{"id":538712,"date":"2026-01-26T11:35:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/538712\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T11:35:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:35:45","slug":"mlb-insider-reveals-ridiculous-chicago-cubs-trade-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/538712\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Insider Reveals Ridiculous Chicago Cubs Trade Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

With remaining free agents scrambling to find teams, and front offices trying to set their rosters in stone before Spring Training begins, it\u2019s been an active week across Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

The New York Mets have made a flurry of moves, solidifying themselves as an even more serious contender in the National League. Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals finally pulled the trigger on a long-awaited blockbuster trade, sending left-handed starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore to the Texas Rangers in exchange for five prospects.<\/p>\n

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The Nationals ultimately settled for a quantity-over-quality approach, landing five players with varying skill sets and upside \u2014 but notably, they did not receive a single Top 100 prospect in return for Gore.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Cubs<\/a> were one of the teams long rumored as a potential landing spot for Gore. Trade discussions reportedly began in the months leading up to the 2025 trade deadline and continued throughout the offseason, before Chicago eventually pivoted and acquired Edward Cabrera from the Miami Marlins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cabrera may have been the better fit anyway.<\/p>\n

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While he\u2019s less proven than Gore, the Cubs had a clear need for a right-handed pitcher. Gore is a lefty, and adding him would have only made the rotation more left-handed heavy. Chicago already features Justin Steele, Matthew Boyd, and Shota Imanaga throwing from the left side. Balance mattered.<\/p>\n

But after news broke that Gore was headed to Texas, MLB insider Bruce Levine shared a detail that made it blatantly obvious why the Cubs never pulled the trigger on a deal.<\/p>\n

According to Levine<\/a>, the Nationals were asking for four prospects in return \u2014 including Owen Caissie, the Cubs\u2019 former No. 1 prospect and the No. 47 prospect in all of baseball.<\/p>\n

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The ask also included Jaxon Wiggins, a rapidly rising pitching prospect who could realistically make his major-league debut sometime in 2026.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not just two high-level prospects with bright futures \u2014 it\u2019s two premium prospects who are close to impacting a big-league roster. I wasn\u2019t exactly thrilled with the idea of the Cubs moving Caissie for Cabrera, but at least that deal involved one core piece and allowed Chicago to retain much of its top-end farm talent.<\/p>\n

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The Nationals, however, were reportedly asking for the Cubs\u2019 top hitting prospect, top pitching prospect, and at least two additional pieces.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s simply outrageous. A ridiculous request \u2014 and a very easy no.<\/p>\n

Critiquing a front office for the moves they make is always fair game. Executives, players, media, fans \u2014 we\u2019re all allowed our opinions, and not every transaction is going to work out. Teams get things wrong all the time.<\/p>\n

But this is a perfect example of why it\u2019s far more of a gray area to criticize a team for the moves they don\u2019t make.<\/p>\n

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Especially when it comes to trades. You rarely know how unreasonable the other team\u2019s demands might have been \u2014 and it always takes two to tango.<\/p>\n

I can say with confidence that Jed Hoyer<\/a> and the Cubs were absolutely right to pass on this deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With remaining free agents scrambling to find teams, and front offices trying to set their rosters in stone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,1649,138,24,4245,161,4914,393,771,19,2000,58,4,505,415,61,9677,994,709,770,69,71],"class_list":["post-538712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-baseball","tag-bruce-levine","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-cubs","tag-edward-cabrera","tag-justin-steele","tag-mackenzie-gore","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-matthew-boyd","tag-miami-marlins","tag-mlb","tag-national-league","tag-nationals","tag-new-york-mets","tag-owen-caissie","tag-prospect","tag-prospects","tag-shota-imanaga","tag-texas-rangers","tag-washington-nationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115961195680189688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}