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With MLB’s trade deadline coming up next Tuesday and the Cubs not playing until late tonight, I thought I’d open up a thread for trade discussion now that the first significant deal of deadline season has happened:
The New York Yankees today announced that they have acquired OF Andrew Benintendi from the Kansas City Royals in exchange for minor leaguers RHP Chandler Champlain, LHP T.J. Sikkema and RHP Beck Way.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 28, 2022
If nothing else, that takes one team off the list of clubs who might be interested in acquiring Ian Happ. (Personally, I hope the Cubs keep Happ.)
It seems a foregone conclusion that Willson Contreras will be traded before Tuesday, though if he’s not, stranger things have happened. There is, apparently, one more suitor for Willson’s services:
The New York Mets reportedly have been in the mix for a while, but the Astros are desperate for a two-way catcher.
Contreras would be a nice fit with either team and obviously would have a good chance at earning his second World Series ring.
In Houston, he would join former Cubs teammate Martin Maldonado, who spent only two weeks on the North Side in 2019 before being dealt for Tony Kemp. Maldonado, a defensive specialist who is popular in the Astros clubhouse, is hitting .172 with a .582 OPS.
“As always, we await developments.”
Feel free to discuss anything relating to trades here. If the Cubs make a deal, of course there will be front-page coverage.
The official deadline is next Tuesday, August 2, at 5 p.m. CT.