The 2021 Chicago Cubs had a difficult decision on their hands as the trade deadline approached. They had to decide whether to keep their World Series core consisting of the likes of Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, and Kris Bryant intact, or cut their losses and trade them to ensure that they got something in return before one or multiple stars departed in free agency that offseason.
Jed Hoyer chose the latter, trading all three of them by deadline day. Baez went to the New York Mets, Rizzo went to the New York Yankees, and Bryant went to the San Francisco Giants.
Chicago's return for Baez was excellent, as they acquired current starting center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. The return for Rizzo hasn't paid dividends quite yet, but outfielder Kevin Alcantara, the main piece that the Cubs acquired, is one of the top prospects in Chicago's system. The Bryant trade, however, looks like a complete bust after Chicago traded Alexander Canario to the Mets on Monday.
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Kris Bryant trade proved to age horribly for Jed Hoyer, Cubs
Cutting bait with Canario at this point made some sense. The Cubs had DFA'd him days prior, so it was inevitable that he'd be wearing another uniform sooner rather than later. With that being said, the fact that one of the two players that the Cubs acquired in a trade for Bryant was shipped off isn't a great look.
Canario was traded after appearing in just 21 games for Chicago over parts of two seasons. The other player acquired in the Bryant trade, Caleb Kilian, has made just eight MLB appearances (five starts) across parts of three seasons and has a 9.22 ERA at that highest level. He's still in the organization, but considering Chicago's abundance of pitching depth, it's unlikely that he'll play much of a role in the Majors anytime soon.
Those are the two players that the Cubs acquired in a deal for Kris Bryant, a player who might not have been his former MVP self — and might have been in the final year of club control — but was still an All-Star in 2021. All the Cubs got for that All-Star was a combined 0.3 bWAR from Canario and Killian.
There's always some risk when trading for prospects, and Hoyer did well in the Baez and Rizzo transactions. His return for Bryant, though, never looked great, and looks even worse now that Canario is officially gone.