The Cubs made it clear that they’re patrons on Monday afternoon, buying third baseman Jeimer Candelario from the Nationals for shortstop Kevin Made and pitcher DJ Herz.
What a distinction per week makes! After shedding the opener of a four-game sequence to the Cardinals simply over per week in the past, the Cubs stood at 45–51, and it appeared extra possible that they’d be sellers than patrons come deadline time. An eight-game profitable streak later, off the backs of the hated Cardinals and the moribund White Sox, modified that calculus; even a Sunday loss to interrupt the streak wasn’t sufficient to banish the concept that the NL Central was there for the taking. After all, 4 video games within the standings isn’t that vast a chasm, and with the fourth-best run differential within the National League, there’s a minimum of one professional purpose to suppose the Cubs have deserved higher than their .500 document this 12 months. The Pirates have light, the Cardinals wouldn’t be buying and selling off expertise if even they thought that they had a miracle in them, and neither of the Reds or Brewers are prone to take large steps ahead.
Candelario had a beautiful bounceback season for Washington. Whatever was within the water at Comerica Park final 12 months that made each participant in Detroit all of the sudden not know which aspect of the bat to carry seems to have filtered out of his system, together with his .258/.342/.481 triple-slash with 16 homers and 30 doubles trying so much just like the 2021 season that was thought on the time to be his breakout marketing campaign. Last 12 months, it took all of six months for Candelario to go from one of many hotter names in baseball to being non-tendered. Settling for a one-year, $5 million contract to re-establish his worth, he has executed simply that and can head to free company in a a lot stronger place than final time.
The Cubs solely get to lease his companies, however they’ll be glad to have them. While the new nook hasn’t precisely been a tire hearth in Chicago, it’s definitely been one of many much less glad positions for the workforce, with a mixed line of .234/.319/.412. There hasn’t been a steady starter there this season, with the new nook manned by a mix of Patrick Wisdom, Nick Madrigal, and Miles Mastrobuoni. Wisdom has spectacular sufficient secondary expertise to be a plus offensive participant regardless of a sub-Mendoza line batting common, however he’s additionally stretched as a 3rd baseman defensively and is greatest suited as a four-corner function participant who can hit greater than the occasional homer and perhaps come off the bench when he’s not beginning. Mastrobuoni is pure utility materials, and Madrigal would possible want to seek out some type of Captain America-esque Super Soldier Serum to be a five-homer hitter. You’d be nuts to confuse Candelario with José Ramírez or Alex Bregman, however he’s a professional B+ starter at third you may stuff within the lineup every single day with out having to fret a couple of defensive caddy or some type of exploitable platoon cut up.
In return, the Cubs quit two professional prospects, although neither stood within the higher echelons of the workforce’s farm system. In our prospect rankings (which went dwell for the Cubs only a few weeks in the past, so you must actually test them out), Herz ranked nineteenth within the system, and Made was twenty second. Both gamers have some actual upside for the Nats, nevertheless it’s by no means like buying and selling Hayden Wesneski or Kevin Alcántara, not to mention somebody just like the just-promoted (to Triple-A) Pete Crow-Armstrong.
The ZiPS projections don’t actually go in opposition to the scouting neighborhood on this one, pegging Made as 1.5-WAR-ish shortstop at his peak with strains within the .250/.330/.360 vary. The laptop does nonetheless have hope that Herz can tame his command points and offers him a great shot at being an appropriate fourth/fifth starter sooner or later. A bullpen conversion may assist with the management, although I’m not overly hopeful {that a} changeup specialist with iffy command and unimpressive velocity can be all that scary within the late innings. For now, Made and Herz slot in at twelfth and 18th, respectively, in Washington’s system.
For the Nats, signing Candelario was at all times about hoping to flip him on the deadline after a comeback season, and that’s simply what they did. Whether the return for enjoying him at third for a 12 months was price not Jake Alu when wholesome or every other candidate that would plausibly be a part of the following good workforce in Washington, we’ll have to attend a couple of years to seek out out. For the Cubs, ZiPS now has them as the most effective rest-of-season workforce within the NL Central by a very slight margin, although it’s shut sufficient that they might merely run out of pages on the calendar.
Content Source: blogs.fangraphs.com