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Cubs make a huge splash with Kyle Tucker trade · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: If the Astros think they didn't get if Astros fans
0:02
Speaker 1: are out there thinking they didn't get much in this prey.
0:05
Speaker 1: This is a hal for a rental. Welcome into north
0:13
Speaker 1: Side Territory, Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. I'm Sahadev Sharma
0:18
Speaker 1: with my partner Patrick Mooney. Patrick. It is our technically
0:22
Speaker 1: our fourth podcast of the week, the Lost Podcast podcast
0:27
Speaker 1: after that, and now an emergency podcast because Kyle Tucker
0:32
Speaker 1: is a Cub. It happened. This is not Jake Peee,
0:36
Speaker 1: This is not Brian Roberts. This is arguably the biggest
0:41
Speaker 1: probably like maybe it's not even arguably. It's the biggest
0:44
Speaker 1: move Jed Hoyer has made. That's not sending away the
0:49
Speaker 1: main piece, right, biggest acquisition he's made. I think I
0:52
Speaker 1: think that's fair to say. Maybe I don't think I'm
0:55
Speaker 1: missing something here, but a monster deal, one that you know,
1:01
Speaker 1: completely changes the lineup, completely changes the way we view
1:06
Speaker 1: this offseason. I think it's you know, we're going to
1:10
Speaker 1: talk about what they gave up in a little bit,
1:12
Speaker 1: all of you stressing about that. Look, to get impact talent,
1:17
Speaker 1: you have to give up talent. This is this is
1:21
Speaker 1: a bold move it's aggressive. It is what we need
1:24
Speaker 1: to see from this front office. They needed to start
1:27
Speaker 1: acting like there was a sense of urgency and that
1:32
Speaker 1: they you know, that they weren't just looking to improve
1:34
Speaker 1: along the margins and satisfied with the eighty three eighty
1:37
Speaker 1: four wins. This is pushing in. Well, we can talk
1:41
Speaker 1: about what happens beyond twenty twenty five, but I'm not
1:45
Speaker 1: I don't you know. I get it. I get the handring,
1:48
Speaker 1: and I get when you listen to them talk they
1:50
Speaker 1: talk about beyond one season. But my guess is that
1:54
Speaker 1: they have a plan in place and that they also
1:57
Speaker 1: understand that it's time to win.
2:01
Speaker 2: No doubt. I mean, this is a signature move for
2:04
Speaker 2: Jed Hoyer, one that may ultimately define his tenure here.
2:11
Speaker 2: Certainly the type of all in move we have not
2:14
Speaker 2: seen in quite some time. Just you're talking about one
2:20
Speaker 2: of the best hitters in baseball, the truly elite talent
2:27
Speaker 2: that this roster has lacked. And you know, we spend
2:34
Speaker 2: way too much time on social media. We read the
2:36
Speaker 2: comments sections, We talk to friends, family, you know, people
2:41
Speaker 2: we bump into at the winter meetings, at the grocery store,
2:44
Speaker 2: wherever it is. It was like, what are the Cubs doing?
2:48
Speaker 2: And finally, this is an affirmative answer of like, yeah,
2:52
Speaker 2: they're going for it. They're trying to win, and I'd
2:54
Speaker 2: imagine that this can't be the end of it. This
3:01
Speaker 2: is not going to be higher Craig Council and then
3:04
Speaker 2: basically run the same team back. I don't think it
3:08
Speaker 2: means handing, you know, Tom Ricketts atm password over to
3:14
Speaker 2: Scott Boris, but I do think there's going to be
3:17
Speaker 2: more moves. Cody Bellinger is going to get traded.
3:20
Speaker 1: Right they have to. Why don't we get to what's next? Yeah,
3:24
Speaker 1: you're right, Cody Bellinger, that's probably next. I mean, would
3:29
Speaker 1: you be surprised by that? I don't think so. If
3:33
Speaker 1: it happens soon, that makes a lot of sense. I
3:38
Speaker 1: think Cody Bellinger is preparing to be traded. The Cubs
3:42
Speaker 1: haven't really hidden that all that much. I guess my
3:48
Speaker 1: biggest question is what the return is and if it
3:50
Speaker 1: definitely is the Yankees that he'll be headed to. Beyond that,
3:55
Speaker 1: my question, like a big question I have is who
4:00
Speaker 1: plays third base? You know, it was pointed out to me.
