The Cubs and Astros have been in talks about a trade that would have sent the outfielder Kyle Tucker from Houston to Chicago to find a football player Isaac Paredes and a 2024 first-round pick Cam Smith670 The Score’s Bruce Levine reports. It is not clear whether other players are affected on both sides. There is no indication that a deal is nearing completion.
Tucker, 27, recently emerged as a trade candidate. The former No. 5 pick emerged as an everyday player in 2020 and has developed into one of the best young players in the game. Over the past four seasons, he has slashed .280/.362/.527 with 112 homers, 80 steals, an 11.3% walk rate and a 15.1% strikeout rate. A broken shin cost him most of the 2024 season, but he had his most productive season when healthy: .289/.408/.585, 23 homers, 16.5% walk rate in 78 games.
Tucker is a year from reaching free agency as a 28-year-old and is poised to command the kind of big contract Astros owner Jim Crane has been reluctant to offer; Houston’s longest contract under Crane has been Jordan AlvarezSix-year, $115MM deal. Jose Altuve’s $151MM extension is large in terms of overall guarantee. Tucker can command double that guarantee in free agency over a much longer period than Alvarez’s deal.
For the Cubs, adding Tucker will increase trade opportunities Cody Bellinger and/or Seiya Suzuki. Tucker will replace both in right field. Chicago already has a new one Michael Busch at the beginning too Pete Crow-Armstrong in the middle field. A left-handed player Ian Happ has a full non-trade clause. There would be no obvious place to play Bellinger or Suzuki without a designated hitter. That would be a waste of Bellinger’s strong defensive skills, and Suzuki has the option of playing the outfield instead of coming in as the primary DH. He also has a full no-trade clause, which makes things even more difficult.
Three of the players’ contracts should be remembered, too. Tucker is entering his final season in control of the club and MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz is expected to earn $15.8MM this coming season. Bellinger is guaranteed a $27.5MM salary next season and has a $25MM player option with a $5MM buyout for the 2026 season. Essentially, he’s guaranteed at least $32.5MM for one year and possibly $52.5MM over the next two seasons, pending that opt-out decision. Suzuki has two years left on his five-year, $85MM contract and will earn $18MM over the next two seasons.
For the Astros, trading Tucker would be a tough pill to swallow. Crane has expressed his willingness to pay the luxury tax if the right situation presents itself but appears to be clearly choosing to avoid doing so for what would be a second straight season. The ‘Stros have been looking to bring in a third baseman Alex Bregman back in the fold, but he wanted a deal north of $200MM while Houston’s recently reported offer was for six years and $156MM. That the Astros are not only looking at an existing major league option at the hot corner (Paredes) but also a late first-round pick whose primary position is third base (Smith) at least suggests no hope of ending a Bregman reunion.
That said, the Astros also have a need at first base. Paredes can fill that role, as he has played all four positions in the outfield throughout his major league career. He’s a third baseman, but he has nearly 400 innings under his belt. At the very least, the Astros could use the cap space created by the Tucker trade to potentially re-sign Bregman, play Paredes at first and simply settle for adding a player with Smith’s upside to the upper reaches of their system. Smith likely won’t be a major league option until 2026, and his bat is his calling card; moving to the outside corner is out of the question at some point.
Paredes, 26 in February, moved from the Rays to the Cubs at the 2024 trade deadline and has struggled in his new surroundings. The versatile slugger hit .250/.342/.488 and hit 31 homers for Tampa Bay in 2023 and looked well on his way to that production in ’24 when he hit .245/.357/.435 with the Rays before that. to trade. However, with Chicago, Paredes hit a scorching .223/.305/.307 in 212 plate appearances.
Still, Paredes is a .234/.338/.437 hitter (123 wRC+) who has hit 70 homers while playing four different positions over the past three seasons. He has walked a solid 11.2% of his plate appearances during that span compared to a 17.3% strikeout rate which is about 5 percentage points below average. He is expected to earn $6.9MM in 2025 and is under club control through the 2027 season. He will be a long-term addition for the Astros who can help in a variety of positions and can provide a solid bat against righties and production against southpaws (.274/.366/.456). On top of that, he ranked third among all eligible MLB hitters in slugging percentage this season and posted the second-lowest ground ball rate in that same set. The right extreme pull bat with that kind of penchant for lifting the ball seems almost tailor-made for Houston’s left field deck.
Smith, meanwhile, was recently selected with the No. 14 pick last summer and signed a bonus a little north of $5MM. The Florida State product absolutely scorched the minor league pitching with a .313/.396/.609 slash in 134 plate appearances at both the Class-A and Double-A levels. It was one of the best first games of any draftee and only served to raise his already high stock. Baseball America ranks Smith sixth in a deep Cubs farm system that in 2024 boasted six of the top 100 prospects in the game. Smith will likely be ranked in several top 100 rankings before the 2025 season.
Currently, RosterResource projects the Astros to have a minimum salary of $215MM with approximately $234MM in luxury tax liabilities. That leaves them with about $7MM of this season’s $241MM tax cap. Moving Tucker would open up a little breathing room, as would a free-agent trade Ryan Presslywhose name is also common in rumors this season. He is owed $14MM but can object to any trade situation as a 10-and-5 rights player (10 years of MLB service, including the last five with the same team). Astros general manager Dana Brown said earlier in the offseason that his club may need to “give a lie” to address roster needs amid salary uncertainty, as well as talk of potential deals involving Tucker, Pressly and Lefty. Framber Valdez they all come under that umbrella.
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