Landing A Lefty: Do the Cubs Need Zach Britton?
The Chicago Cubs bullpen has been dominant despite operating with just one left-handed pitcher for over a month.

It would be inaccurate to suggest that the Chicago Cubs are desperate for lefty relief pitching help right now. While they could use another left-handed pitcher in the bullpen, President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein won’t resort to exorbitant measures to make this happen.
But could this change with the recent news regarding elite left-handed reliever Zach Britton’s trade availability?
MLB.com reporter Ken Rosenthal reports that Baltimore Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos has given General Manager Dan Duquette his blessing to set the gears in motion for an abbreviated rebuild by trading key players prior to the July 31 trade deadline.
The Cubs certainly have a supply shortage in the left-handed pitching department, with Brian Duensing representing the only bullpen southpaw on the current roster. However, this lack of left-handed pitchers hasn’t stopped the relief corps from quietly posting the fourth-best ERA (3.30) in MLB this season.
Even more impressive, Cubs relievers lead MLB in ERA against left-handed hitters (2.44) which defies the rule of thumb that left-handed pitchers are usually more effective against left-handed hitters than their right-handed pitching counterparts. Wade Davis, Carl Edwards Jr., and Pedro Strop, all right-handed pitchers, currently reside in the top 25 in MLB in weighted on-base average against (wOBA)versus left-handed hitters.
To top it all off, the Cubs could get in-house lefty reliever reinforcements in the very near future. Once Kyle Hendricks completes his rehab assignment and returns to the MLB roster, lefty Mike Montgomery will probably return to the bullpen. He posted a 2.50 ERA in 19 appearances as a reliever at the beginning of the season.
But will that be enough? Does the lack of lefties in the bullpen concern President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein enough to pull the trigger on a move that would significantly fortify the Cubs relief corps?

Zach Britton Would Bolster An Already Dominant Bullpen
Zach Britton is really good at baseball, he’s just been too banged up this season to prove it.
He missed most of May and all of June due to a left forearm issue and has posted a 3.60 ERA in five starts in more of a setup-man role since returning from the injury on July 5. After four consecutive scoreless outings, Britton’s return to the closer role could be imminent.
“I’m not sure [when I’ll be used in save situations],” Britton said after Sunday’s game. “[Manager Buck Showalter] had mentioned the every-other-day thing, but I would assume if we got some winnable games, I’ll throw later and kind of hang around for a save situation.”
-Per MLB.com writer Mandy Bell
At his peak, Britton is one of the best relievers in all of baseball. Since 2014 when he converted to full-time reliever duties, he has posted a 1.41 ERA which is third-best in MLB among relievers with at least 50 innings of work during that time frame (Wade Davis is №2 on that list).
This is all fine and dandy, but we haven’t addressed the most important question. What would the Cubs have to give up to acquire Britton?
The Aroldis Chapman deal the Cubs spun a year ago offers a useful precedent to help answer this question. The Cubs shipped prospects Gleyber Torres and Billy McKinney and MLB reliever Adam Warren to the Yankees for half a year of Chapman. Britton has arguably been better than Chapman since 2014, and the former player remains arbitration eligible next season before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2019. Britton did just sustain the previously mentioned left forearm injury, so that could drive down his trade value to a degree.
The return the Cubs surrendered for Chapman jives nicely with a predictable template that many elite reliever trades have followed over the past year and a half. MLB.com columnist Mike Petriello identified it in a recent article he wrote about potential landing spots for Britton (he didn’t mention the Cubs).
So that’s where we start. A potential Britton deal probably starts with a Top 25 prospect at or near the top of a team’s list, a secondary prospect in the back half of the Top 100, and one or two talented but long shot names like Crawford or Feyereisen. (Warren has been valuable for the Yankees this year, but with a 5.91 ERA for the Cubs, it was clear his move to Chicago wasn’t working out, so it didn’t represent a loss for the Cubs.)
-MLB.com columnist Mike Petriello
To further illustrate this point, here are a few deals in the last couple years that have followed this model. Stud lefty reliever Andrew Miller yielded four prospects when the Yankees traded him to the Cleveland Indians last season. Craig Kimbrel yielded four then minor league players when the San Diego Padres traded him to the Boston Red Sox during the 2015 offseason. Mark Melancon went to the Washington Nationals last season in exchange for prospect Taylor Hearn and young MLB reliever Felipe Rivero.
So, the Cubs will need to further gut their minor league system to acquire Britton which assuredly means parting ways with top prospect Jeimer Candelario. However, the Cubs don’t have a single prospect in the Top 100 according to MLB.com which could prevent them from closing a deal with the Orioles.

Although there isn’t a precedent for having to surrender MLB-level position talent for top relievers, the Cubs will likely have to do it to complete a deal to acquire Britton. However, this team is reluctant to move position players and draining the MLB positional talent pool seems unnecessarily risky given the suddenly resurgent offense. Plus, there isn’t an obvious hole on the Orioles team that a Cubs position player could fill.
The Orioles already have Mark Trumbo as their designated hitter (signed through 2019) and Adam Jones (signed through 2018) in centerfield making a trade for Kyle Schwarber or Ian Happ redundant. The Orioles also have a young, talented middle infield, so trading for Javier Baez or Addison Russell would add to the existing talent rather than filling a gaping roster hole.
It’s likely the Orioles will want prospects for Britton to catalyze a potential rebuild. Furthermore, the team remains just 4.5 games out in the Wildcard race, calling into question whether they’ll be sellers at the deadline anyway.
All of these factors make the Cubs chances of acquiring Britton unlikely. However, it’s not a huge deal from the Cubs viewpoint. They have a battle-tested, elite closer in Wade Davis and supplement his talents with Carl Edwards Jr., veteran Koji Uehara, and resurgent versions of Pedro Strop and Hector Rondon.
Plus, the Cubs right-handed dominated bullpen has found a way to flabbergast left-handed hitting. When Daniel Murphy or Bryce Harper step into the batter box during the National League Divisional Series or Corey Seager or Cody Bellinger do the same thing in the National League Championship Series, the Cubs will go in confident knowing they have somebody in the bullpen who can handle these hot-hitting lefties.
Even if the pitcher happens to be right handed….

Paul Steeno spent 11 years pretending he was good at running. After hanging up the track spikes and officially becoming an elite hobby jogger, he decided to do something that he was actually good at: like writing about the Cubs. He is also a perpetually frustrated Chicago Bulls fan. This one time he got super lucky and ran 3:52 in the 1500 meter run.