4:03
Speaker 1: It was like someone reminded me after the piece we
4:07
Speaker 1: wrote kind of talk touching on Matt Shaw that hey,
4:09
Speaker 1: they also get a draft pick if he's the rookie
4:12
Speaker 1: of the year and starts the season on the team. Uh,
4:15
Speaker 1: that that could be incentive to at least start him
4:18
Speaker 1: on the team. I think, just shooting out some texts today,
4:21
Speaker 1: I was told at minimum is like, you know, who
4:24
Speaker 1: knows what happens the rest of the winter. But but
4:26
Speaker 1: it would have to be a competition. Nobody's handing a
4:28
Speaker 1: job to Matt Shaw right now. I think that's I
4:31
Speaker 1: think that's fair. You can't like you're competing, right, you
4:34
Speaker 1: don't add Kyle Tucker and then say the rest is
4:38
Speaker 1: all rookies or something like that. Right, you gotta you
4:42
Speaker 1: gotta make sure you you at least have competition there.
4:44
Speaker 1: But I think it's a you know, that's my main question. Uh,
4:48
Speaker 1: we know there's more coming, right, It's not just gonna
4:51
Speaker 1: be Cody Bellinger traded and and then play the kids.
4:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I do think pitching still has to be addressed.
5:01
Speaker 2: I am very curious about what they do at third base.
5:05
Speaker 2: You had mentioned in one of our pieces on the
5:07
Speaker 2: Athletic like maybe there's a stopgap guy someone were not
5:13
Speaker 2: maybe that's not super obvious or someone that could, you know,
5:17
Speaker 2: play third base in stretches. But like, this is why
5:24
Speaker 2: you build up the farm system that you have not
5:27
Speaker 2: only a trade piece in cam Smith, but you also
5:31
Speaker 2: have a guy like Matt Shaw who can be in
5:34
Speaker 2: the conversation here and you know, look at the pitching side.
5:38
Speaker 2: I know what Hayden was. Nesky never quite put it
5:40
Speaker 2: all together, but he was an effective swingman at times.
5:46
Speaker 2: I think they were pretty high on his future still, right,
5:52
Speaker 2: I just think that's an area that they got to
5:54
Speaker 2: kind of go after and really supplement.
5:59
Speaker 1: Right. Right, pitching has to be an area that they upgrade, right,
6:03
Speaker 1: I don't. Again we talked about Bellinger. I don't think
6:06
Speaker 1: they've hidden the fact that they want pitching. There's more
6:09
Speaker 1: pitching coming. They added Eli Morgan, they added Matthew Boyd.
6:13
Speaker 1: There's more coming. Whether it's a huge move, whether it's
6:16
Speaker 1: a you know, just a we know this guy's going
6:19
Speaker 1: to be in the rotation move, we'll see what that is.
6:23
Speaker 1: As far as giving up with Nesky, I was hearing
6:25
Speaker 1: a lot that they were high on was Nesky. I
6:28
Speaker 1: don't think they wanted to give up with Nesky. I
6:31
Speaker 1: know they were high on cam Smith. Had I ran
6:34
Speaker 1: into multiple amateur people this week. One person like laughed
6:41
Speaker 1: when when I mentioned cam Smith. He's like, they can't
6:43
Speaker 1: do that again. Amateur people are going to be biased.
6:46
Speaker 1: Amateur people are in love with the guys that they
6:49
Speaker 1: just saw in the draft. But there were a lot
6:52
Speaker 1: of people around the game and the amateur side who
6:55
Speaker 1: loved cam Smith. If the Astros think they didn't get
6:58
Speaker 1: if astrospans are out are thinking they didn't get much
7:01
Speaker 1: in this trade. This is a hall for a rental.
7:04
Speaker 1: It's a It's not the Juan Soto hall, but it's
7:08
Speaker 1: not the same return for Mookie Bats, Paul Goldschmith, Francisco Lindor.
