Craig Counsell sounds downright depressed after Cubs trade Christopher Morel

Every year around the trade deadline, rumors and speculation run wild through the baseball world. Everyone around the league speculates which players will be traded and for which prospects. The players are viewed merely as trade value and hardly looked at as people by the majority of baseball fans and media. At the end of the day, baseball is a business.

It's very easy to overlook the human aspect of the game. Especially around the trade deadline when players are being moved around as frequently as ever.

Recently, the Chicago Cubs made a deal that sent fan favorite Christopher Morel and others to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for All-Star first baseman Isaac Paredes. It seems as though the Cubs clubhouse is taking the loss of Morel pretty hard.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, and join the discord to get the inside scoop as we near the July 30 MLB trade deadline.

Craig Counsell and Cubs take clubhouse hit by moving Morel to Tampa Bay

Forget the caliber of player that Morel is and could be on the baseball field. We will discuss that here in a second. The type of person, teammate and leader that Morel was is who his former teammates will remember him as. He was always seen with a smile, enjoying playing the game of baseball with the guys he was around.

“He has an outlook and demeanor that makes it fun to be around him,” Counsell said. “He loves playing. That joy, that’s just his outlook on life. It’s present no matter what’s going on. No matter how he’s playing, no matter how the team’s playing. It’s indicated by how he treats people. He’s an example for all of us in that regard.”

This kind of hit to the clubhouse downright stinks. There's no way to sugarcoat it. Losing a guy that is well liked by all of his teammates will have the clubhouse a bit down in the dumps for a little bit. But remember, baseball is a business, and the front office has the responsibility to putting the best team on the field. Acquiring Isaac Paredes from the Rays pushes the Cubs in the direction of having the best possible team on the field.

Morel, 25, has serious 30 or 40 home run potential when he puts all the pieces together. Right now, he's hitting just below .200, admittingly a bad average, but he has 18 home runs and has continued to show power potential that's hard to replicate. With the right adjustments and tweaks, Morel could be a .250 level hitter that flirts with 40 home runs in a season.

Losing him as the player sucks for the Cubs fans. Losing him as a person and teammate is where the trades really begin to impact the players and the coaches.