Cubs Interested in Another Trade with A’s? Yes, Please

It’s been a great few days for me hanging out in Whistler, BC, Canada. Whether it was nearly running into a bear while mountain biking, driving an ATV like I stole it, or navigating some minor rapids, I’ve had quite the time. Believe it or not, one of the best aspects was being far outside of the MLB.tv blackout zone for the Cubs, which enabled me to watch a couple games.

One of those games was last night’s though, and I only got to see the last couple of innings in which my team managed to once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s a message I’ve essentially put on repeat by now, but the Cubs simply have too many questions to be a solid contender at this point. While the fabric of the roster is strong and new at the center, it becomes frayed and careworn toward the edges.

I know that the plan wasn’t necessarily to do big things this season, but I also know that the worst place to finish is just out of the playoffs. Now, you might look at the standings to see that, if the season ended today, the Cubs would hold the 2nd Wild Card spot and are only .5 games behind the Giants for the 4th spot. But the thing is, the season doesn’t end today; there are still 121 more games left.

Holes can be covered more easily in short samples, but as the games pile up it becomes more and more difficult to patch over them. As such, I’m not feeling supremely confident in some of the guys the Cubs have shouldering the load at times. One way to boost that confidence would be to make some smaller moves to get a few replacement parts. Yet another would be to go big and get some proven top-line guys who provide new, stronger fabric.

According to a recent post on Chicago Cubs Online, Theo Epsting and Co may be looking to take that latter tack. Ben Zobrist, Tyler Clippard, and Scott Kazmir would provide quite a boost and solidify a few of the little shifting questions we’ve seen thus far. I don’t know if this would put the Cubs over the top, but it sure would help. What do you think? Do they need to make a splash or are the fine the way things are?