Cubs: 3 trade deadline regrets killing Chicago’s rebuild

The Chicago Cubs surprised a lot of people in the baseball world by not trading some of their best players. 

Last year at the trade deadline, the Chicago Cubs traded away nearly all of their good MLB players. They traded outfielder Joc Pederson, reliever Andrew Chafin, reliever Ryan Tepera, closer Craig Kimbrel, third baseman/outfielder Kris Bryant, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, and shortstop Javier Báez between July 15 and the July 30 trade deadline.

This year, it was completely different. They did make some moves, dealing four relievers (Chris Martin, Scott Effross, Mychal Givens, and David Robertson), but even that was underwhelming.

Here are three trade deadline regrets that are killing the Cubs rebuild.

Cubs: 3 trade deadline regrets

1) The Cubs did not trade catcher Willson Contreras

The Chicago Cubs are not and will not be in playoff contention for a few years. The Cubs have a good farm system (MLB.com’s No. 10 farm system, according to their post-Draft rankings for this year) but only two of the top-10 are in Triple-A. Six of their top-10 are in Single-A or were just drafted. Yet, Willson Contreras, who is a free agent at the end of this season, is still with the club.

Offense at the catching position is at one of the lowest points in recent memory (only seven MLB teams have a wRC+ that’s better than league average at the catching position) and Willson Contreras could have helped out any number of teams at the position this year or last year.

Had they traded him last year, they would have demanded even more in a potential trade return since the acquiring club would have had an extra year of control. Now, Contreras will become a free agent and likely not re-sign with the club long-term.