Chicago Cubs fans were preparing themselves for the loss of outfielder Ian Happ and/or catcher Willson Contreras during trade deadline day. Both players had been surrounded by trade rumors for the past several weeks. By the time the deadline hit last night, both players were still a part of the Cub organization. Contreras says still being a Cub capped a stressful day of waiting as the trade deadline passed.
Happ was just as happy as Contreras once the dealine passed and he was still wearing a Cub uniform.
Despite keeping Contreras and Happ on the roster, the Cubs gutted their bullpen at the deadline yesterday. Chicago traded reliever David Robertson to the Phillies and sent Mychal Givens to the Mets yesterday. The Cubs received pitching prospect Ben Brown from Philadelphia and right-hander Saul Gonzalez from New York.
The St. Louis Cardinals are continuing to bolster their rotation. St. Louis Cardinals acquired Yankees starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery in exchange for Gold Glove outfielder and fan favorite Harrison Bader. St. Louis is also sending a player to be named later or cash considerations to the Bronx. Montgomery is three-and-three with a 3.69 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 114-and-two-thirds innings this season. Cardinals President of Baseball Operation John Mozeliak says he understands that giving up a gold glove center fielder like Harrison Bader is tough to do.
The Cardinals also acquired catcher Austin Allen from the A’s in a minor league trade that sent pitcher Carlos Guarate to Oakland. St. Louis trails the Milwaukee Brewers by two games for the NL Central lead, and they’re tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the NL’s final Wild Card spot.
The Chicago White Sox, who are 52-and-51 overall and trail the Minnesota Twins by just two games in the race for the AL Central, didn’t make any major moves at the deadline yesterday. Fans were hoping the Sox could improve a solid roster even more by 5:00, but were unable to pull the trigger on any potential deals. The Sox added to their bullpen Monday, acquiring left-hander Jake Diekman from the Boston Red Sox. White Sox GM Rick Hahn says he’s disappointed they weren’t able to more at the trade deadline to improve the team but didn’t want to make trades just for change sake.
In other club news, Chicago activated outfielder Luis Robert from the 10-day injured list yesterday. Robert had been on the IL retroactive to July 19 with blurred vision.
***Audio courtesy of Illinois Radio Network***
