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CSF77
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Cubs, Royals Swap Jose Cuas For Nelson Velazquez
July 31st, 2023 at 7:05pm CST • By Anthony Franco
The Cubs and Royals have exchanged reliever José Cuas for outfielder Nelson Velázquez, the teams announced. It’s a one-for-one swap.
Cuas, 29, bounced around the minors before cracking Kansas City’s roster last summer. He has made 92 appearances in middle relief over the past two seasons. The right-hander owns a 4.08 ERA across 79 1/3 career innings. He has seen a big jump in whiffs year-over-year, pushing his strikeout rate from a modest 18.9% as a rookie to 27.1% this season. He’s picking up swinging strikes on an above-average 13.3% of his offerings.
The University of Maryland product works with a sinker-slider mix from a lower arm slot. He doesn’t throw especially hard but has missed plenty of bats with his low-80s slider. He’ll step into the middle innings mix and can bounce between Chicago and Triple-A Iowa for a while. He still has two minor league options year remaining and won’t be eligible for arbitration until at least after the 2024 campaign.
July 31st, 2023 at 7:05pm CST • By Anthony Franco
The Cubs and Royals have exchanged reliever José Cuas for outfielder Nelson Velázquez, the teams announced. It’s a one-for-one swap.
Cuas, 29, bounced around the minors before cracking Kansas City’s roster last summer. He has made 92 appearances in middle relief over the past two seasons. The right-hander owns a 4.08 ERA across 79 1/3 career innings. He has seen a big jump in whiffs year-over-year, pushing his strikeout rate from a modest 18.9% as a rookie to 27.1% this season. He’s picking up swinging strikes on an above-average 13.3% of his offerings.
The University of Maryland product works with a sinker-slider mix from a lower arm slot. He doesn’t throw especially hard but has missed plenty of bats with his low-80s slider. He’ll step into the middle innings mix and can bounce between Chicago and Triple-A Iowa for a while. He still has two minor league options year remaining and won’t be eligible for arbitration until at least after the 2024 campaign.
beckdawg
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I don't really get the cuas trade. I guess it's a scouting play where they hope to build him up but he's 29 and i'm not seeing a ton statistically here
Discus fish salesman
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I assume Verlander and Alonso will be here tomorrow. Thanks for the laugh, nostradumbass
beckdawg
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Also re; candelario, I don't hate what they gave up to get him but idk... doesn't feel like a real difference maker move to me. I previously said i didn't really see the point thinking he would get more than he did. So given this is the cost i'm ok with the trade but like I said i just don't know that he really moves the needle for me.
Diehardfan
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Hard to keep track....so many predictions....so, so many bad predictions. But hey....he's got one in row now. That breaks a streak of what 60 or 70 straight that were wrong? Classic. Maybe there's a metric he can pull up that shows the % of baseball knowledge one "fan" can be wrong about.
Nostradumbass......LOL, good one.
JP Hochbaum
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I see it helping out for lefty and righty splits and lengthening the lineup. Candie has an 850 ops verse righties, so this means better matchups against lefties for Wisdom or Madrigal.
I’d also think they can move Wisdom since he’s very redundant right now. Not saying we will get anything of value but we can use more space on the 40 man roster to reduce the Rule 5 draft casualties.
Discus fish salesman
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Lol I won't hold my breath on someone trading for wisdom.
CSF77
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Truchman 114 wRC+ (RH 113 wRC+)
Madrigal: 94 wRC+ (vs LH: 83 wRC+)
Wisdom 108 wRC+ (vs LH: 94 wRC+)
Mancini 73 wRC+ (vs LH: 78 wRC+)
Candelario 134 wRC+ vs RH 91 vs LH
13 HR as a lefty. 3 as a RH hitter. So he can hit homers vs the dominate side.
So he is a wash to Mad as a RH batter. LH batter huge upgrade.
But team wise post trade:
3B: 121 wRC+
SS: 111 wRC+
2B: 96 wRC+
1B: 140 wRC+
C: Mixed
LF: 117 wRC+
CF: 113 wRC+
RF: 98 wRC+
DH 137 wRC+
So that is a decent upgrade to a needed area.
I'm not sure why you are down playing this as this shows it is not a minor upgrade. It pushes the Cubs 2nd best hitter into full time DH and pushes Mad into a day off guy vs dragging the O down.
Also Velazquez was traded due to Morel's accent. Morel has excelled as a major league hitter and has surpassed expectations. That made players like Canario, Velazquez and Davis expendable.
Davis sucks after moving up to Iowa. .197/.316/.299, 2021 was his break out and that was against lower level pitching. Advanced has had his number.
Canario .245/.357/.364 this year. Post injury. Power is down from last year but his OBA is respectable. Last year he had 37 HR's so he also holds trade value but Jed might want to hold the deck here as his trade value is depressed.