7:12
Speaker 1: This is this is better than that. Maybe. I mean
7:15
Speaker 1: the Lindor names were decently decently big at the time,
7:22
Speaker 1: but this feels bigger. This feels more impactful. H Like
7:26
Speaker 1: I said, was Nesci was inconsistent. But there are I
7:29
Speaker 1: know there are teams out there that think, hey, I
7:31
Speaker 1: don't want to get my hands on this guy, uh
7:33
Speaker 1: and see what we can do with them. That that's
7:36
Speaker 1: you know, that happens a lot and and sometimes it
7:38
Speaker 1: just never works out. Cam Smith had two months of
7:41
Speaker 1: pro ball. Everyone fell in love with him. We don't
7:43
Speaker 1: know what he's gonna be, and isak partis, Look, he
7:46
Speaker 1: struggled in his time here. I think he's a really
7:48
Speaker 1: quality player, and I think maybe the Crawford boxes or
7:51
Speaker 1: were built for him. But but we'll see, we'll see
7:55
Speaker 1: what how he performs and and how those final What
8:00
Speaker 1: is it? Two two years? Three years? Right? He had
8:02
Speaker 1: three years too, he had three more. I mean, that's it.
8:05
Speaker 1: That's a ton of that's a ton of service time.
8:07
Speaker 1: That's a ton of years left. This is a hefty price.
8:12
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think you could say the
8:15
Speaker 1: Cubs stole Kyle Tucker. But again I go back to
8:19
Speaker 1: this is what you have to do to get a
8:21
Speaker 1: superstar in your team.
8:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they got the best player in the deal
8:25
Speaker 2: by far, and that's usually a good strategy. Look, Pretis
8:33
Speaker 2: was not a player who grew on you the more
8:35
Speaker 2: you watched him, Like, I don't know. To me, seemed
8:40
Speaker 2: like a guy who was good at kind of compiling
8:43
Speaker 2: war more so than playing the game. Maybe it was
8:46
Speaker 2: just a bad stretch. He could rebound, particularly hitting in
8:53
Speaker 2: that ballpark and maybe in a different environment. But do
9:00
Speaker 2: you think he's gonna be a great player over the
9:02
Speaker 2: next three years. I didn't really get those vibes in
9:05
Speaker 2: just kind of watching him on top of the fact
9:08
Speaker 2: that the race kind of gave up on him and
9:11
Speaker 2: moved him, Like I think we both have received those
9:13
Speaker 2: signals of like, yeah, you know, the Rays kind of
9:15
Speaker 2: knew it was time to move on, and that to
9:19
Speaker 2: me is usually a good sign that something bad is
9:22
Speaker 2: about to happen around the player. Yeah, Loo, Wesnsky could
9:28
Speaker 2: put it together, change of scenery, he still wasn't going
9:34
Speaker 2: to crack their opening opening day rotation, especially since they
9:38
Speaker 2: have five pitchers and they're playing to add another starter.
9:43
Speaker 2: And look, camp Smith has played like five games at
9:46
Speaker 2: double A. You know, I don't know if he was
9:50
Speaker 2: quite a reach, but he was certainly someone who had
9:53
Speaker 2: kind of like come on really fast, but still years
10:00
Speaker 2: away from being like an everyday impact player on a
10:04
Speaker 2: playoff team. And you know, if you're the Cubs, I
10:07
Speaker 2: don't Obviously you had to haggle and you had to negotiate,
10:11
Speaker 2: but I don't think you lose much sleep over what
10:14
Speaker 2: you gave up in this deal.
10:17
Speaker 1: Right, And part of it is, Look, they built all
10:20
Speaker 1: this depth and we've been saying this for like at
10:24
Speaker 1: least a year now. I know going into last winter,
10:26
Speaker 1: I was wondering if they were going to make a trade.
10:28
Speaker 1: But when you build this much prospect depth, eventually some
10:32
Speaker 1: of them have to get moved. Yes, would have been
10:34
Speaker 1: nice to get a player that is under control for
10:36
Speaker 1: more than one year. Absolutely, those players are hard to
10:40
Speaker 1: find when and you're not always timed up for those right.
