Chicago Cubs Rumors: 5 blockbuster trades for selling now

The Chicago Cubs could trade Craig Kimbrel to the Houston Astros

The Houston Astros have been in a tough battle out in the AL West this year. They are just in front of the Oakland Athletics, but both teams will likely be buyers at this year’s deadline. In fact, the Astros and Athletics could potentially be looking at adding some of the same players. The deadline should be interesting for both clubs looking to make a push.

Houston is, without a doubt, going to add pitching. General manager James Click said a few weeks back that he believes in his guys, but that he’s not going to throw out the possibility of adding more talent “if that’s what it comes to.” If that doesn’t say, “we’re buying pitching at the deadline” without actually saying it, I don’t know what else does.

Even MLB.com columnist Brian McTaggart believes the Astros are going to buy, stating in the above referenced article, “You can bet the Astros will be buying.”

So, now that we know they’re going to be buying and primarily for pitching, maybe they would take a swing at dealing for Cubs reliever Craig Kimbrel. There has been a lot of speculation as of late in regards to whether the Cubs would trade Kimbrel, who has had some major ups and downs with the club.

If the Cubs decide to move on from Kimbrel, they would likely ask for a top-50 prospect. However, the Astros don’t currently have any of those. So, they would have to dish out a couple of their top farm guys.

In this deal, the Cubs would net the Astros’ number two overall prospect in outfielder/shortstop Pedro Leon as well as their number three prospect in righty Hunter Brown.