Cubs Trade Christopher Morel to Rays for Isaac Paredes

As first reported by Jeff Passan, the Cubs have acquired third baseman Isaac Paredes from the Rays in exchange for Christopher Morel and two prospects. Sahadev Sharma then clarified that righty reliever Hunter Bigge and righty pitching prospect Ty Johnson are the other players heading to Tampa. This is very clearly a move Jed Hoyer made with an eye on 2025 and beyond, and there are some very interesting wrinkles and implications to it.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that the Cubs have now re-acquired both former prospects they traded to the Tigers in 2017 for lefty reliever Justin Wilson and catcher Alex Avila. The next is that at least one other move will be made at some point in the not-too-distant future because the 25-year-old Paredes still has three years of club control. With both Matt Shaw and James Triantos coming up quickly through the system, the Cubs will need to either make room or use them as trade chips.

Originally signed by the Cubs as an international free agent out of Mexico in 2015, Parades was with the South Bend Cubs when the Tigers trade went down. He made it to Detroit in 2020 and batted .220 with one homer in 108 plate appearances. A disappointing 2021 campaign saw him bat .208 with another homer in just 85 PAs, then he was traded to the Rays just before the start of the following season. Though his average dipped again to .205, Parades hit 20 homers over 381 PAs.

He really busted out last season, hitting 31 homers with 98 RBI and a career-best .250 average while getting 571 PAs over 143 games. Parades is in line for very similar numbers this season, plus he’s striking out a mere 16% rate and walking at a very strong 12% clip. Though he’s not a Gold Glove-caliber fielder, he’s very competent over there and represents a significant upgrade over what the Cubs have gotten this season.

As beloved as Morel was by teammates and (most) fans, there just wasn’t much of a spot for him other than designated hitter. Complicating matters is the fact that Seiya Suzuki has become almost unplayable out in right and may need to DH more frequently unless and until he can get over his fielding yips.

All that said, I think the Cubs gave up a whole lot for what appears to me to be a modest improvement. As good as the numbers above look, Paredes is a pull-heavy hitter with fifth-percentile hard-hit rate and eighth-percentile bat speed. Hoyer just placed a really big bet on Parades continuing to vastly outperform his underlying metrics, similar to what he did with Cody Bellinger. But since this may just be the first in a series of dominoes that will fall soon, I’m willing to keep the jury in deliberation for a little while.

Here’s what Hoyer said in a statement when the trade was officially announced:

“As we have stated, our goal is to add players that will help us not just this season, but into the future. In the last two days, we feel we have worked toward that by trading for those types of controllable players. Acquiring Paredes adds a proven bat to our lineup immediately and for years to come.”