10:45
Speaker 1: That's why I would argue. I often said, like, the
10:48
Speaker 1: timing can't be perfect. Sometimes you just have to go
10:51
Speaker 1: get the guy when he's available. Right this time, the
10:54
Speaker 1: timing was kind of perfect. They're they're in a win
10:57
Speaker 1: now phase and they had to go get them. They
11:01
Speaker 1: have to be aggressive. You cannot keep passing up these opportunities.
11:05
Speaker 1: They weren't in on Paul Goldschmid, they weren't in on
11:07
Speaker 1: Francisco lind Or, they weren't in on Mookie Bets, they
11:10
Speaker 1: weren't in on the Wan Soto trade, they weren't in
11:12
Speaker 1: on the Wan Soto signing. How many big names have
11:15
Speaker 1: they not been in on like these opportunities. You can't
11:18
Speaker 1: keep saying passed. You have to go in at some point,
11:22
Speaker 1: and they did right, and we can talk about why
11:25
Speaker 1: what is this signal about the Cubs? Right, It's what
11:29
Speaker 1: I just said Patrick. They're in a win now phase.
11:31
Speaker 1: They're not trying to like they're what have we seen
11:35
Speaker 1: in the past few years, eighty three wins. They're keep
11:38
Speaker 1: repeating this. They're not terrible, they're not a seventy win team,
11:42
Speaker 1: but they're not good enough. They're just not good enough.
11:45
Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker puts someone in this lineup that the opposition
11:50
Speaker 1: has to game plan for. I like Saya Suzuki a lot.
11:53
Speaker 1: You've heard me talk about how much I like them.
11:55
Speaker 1: There's no like hiding my thoughts on his offensive skill set.
12:00
Speaker 1: He's a high level offensive player. He is not that
12:03
Speaker 1: player that the opposition says, Okay, we can't let him
12:07
Speaker 1: beat us. Okay, how do we get him out? Oh crap,
12:11
Speaker 1: what are we going to do? He's up to bat
12:13
Speaker 1: with men on base in a high leverage situation. Right,
12:17
Speaker 1: Maybe he's that type of player, but he wasn't treated
12:21
Speaker 1: like that by the rest of the league. I think
12:22
Speaker 1: that matters. You know, that's not measured in some like
12:25
Speaker 1: in any numbers, but that does matter in some fashion,
12:28
Speaker 1: and I think he changes the way the lineup looks
12:31
Speaker 1: ian happen, say, Suzuki are better because Kyle Tucker is
12:34
Speaker 1: in the lineup. As much as I like the east
12:35
Speaker 1: op paratus rate and I liked it because of the
12:38
Speaker 1: boldness and the aggressiveness he was another player. It's like,
12:42
Speaker 1: this guy's good. He's really good. I don't think he's elite,
12:47
Speaker 1: and that's that's what they have now. We don't like
12:51
Speaker 1: if anyone disagrees with the fact that Kyle Tucker is elite,
12:54
Speaker 1: an elite talent, I guess they just aren't paying enough attention,
12:58
Speaker 1: Like because he's one of the top ten bats in
13:00
Speaker 1: the game.
13:02
Speaker 2: He's that classic guy who can give you that three
13:07
Speaker 2: run homer, like that big swing the Cubs have been
13:10
Speaker 2: missing so many times over the last two seasons. He's
13:16
Speaker 2: a guy who delivers, and when you have that in
13:19
Speaker 2: your lineup, it helps the other hitters relax. It buys
13:23
Speaker 2: you some time for the rest of those young prospects
13:28
Speaker 2: and young players to develop. As the Cubs are sorting
13:32
Speaker 2: out their bullpen again next April and May, gives them
13:36
Speaker 2: a little more breathing room. Like the game is about power,
13:40
Speaker 2: the Cubs did not have enough of it, and this
13:43
Speaker 2: guy brings it as well as almost anyone in the game.
