubs prospects project to really good MLB hitters, the more value they will put into those types of guys in future deals.
It is yet to be seen if this was much needed lipservice or if Theo was silently saying they won’t trade prospects but current 25-man roster guys could be moved. Either case, I don’t foresee the Cubs overspending for a rental and a player like Addison Russell would be included in that overspending thought.
Russell, whatever you think he is offensively, is one of baseball’s top 3-4 defensive shortstops. He has incredible offensive upside with 25 HR potential. Don’t get me wrong, Machado is a different class of ballplayer than Addy is, but the team would give up so much future production for a very minimal impact this season.
If the Cubs traded Russell for Machado straight up, their win projection would go up 2 wins. Maybe not even that if a July move. Their title chances would go up about 1-2%.
It would be a blast, but it's probably not in the team's best interest going forward.
— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) May 10, 2018
This, along with the data presented yesterday… Machado is just not worth the haul.