Alcantara A+ ATM so a 2 year plan and he is not seeing advanced pitching. I really don't see him seen as a center piece as of yet. Too far away and teams tend to see those as toss in types.
So Jed has chips to play. But he could promote Brown also and see how it plays out.
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CSF77
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CSF77
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My next view is: Stroman is killing the Cubs.
Jed needs to address it. I would love Verlander but that is a major take for Jed. It was supposed to be in theory and a all in move. Jed has not gone that far sense 2017.
So highly unlikely.
But today was 100% on Stro. Cubs would have won that game with any other starter on the hill. At this point Stro takes the option and shoves his F/A plans into the shitter.
So Jed was right to not push for a extension for a pitcher that has never pushed a season like that all the way.
Steele on the other hand Jed should take control of his Arb years and add a few. He has shown to be a break out TOR going forward.
Stro's biggest issue has been missing bats. He is a ground ball pitcher. 7.76 SO/9. Pre ASG BABIP: .255 Post .370 Tale of the tape.
Other hand Steele .289 BABIP Pre ASG post .346. So why has he not tanked also? 9.33 SO/9. He can punch out when needed.
Jed needs to address it. I would love Verlander but that is a major take for Jed. It was supposed to be in theory and a all in move. Jed has not gone that far sense 2017.
So highly unlikely.
But today was 100% on Stro. Cubs would have won that game with any other starter on the hill. At this point Stro takes the option and shoves his F/A plans into the shitter.
So Jed was right to not push for a extension for a pitcher that has never pushed a season like that all the way.
Steele on the other hand Jed should take control of his Arb years and add a few. He has shown to be a break out TOR going forward.
Stro's biggest issue has been missing bats. He is a ground ball pitcher. 7.76 SO/9. Pre ASG BABIP: .255 Post .370 Tale of the tape.
Other hand Steele .289 BABIP Pre ASG post .346. So why has he not tanked also? 9.33 SO/9. He can punch out when needed.
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Either a lesser gives away of players, or acquiring a better player. I thought I made that pretty clear already??
He’s a rental, I wanted team control
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Those aren’t the only options, don’t be short sighted.
And if this was the best Jed could do, then he should of stood pat IMO
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How does it improve our chances of resigning him? That’s not how free agency works
And that’s fine if a team controlled guy costs more, I’d be fine with paying slightly more for that control, if it’s a legit player and not some journeyman rental that we are getting suckered into due to him having a career year that is still just a lil above average for mlb players.
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Orrrrr there’s some here that aren’t just automatically like, “oh Cubz made movvveeee, me likey movessss just for the sake of making movessss.”
Reality is, the better decision long term for the franchise would have been to trade stroman(now you likely can’t) and trade bellinger and any other rentals that garnered interest. This was a sellers market and the cubs bought mediocre players for a mediocre roster
It’s actually remarkable that this is “the only forum” on the internet that doesn’t like the move. Me and @Chicagosports89 and @Diehardfan now feel smart, so thanks for letting us know this info!
JP Hochbaum
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He’s at a 3 war right now which project to a 5 war, and currently ranked 4th in the majors for third base. Average is 1-2 war. This is just blatantly false. For third basemen that we know of that was on the market he was the best get.
Major League Leaderboards - 2023 - Batting | FanGraphs Baseball
JP Hochbaum
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I agree long term it would have been better to sell. But the Cubs have the luxury of minor league depth that they HAD to move because of the rule 5 draft. Both Beckdawg and I have shown the position the Cubs are in for next year. They had to make trades of the players about to hit 5 years or they lose them with no return.
So while in the long term it’s better to sell the Cubs also had an immediate short term issue that they had to manage as well, while being incredibly close to a playoff spot. I can’t blame them for going for it, as it literally cost them guys that they couldn’t keep anyways. It’s a no lose situation for them and they got the best 3B on the market for it.
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He’s at a 3 war right now which project to a 5 war, and currently ranked 4th in the majors for third base. Average is 1-2 war. This is just blatantly false. For third basemen that we know of that was on the market he was the best get.
Major League Leaderboards - 2023 - Batting | FanGraphs Baseball
www.fangraphs.com
Oh, now me saying he’s having a career year is blatantly false?? Impressive mental gymnastics, sir
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Lol we are all aware of the depth and 40 man issues going forward. Hence, why I was all for packaging some minor leaguers to get a MLB ready and TEAM CONTROLLED guy. Whether that he 3B, 1B, or pitcher
You’re not arguing or positing anything new here.
JP Hochbaum
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I was addressing your "average" claim, not career year claim. But since you went there....
He has had better years than this. So that also is false. In 2020 he had a higher wrc+ and 2021 had a 120 wrc+ which is only one less than now.
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