REPORT: Chicago Cubs interested in Angels outfielder Jo Adell

REPORT: Chicago Cubs interested in Angels outfielder Jo Adell

Now, the other trade partner or the other trade the the bat that I was that I saw put out on the internet today, shout out to the Wriggly Wire. It’s such a it’s such a good Cubs fan Twitter account out there. And it’s not one that’s just out there being a fan. Like he’s actually like tweeting out like news and from other sources. And it’s just whether you like those aggregator accounts or not, it it’s when you’re just scrolling the timeline and the way that Twitter works, you you miss a lot of news. now because Twitter sucks. Um, but anyway, he tweeted today that Bruce Leavine reports that Joe Adell is a possible trade target for the Cubs. I didn’t see where Bruce Levine said this first off, so maybe he said it like on Marquee on live television or something. I I don’t know. But I think Joe Adell hit almost 40 bombs last year, plays right field, corner outfielder. You’d have to trade for him. And he’s 26 from the Angels if no one knows who he is. Yeah, that would be interesting. And I guess I say interesting for the fact of man, dude, Wrigley Field has just turned into an absolute Hitter Park. Like I would just call it how it is. Like it’s so tough for me to I mean we just saw what happened with Kyle Tucker. Granted, he was injured, but he hit seven home runs at Wrigleyfield. Like that’s when you when you say that statement even with the injuries, that’s still like a shocking thing to say. Yeah. So if you’re like, “Oh man, this guy almost hit 40 bombs.” Well, like Junior Canilleri almost hit 40, but he played in a minor league stadium. So like there’s like always that little context. And I would have to look more into Joe Adele and see like where he hit these or like Savant gives you like the overlay feature of of how many home runs he would have hit at this ballpark or this that and the other. kind of like with Isach Paredes like when they traded for him it was like oh he would have only hit 15 home runs at Wrigleyfield. I mean sure like it’s definitely not it’s definitely not like a nothing burger move. I I would say that I I would be more excited for a trade of that than signing some lower level half platoon halfbench bat. Um but that also kind of fits into what you were saying on last episode of you think they’d go out there because I I’m assuming he’s a righty. I don’t know the top. He is a he is a right-handed hitter. Uh to me, he is a right-handed version of Kyle Schwarber at least. Like obviously not as good as Kyle Schwarber, but the type of the type of player like if you go on his Savant page, he’s got a 96 percentile expected slogging at like 536. Uh his barrel percentage is 17.3%. 96 percentile 50 uh 87% or 87 percentile hard hit rate. But then when you get to like the strikeouts, he’s 16th percentile in strikeout rate. Uh 25 percentile in whiff rate, 20th percentile in chase rate. So this guy this guy chases a lot and he doesn’t walk a lot either. Like uh 5.8%. Um, and then defensively, uh, minus 12 outs above average. Um, and his arm’s not great. So, be I’ll just be honest with you. This is the first time I was look I’ve looked at his baseball savant, but the guy hit 37 homers last year and I don’t know, man. Like, he’s 26 years old. Like is the is like is there is there do do the Cubs see more in him? Like he’s played for the Angels. You got to remember that too. Like it it there’s a lot of things with how that organization is ran that hasn’t helped a lot of guys. It’s amazing that Mike Trout has turned out to be who who Mike Trout has turned out to be. Um not the recent years, but just his overall career, you know what I mean? Um I I don’t I I don’t we don’t watch the Angels a lot. I do think when the Cubs played the Angels, he had one particular game where he he had a good game. He he can hit the ball far obviously. Uh but yeah, the the chase and whiff and strikeout rates do scare me. But again, like that’s why I said he’s like another version of Kyber. Like just not as good and not well as well known. He doesn’t have all the playoff experience and all that either. like when he hits it, it goes far and he can hit it far. But he does chase a lot, does swing and miss a lot. He doesn’t walk. The only difference is he don’t walk a lot either. I’m trying to find where it um how far like how how long is he under team control for? Probably for three more seasons. Like arbitration through three more seasons probably. If I had to guess, he was a first round pick number 10 overall by the Angels in 2017 out of high school if you didn’t know. Um yeah, here I’ll look it up real quick. Um because I’m trying to at least I’m trying to picture in my head what like that trade package looks like. So if you’re like, “Hey, we want to we want to platoon him with Owen Casey.” Casey in right field and then this year was his he was in arbitration. He’s a unrestricted free agent in 2028. So I mean, so three more seasons technically. Yeah. And his expected home runs by Park. I mean, it looks like you’d mash everywhere. 