It’s Tuesday evening here at BCB After Dark: the hippest hole-in-the-wall for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and sit with us for a while. Get warm. We can take your coat for you. There’s no cover charge. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

Last night, I asked you about free agent reliever Pete Fairbanks and whether or not the Cubs should be interested in the former Rays closer. Forty-six percent of you would offer Fairbanks a two-year, $16 million deal to bring him to Chicago. Another 35 percent would take him at a cheaper price. Only nine percent wanted nothing at all to do with Fairbanks.

Here’s the part with the music and the movies. You’re free to skip ahead if you wish.

I said I’d do Thanksgiving-themed jazz as much as I could this week. It’s a tall order, because there isn’t much Thanksgiving music out there.

But I don’t know what Thanksgiving is without pie, usually pumpkin pie, for desert. And what makes pie better but whipped cream?

And when you think Whipped Cream, you naturally think of Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass. So here’s a music video for “Whipped Cream” from a 1967 television special where Alpert is chased around by a group of dancers dressed as Charlie Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” character. A&M studios, where this video was shot, had been Charlie Chaplin’s studio, so that’s the premise of the video.

You still have a few hours to vote in the BCB Winter Science Fiction Classic between Planet of the Apes (1968) and Fantastic Planet. Coming up tomorrow night, we’ll have the final matchup of the first round of the “New Hollywood” bracket, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movie stuff.

Patrick Mooney in The Athletic wrote an article looking back at the Kyle Tucker trade, one year later. (sub. req.) In it, Mooney talks to Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins about the Tucker deal. Hawkins had no regrets:

I can see where Hawkins is coming from. The Cubs felt they needed another bat to make the playoffs in 2025 and Tucker provided that. While his second half was an injury-filled disappointment, he was one of the best hitters in the game the first half and the Cubs won a lot of games because of it. Even with his poor second-half, Tucker was good in the playoffs. Had the Cubs gotten some more breaks—or if Cade Horton or Justin Steele had been healthy enough to pitch a Game Five of the Division Series—the Cubs probably go to the NLCS, where anything could have happened. No, the Cubs did not win the World Series or even the pennant, but they did make the playoffs in a full season for the first time since 2018. They won a postseason series for the first time since 2017.

Even assuming Tucker walks (which is a good assumption at this point), the Cubs got a good year out of Tucker.

But as Carter and Mooney point out, the cost for one year of Tucker was high. Isaac Paredes had a pretty good season for Houston, but his approach was kind of uniquely suited for Daikin Park in a way that it wasn’t for Wrigley. Also, Paredes was hurt and played in just ten games after the All-Star Break.

On top of that, the Cubs had Paredes because they dealt Christopher Morel for him the year before. Morel was just non-tendered by the Rays, so if the Cubs want him back, there’s nothing stopping them but money. Which wouldn’t be a lot because—duh—he was non-tendered.

Hayden Wesneski made six starts for the Astros before undergoing Tommy John surgery. He’s not due back in the majors until late-May at the earliest.

Finally, the Cubs traded Cam Smith to the Astros, and he seemed to be the crown jewel of the deal, at least as far as Houston was concerned. But despite some lofty predictions for Smith in the preseason, including some Rookie of the Year talk, and a strong start the his major league career, Smith flamed out in the second half, posting an anemic .489 OPS after the All-Star Break. Even in the first half, he did most of his damage in pull-hitter friendly Daikin Park. He wasn’t so great away from home with a .589 OPS for the entire season.

Smith got one fourth-place vote for Rookie of the Year, which put him in a tie for tenth.

Now clearly, Smith was 22 years old this past season, so he has a good chance to be better than that over the next five years that the Astros have Smith under team control.

If Tucker signs somewhere other than the Cubs, then Chicago will have one more draft pick this upcoming July.

So the Cubs, at least publically, have no regrets about trading for Kyle Tucker. But what about you? Was this a savvy move but the Cubs to put the team over the top and win a playoff series? Or was this a plunder to give up so much talent for a player who looks like he’s leaving after one just one year?

Thank you for stopping by. We were glad to have you. Don’t stay a stranger. Get home safely. Stay warm. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow night for more BCB After Dark.