13:48
Speaker 1: Right. One forty three way to runs created plus since
13:52
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, I believe, is what I wrote. These are
13:56
Speaker 1: the guys with one forty or better since twenty ten
14:00
Speaker 1: Cubs uniform in a full full season. Anthony Rizzo, Chris Bryant.
14:04
Speaker 1: That's it. Who are the key pieces of a World
14:07
Speaker 1: Series team? Where Anthony Rizzo Chris Bryant so pretty good.
14:11
Speaker 1: Pretty good guys to have on your team. He's also
14:15
Speaker 1: more valuable defensively and on the base pats than both
14:17
Speaker 1: of them. I mean, Chris Bryant was a great base runner,
14:19
Speaker 1: but I don't think he stole many bases. It's a
14:21
Speaker 1: different game now, but still like he can steal a base.
14:25
Speaker 1: From what we understand, that injury from last year is
14:27
Speaker 1: not something that's lingered. It was more about like the
14:30
Speaker 1: weirdness about that wasn't like, uh, this is link this
14:34
Speaker 1: is It was a misdiagnosis essentially, or at least told
14:37
Speaker 1: to the public as a misdiagnosis a bone bruse, when
14:40
Speaker 1: it was actually a fracture that just needs to heal.
14:44
Speaker 1: It's not like this devastating injury right, So so he's healthy,
14:49
Speaker 1: he's an impact talent. What like this, This is the
14:53
Speaker 1: Cubs going for a jump in wins, looking for a
14:58
Speaker 1: way to change the dynamic and go to the playoffs
15:03
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five. It's it's what everyone has been
15:07
Speaker 1: asking for and just frankly demanding act like a big
15:11
Speaker 1: market team. Be bold, be smart, be creative and aggressive.
15:16
Speaker 1: And they did that. So you know, it's not it's
15:20
Speaker 1: not perfect. It's not over yet. We need to see
15:23
Speaker 1: what else they do. But I like the lineup a lot,
15:25
Speaker 1: even with the whole at third base.
15:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean message received, right, I mean of you
15:32
Speaker 2: know how many times have we asked Jed Hoyer about
15:35
Speaker 2: the idea of star power and they went out and
15:39
Speaker 2: got a guy who I don't know if he has
15:42
Speaker 2: the most magnetic, outgoing personality, he has has the game
15:47
Speaker 2: for it. It'll we'll see how he kind of adjusts
15:53
Speaker 2: to Wrigley Field. But I think it also shows a
15:57
Speaker 2: lot of progress internally in terms of scouting and player development.
16:02
Speaker 2: The fact that Cam Smith, who is like a draft
16:04
Speaker 2: eligible sophomore, could kind of get hot, rise up their
16:09
Speaker 2: draft board and kind of go off in the minors
16:13
Speaker 2: and become that headliner prospect guy, and that the Cubs
16:17
Speaker 2: could do that without really sweating it, as well as
16:23
Speaker 2: throwing in a nice young pitcher under long term control
16:26
Speaker 2: and still feeling pretty good about their depth. Like these
16:29
Speaker 2: are the signs, as Craig Counsel would say, of a
16:33
Speaker 2: healthy organization.
16:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's exactly right. I mean, look at the
16:39
Speaker 1: Cubs have so many prospects still like Kevin Alcantra, Owen Casey,
16:43
Speaker 1: Matt Shaw are all going to be up this year,
16:45
Speaker 1: you know, unless any of them are used at trades.
16:47
Speaker 1: I don't believe Matt Shaw will be traded. Who knows
16:51
Speaker 1: what else they have their hands and what they're trying
16:56
Speaker 1: to pull off, But I would not be surprised if
16:58
Speaker 1: there's another move of some sorts in that way. Yeah,
17:03
Speaker 1: this is it's a it's a fascinating move, and it's
17:07
Speaker 1: finally something for fans to be excited for. I'm I'm
17:10
Speaker 1: happy for fans in that sense where it's like there
17:13
Speaker 1: was a lot of negativity building up and there was
17:15
Speaker 1: also this this feeling that the Cubs are kind of
17:19
Speaker 1: slipping into irrelevancy, right, Like they weren't disastrous, they weren't awful,
17:26
Speaker 1: But there was no national buzz about the Cubs. Nobody's
17:30
Speaker 1: talking about the Cubs. They're just there. Yeah, and and
17:34
Speaker 1: it was and like and they're almost being overlooked in
17:36
Speaker 1: a town where there's so much dysfunction in the sports
17:40
Speaker 1: world that you needed something good to look at, and
17:43
Speaker 1: the Cubs weren't taking advantage of that. And now that
17:45
Speaker 1: looks like they're at least trying to that. That feels
17:49
Speaker 1: good for the city. Uh and the sports fans, sports fans,
17:52
Speaker 1: at least the Cubs fans in this city. Yeah.
