Cubs Urged To Steal $21 Million Pitcher From Hated Division Rival

The Chicago Cubs made multiple moves this offseason to take themselves from a .500-level team to a potential division winner. This includes the massive trades for Kyle Tucker and Ryan Pressly.

But Chicago has faced a few key injuries to their starting rotation, which leaves its season in question. The Cubs are going to need to add a starting pitcher or two to their rotation if they really want to run away with the National League Central.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently suggested the Cubs could make a trade with their division rival Cincinnati Reds to land starting pitcher Nick Martinez.

“The pitching staff, on the other hand, devolved from ‘questionable’ to downright ‘grimace-inducing’ with Wednesday’s news of Justin Steele landing on the IL with elbow tendinitis,” Miller wrote. “The Cubs already had Javier Assad (oblique) on the IL, which meant continually rolling with Ben Brown in the rotation even through his early struggles. And in Steele’s stead, they called up Ethan Roberts to help out with what figures to be a lot of bullpen games for the foreseeable future.”

This kind of trade would only make sense if the Reds are completely eliminated from postseason contention. If the Reds are chasing a postseason berth or a division title with the Cubs, there’s no way they would consider trading their starting pitcher to Chicago.

This trade fit doesn’t make much sense. Cincinnati seems to be in a win-now situation, just like the Cubs. The Reds might look to trade Martinez when Rhett Lowder and Andrew Abbott return from injuries, but it certainly shouldn’t be an interdivision trade.

More MLB: Braves Linked To Trade For $21 Million Pitcher Amid Rotation’s Injuries