35 at Wrigley Field. H like Sure. I mean, I I guess I’ll put I’ll put my feelings this way. I’m not getting up in arms about it because I just don’t know enough about him. Yeah. Hand up. Like it’s just not a sexy name. But when you say 26 that many home runs, three years three years remaining. Okay. I kind of see the vision there. Like that’s like one of those sneaky moves by Jed where Yeah. Like that’s not going to that’s not him signing Otana to $700 million, but you look up in June and it’s like, okay, this dude’s had 20 bombs at the All-Star break. Like that’s pretty good. Mhm. I guess I’d just be more confused of what package has to go back the other way to get him. Yeah. I think that’s might be where they talk about Bisteros. Cuz I mean, who like who else? Like if you plan on keeping Casey or maybe Casey is the guy that goes the other way. I I doubt it. So I think they’re probably I mean they’re high on both of them. So I don’t know. I I’d be a little I’d be a little confused there. It’s tough to value that trade. Yeah, he’s a very interesting player. like 37 homers, but a 112 WRC plus. And even though he hit 37 homers, he slugged uh 485 for the entire season. Again, what I said earlier was his uh expect slugging which was in the 500s. So like I don’t know, like maybe some of these numbers are off like his actual numbers, his result numbers are down because of ballpark factors or something. I I don’t know. But he was healthy. He played 152 games, but the slash line, it’s like it reminds me a lot of Pete Carl Armstrong. It’s like 236, 293, 485. Yeah. You know, um I’m looking at how many times he struck out uh he struck out 151 times this year. He struck out 126 times the year before. So yeah, again, he’s 26 and he’s been playing with the Angels. So, do I think that if the Cubs were to trade for him, they’re projecting that they can help him with the strikeout stuff and then he would, you know, a change of scenery type guy, but like not not like Cody Bellinger where he was so bad that he needed a change of scenery. It’s more of like this guy’s been playing under in a bad organization and we know how we can unlock like the first round top 10 pick in the draft that he was. We know how we can unlock that. You know, like that’s how I view the Cubs would view it if they actually did trade for him. 37 homers, but obviously some flaws in the game. I I don’t I don’t know how much he would cost, but I’m not against it. Um something to monitor. Yeah, I would need to see too, like you said, I kind of need to see where that first started because, man, I’ve only heard good things about Bruce, but that dude’s tweets get rougher and rougher every day, man. Yeah. I mean, and I said this earlier, too, like so he for the Angels this year, he played right field and center field. He had minus3 defensive runs saved in center field. Zero outs above average, zero fielding run value. All right, that’s just in center field. um in right field he was minus he was minus one which is actually down because in 2024 he was he had six defensive runs saved in right field. He’s obviously a much better corner outfielder it looks like than he is a center fielder that’s for sure which doesn’t surprise me based off like watching him hit. I’m like why is this guy in center field but that that’s too where like the Cubs have that positional flexibility. It’s like, hey, you know, say Suzuki, you play right field. Joe, you you DH. There’s a there’s a lefty on the mound, you know. Yeah. So, I mean, you can you can work ways around that. Yeah. All right. Well, we talked more about Joe Adele than I expected us to, but we’d get the people

The Chicago Cubs are reportedly kicking the tires on former top prospect Jo Adell, currently with the Los Angeles Angels. Latest rumors suggest Adell could be available — and Chicago might be one of the interested parties.

On Wednesday’s episode of Wrigleyville Forever, Blake and Cody discused:
– What Adell has done recently: In 2025 he smashed 37 home runs and drove in 98 runs.
– His strengths (power bat, controllable contract) and his risks (batting average/.293 OBP, defensive questions).
– Why he might make sense for the Cubs: With youth in his corner and power potential, plus just ~$5–6 million projected for arbitration.
– Why it might not make sense: The Cubs’ outfield is already stocked, and trading young pitching for an outfielder may not align with their stated priorities.
– What a potential deal might look like, and what to watch for in the next few weeks.

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