17:56
Speaker 2: I think this is one of those I know, one
17:57
Speaker 2: of our segments of kind of what what they gave
17:59
Speaker 2: up and we had to explain that, and that's interesting,
18:03
Speaker 2: but it's not really something I think we're gonna linger on.
18:07
Speaker 2: It's like, what did they gain? And they gained some credibility,
18:11
Speaker 2: they gave themselves a much better chance to compete. They'll
18:17
Speaker 2: have a year to essentially recruit Kyle Tucker as a
18:21
Speaker 2: free agent, and you know, this is why they spent
18:27
Speaker 2: years kind of building this system up. And you can't
18:33
Speaker 2: really worry about what Cam Smith might do in like
18:38
Speaker 2: twenty twenty nine. Like an organization that absolutely has to
18:43
Speaker 2: win now or else. There's probably going to be major
18:46
Speaker 2: changes next off season.
18:49
Speaker 1: Right right, and who knows if Kyle Tucker walks in
18:53
Speaker 1: a year. We can discuss these things over the course
18:56
Speaker 1: of the season.
18:56
Speaker 2: Get a draft pick, draft another college hitter who you're
19:00
Speaker 2: right well in the Cape Codley, I mean, come on
19:03
Speaker 2: hard And when.
19:04
Speaker 1: We talk about relevancy, this is one of the texts
19:06
Speaker 1: I got from a competing execs. We went back and forth,
19:11
Speaker 1: and at the end of it, he's like, well, the
19:12
Speaker 1: Cubs are in the mix again about time. Like that's
19:15
Speaker 1: like people around the league have been saying, what are
19:19
Speaker 1: they doing? Like they're like, I don't understand what the
19:21
Speaker 1: Cubs are doing. I don't understand what direction they see.
19:25
Speaker 1: Like now, at least it makes a little sense. And people,
19:28
Speaker 1: they're not the butt of jokes. They're not. They're not,
19:32
Speaker 1: just like I said, falling into a relevancy Like there's
19:35
Speaker 1: there's something to talk about here in a positive fashion.
19:39
Speaker 1: Let's see what else go happens. Patrick will will likely
19:42
Speaker 1: be recording Monday or Tuesday. I wouldn't be surprised if
19:46
Speaker 1: we have more to talk about than we'll see. Uh well,
19:50
Speaker 1: it'll likely be Tuesday, right that that probably makes the
19:53
Speaker 1: most sense with what we're hearing regarding access to Tucker
19:58
Speaker 1: and Jed Hoyer. So uh, we'll have more to talk about,
20:03
Speaker 1: is my guest be It won't be a boring weekend either,
20:07
Speaker 1: So thanks for listening. I hope, I hope you guys
20:10
Speaker 1: are entertained with this week of podcasts. It was a
20:15
Speaker 1: hectic week, but it ends on a high note for
20:18
Speaker 1: the Cubs. Enjoy your weekend, celebrate Kyle Tucker. Make sure
20:22
Speaker 1: to rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast north Side Territory.
20:29
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe to The Athletic, where Patrick and
20:32
Speaker 1: I will have more Kyle Tucker thoughts and whatever else
20:36
Speaker 1: the Cubs are doing the rest of this winter. We
20:38
Speaker 1: will we will have plenty of thoughts on that. Thanks
20:41
Speaker 1: and take care. I will leave do they don't The
21:08
Speaker 1: Leader