Cubs Acquire Isaac Paredes In Blockbuster Deal for Christopher Morel And Prospects

I’m sorry the Cubs traded WHO?

Out of nowhere on Sunday afternoon, the Cubs acquired Rays third baseman Isaac Paredes. In return, Tampa Bay will acquire Christopher Morel, Hunter Bigge, and Ty Johnson.

This is shocking, mainly because I didn’t think Morel was one of the top people to be moved. We still have time, as the deadline isn’t for a little over two days. Players like Jameson Taillon, Drew Smiley, and Mike Tauchman will be moved by then, but I just didn’t think Morel had any chance of being moved.

The Cubs signed Paredes as an amateur a while back, and decided they liked him enough to bring him back in 2024. He has 3.5 years left on his contract, so it’s a great day when looking at team control.

So far in 2024, Morel has not done well at all. The Rays had shown interest in him this past winter for Tyler Glasnow, but Hoyer wanted to see some more of what Morel could do with the Cubs. So far he has a .199 average, with a .302 on base percentage and .374 slugging. Morel has 18 home runs, but the problem is he can’t really get any hits otherwise.

Paredes has a .247 average, along with a .355 on base percentage and .438 slugging. He also leads Morel in wRC+ by 37 points, and fWAR by 3.0. He also is a better defender, with 1 outs above average compared to Morel’s -12.

I’m still trying to digest this move, but in general I’m shocked. Many people are concerned with the fact that Paredes pulls a lot of his home runs, which doesn’t work great in Wrigley Field. Bigge was in Triple-A Iowa, and had just made the Cubs top 30 prospects list.

I asked on Twitter what fans thought of the Morel trade, and as I expected, it seems to be a split opinion. Morel was a fan favorite, so I get that people are sad. However, Morel was not performing this year and Paredes is a good player that we will not have for the next three full seasons. Jed won this trade, and I’m really excited to see what else he can do this deadline.

My one worry is that he will wait too long to move his pitchers when he is selling, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

One response to “Cubs Acquire Isaac Paredes In Blockbuster Deal for Christopher Morel And Prospects”

painhertz

August 11, 2024

Once Theo arrived, I said to myself, “Don’t fall in love with marginal players. Theo will trade anyone at anytime.” Morel is just that. I REALLY wanted him to succeed. As time passed, I felt like if he could survive the season during the off-season he could get advanced work at 3rd, lots of reps and become average at 3rd. Then Jed traded him for an actual 3rd baseman who can hit. I’m not going to complain. That was a great move. Gonna miss the Morel enthusiasm. Not much else.

LikeLike

Reply

I’m Jacob

My name is Jacob Zanolla! I graduated high school in 2024. Along with starting this blog, I founded the Stuck In the Ivy Podcast and also assist with NorthSideBaseball.com.

Hello,