CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – APRIL 07: Fans arrive for a chilly home opener at Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs play the Milwaukee Brewers on April 07, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. Today was opening day for Major League Baseball’s strike-delayed season. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The Chicago Cubs front office remains busy early in the season, striking another deal with a National League contender.
It may be an average start to the MLB season for the new-look Chicago Cubs, but the front office seems to be in midseason form.
Just a day after making a trade with the Atlanta Braves to bring in reliever Sean Newcomb, the Cubs have struck another deal as minor tweaks to the roster continue early on in the season.
According to FanSided’s Robert Murray, the Cubs found a trade partner for Cory Abbot and will be sending him to the San Francisco Giants.
Abbott was designated for assignment a few days ago by the Cubs. Is it the most earth-shattering move in the world? No.
But what it does signal is that the Cubs are already looking at ways to actively tweak the roster to get it in as good a shape as possible for a potential run at a Wild Card spot. It seems a but ridiculous to set expectations that high given the massive turnover the roster experienced less than a year ago, but the Cubs have already outperformed expectations in the first month of the season.
To be completely fair, those expectations were almost as low as the grave everyone dug the Cubs in their season predictions, so it’s not like much has to happen for expectations to be surpassed.
Still, if there’s one takeaway from this it’s that the Cubs aren’t afraid to work the phones, something that could grow into bigger deals as the season wears on and the fever pitch of the trade deadline slowly begins to build.