Cubs’ Kyle Tucker trade isn’t aging well for Chicago originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Chicago Cubs knew there was risk.
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When they traded for Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros last offseason, it was with the knowledge that 2025 was the last season on his current contract. He’d be ticketed for free agency.
But Tucker, one of the best hitters in baseball, was worth bringing aboard. Maybe he’d push the Cubs over the top toward a World Series title. And maybe they’d be able to sign him long term.
Instead, it looks like neither of those things will come to pass.
This is what ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote on Tuesday:
“One team not expected to meet Tucker’s expected contract price: the Chicago Cubs, who traded third baseman Isaac Paredes and right fielder Cam Smith to Houston to rent Tucker in his final season before free agency and will reap a draft pick around No. 75 if he signs elsewhere.”
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Paredes remains one of the best power-hitting corner infielders in the sport.
Smith is an exciting young talent who showed flashes of stardom in his first year with the Astros.
The Cubs got a season of Tucker in which he was great in the first half and struggled while battling back from injury in the second half. And while that compensation pick isn’t nothing, it’s also not anything close to a guarantee to end up with a long-term talent like Smith.
It’ll hurt even worse if Tucker stays in the NL with a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers.
If Tucker goes elsewhere and shines, there’ll be questions about why the Cubs didn’t re-sign him.
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Maybe a 10-year deal worth more than $300 million sounds quite rich to the Cubs. But Tucker is going to get that from someone, and the trade goes down in history quite poorly if Tucker simply departs after a year with no championship.
