{"id":765701,"date":"2026-07-30T21:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/765701\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T21:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:03:13","slug":"cubs-have-discussed-carson-kelly-in-trade-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/765701\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Have Discussed Carson Kelly In Trade Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though the Cubs are approaching the deadline looking to add to the roster, they\u2019ve also discussed catcher Carson Kelly<\/a> with some of the many clubs who are seeking catching upgrades this summer, ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan reports<\/a>. Chicago has a well-regarded catching prospect, Owen Ayers<\/a>, on the cusp of the majors and a solid backup in 27-year-old Miguel Amaya<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cubs would surely only deal Kelly if it netted them major league help in other areas \u2014 presumably rotation or bullpen help. There\u2019s no guarantee a deal will come together, but it\u2019s a good reminder that few teams in today\u2019s game stick to one pure \u201cbuy\u201d or \u201csell\u201d lane when deadline season rolls around.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Kelly is having a solid season behind the plate. His .261\/.351\/.372 batting line is about six percent better than the league-average hitter, by measure of wRC+. The league-average catcher, it should be noted, tends to be around 12% worse than an average hitter at the plate. Kelly\u2019s line doesn\u2019t necessarily stand out relative to the rest of the league, but it does stand out relative to the standard catcher.<\/p>\n

Kelly is playing out the second season of a two-year, $11.5MM contract. He\u2019s still owed about $1.56MM of this season\u2019s $5MM salary, and there\u2019s a $1.5MM buyout on a $7.5MM mutual option for the 2027 season that obviously won\u2019t be exercised by both parties. (It\u2019s been 12 years since a mutual option was exercised in MLB; they\u2019re largely used as accounting measures\/small-scale deferrals.) He has a strong defensive reputation, and while Kelly went through a particularly brutal stretch at the plate in 2022-23, he\u2019s been at or above league average since 2024 \u2014 a sample of more than 1000 plate appearances.<\/p>\n

The Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Rangers and White Sox are among the teams poking around for catching help. Texas acquired Logan O\u2019Hoppe<\/a> from the Angels last night but optioned the struggling former top prospect to Triple-A; they could use a more immediate upgrade. The Yankees, meanwhile, are known to specifically be looking for a righty-swinging catcher. Kelly checks that box.<\/p>\n

The catching market at one point looked like it might have a wide array of names for teams seeking upgrades. The possibilities have shrunk in recent weeks. Shea Langeliers<\/a> was always a long shot to be moved, but his recent knee surgery wiped out any chance of that. The Rockies are maintaining an extremely high asking price on Hunter Goodman<\/a>, who\u2019s controllable for three additional seasons.\u00a0The Twins have long been expected to move Ryan Jeffers<\/a>, but they\u2019re up to .500 now and GM Jeremy Zoll has plainly said he plans to act as a buyer<\/a>. They could still move Jeffers for big league bullpen help \u2014 a similar gambit to the one the Cubs are apparently weighing \u2014 but Zoll specifically downplayed the idea of trading Jeffers and voiced a desire to keep the current group together. It\u2019d only take one good offer to change his mind, but for now it doesn\u2019t appear to be Plan A in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati\u2019s Tyler Stephenson<\/a> now stands as the top rental who\u2019s obviously available, but Kelly gives clubs an alternative to consider. Miami\u2019s Liam Hicks<\/a> is also at least being discussed in trades, but he\u2019s only a part-time catcher and has four additional years of club control left, so the Fish needn\u2019t be in a rush to make anything happen there.<\/p>\n

There\u2019d be plenty of risk for the Cubs if they opted to move Kelly and turn things over to Ayers, even in a timeshare with Amaya. Ayers has never been touted as a top prospect. The 25-year-old was Chicago\u2019s 19th round pick in 2024, signing out of Marshall for only a $50K bonus. He hit well in Low-A last year, but that\u2019s not a huge surprise for a 24-year-old college player who\u2019s squaring off against younger competition. He\u2019s broken out in a major way this year, however, climbing from High-A to Triple-A and raking at a .320\/.429\/.621 clip with 23 homers, nine steals and a 14.9% walk rate.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s obviously thrust Ayers into the ranks of the best catching prospects in the sport, but he still has just two total seasons of professional experience and only 10 games above the Double-A level. If he gets to the majors after a Kelly trade and looks overmatched, the fallback options are Amaya and Moises Ballesteros<\/a>. The latter entered the season as the Cubs\u2019 primary designated hitter but was optioned his hot start gave way to a lengthy slump. He\u2019s not hitting well in Triple-A either, and his defense has long been a question mark. He\u2019s spent as much time DH\u2019ing in Triple-A as he has behind the plate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though the Cubs are approaching the deadline looking to add to the roster, they\u2019ve also discussed catcher Carson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,34,728,4,1896,61827],"class_list":["post-765701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-carson-kelly","tag-miguel-amaya","tag-mlb","tag-moises-ballesteros","tag-owen-ayers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117010956519793249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765701","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=765701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}