How Darvish commerce came together between Cubs and Fathers originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
On the phone with Victor Caratini on Tuesday night, Cubs baseball operations president Jed Hoyer told the Seeker that he was leaving that he still remembered making the switch for him in 2014.
This, of course, was not the focus of the call. The Cubs and Fathers signed a deal to send Caratini and ace Yu Darvish to San Diego for right-handed Zach Davies and four candidates. But it was a full circle moment for Hoyer.
“This was the last deal we made before this six-year race,” said Hoyer at a Zoom press conference on Wednesday. “This was the last negotiation in the other direction that we did. And we have a very good young player for a left-handed reliever and service guy. When people question the value of getting young players, gaining depth and doing these things, this is a good example of a trade that has really benefited us, and it has developed wonderfully. “
Hoyer was not saying that the parallels were accurate. The 2014 trade included three players; this week’s trade included seven. James Russell was a workhorse; Darvish was the best Cubs player last season. And so on.
The two deals involving Caratini, however, marked an era in Cubs baseball.
“Do we need to make any moves with the future in mind, after six years of each move being directed to the present?” Hoyer said Wednesday. “Yes. I think it is the most prudent thing to do.”
That was how Hoyer found himself evaluating a young, prospective return as “by far the most attractive business” discussed with the Fathers.
All four prospects that the Cubs acquired from San Diego this week – the indoor fields Reginald Preciado and Yeison Santana, and the outfielders Owen Caissie and Ismael Mena – the Cubs explored the instructional league this fall.
They also observed Caissie, which the Fathers selected at. 45 overall in the 2020 MLB Draft, leading to last summer. The other three, the Fathers acquired during the international subscription periods of recent years. But the canceled secondary league season of 2020 created an information gap.
“It’s a challenge,” said Hoyer. “Not only with these players that we acquire, but for all players. It probably leads to more information asymmetry than normal, which is not necessarily a bad thing in these processes. “
With a team reduced by this year’s layoffs, the Cubs had to choose the teams on which to focus their recognition efforts. They eliminated teams that were unlikely to compete this season or negotiate potential. The Fathers were one of the remaining clubs.
Hoyer and Padres general manager AJ Preller said he discussed different ways to structure a potential trade. At the same time, San Diego was negotiating with Tampa Bay for left-handed pitcher Blake Snell, which added “fluidity” to the weeks’ conversations, Hoyer said.
The Fathers were “insistent” on including Caratini in the trade, according to Hoyer. As Darvish’s personal catcher for the past year and a half, Caratini could help smooth the transition to Darvish and strengthen the team in his own position.
For the Cubs, an avenue to reinforce their pipeline looked attractive.
“They are hiring four really good young players to kick-start the agricultural system,” Preller told reporters late on Tuesday.
The MLB Pipeline ranked the four out of Padre’s top 10 prospects. All, except Santana, 20, are teenagers, which gives them high ceilings. But it will also take years before they are ready to contribute to a major league team, even if their development proceeds as planned.
Asked where Gleyber Torres or Eloy Jimenez of the Cubs was in this trade, Hoyer paused. The two former Cubs were known commodities when the Cubs traded them in 2016 and 2017 as part of the packages for Aroldis Chapman and southpaw José Quintana, respectively.
“Every year there is a greater value for potential customers,” said Hoyer, “as the industry lost $ 3 billion and things contract, I feel that, by definition, people will cling more tightly to those next prospects of the big leagues ”.
Even after leveraging its strong farm system to acquire catcher Austin Nola and pitchers Mike Clevinger, Snell and Darvish over the past four months, the Padres has managed to retain three of its top 5 pre-season candidates, as ranked by MLB.com .
“There is no doubt when you look at this return,” said Hoyer, “you are going to say you are young and there is risk involved. And I think that’s a fair thing to say. But it can also be said that there are four really talented young players. Given the location where they were summoned, the amount of money they signed, the rating in their countries (of origin), these are four really talented kids that I can’t wait to deliver to a high performance. to pass on to our player development people. “
Perhaps years later, Hoyer will call one of the four players to say that he was negotiated, after settling with the Cubs. And like Caratini, Hoyer will recall the trade that brought him to Chicago. A trade that marked a new chapter in baseball Cubs.
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