Chicago Cubs: The Andrew Benintendi trade is not good news

The Chicago Cubs are going to be big-time sellers before the MLB Trade Deadline on August 2nd. They have some really nice pieces that a lot of contending teams would want. Unfortunately, their market was hurt a little bit by a move made on Wednesday night.

The Kansas City Royals traded Andrew Benintendi to the New York Yankees in exchange for a few different prospects. It is a trade that happened late on Wednesday night and is going to somewhat set the market ahead of the deadline.

It is considered to be bad news for the Cubs for a few reasons. The first reason is that a big player in the potential Ian Happ sweepstakes is now out of it. The Yankees were a perfect fit for Happ but now it is hard to see them adding another outfielder via trade now that they have Benintendi.

New York also hurt the Cubs here because they might have lowered Happ’s value a bit. He will still land the Cubs more in a trade than Benintendi did for the Royals but it might not be as much now if this is the market because the Royals didn’t get much value at all.

The Yankees sent the Royals TJ Sikkema (their 19th overall prospect), Beck Way (number 21), and Chandler Champlain (not ranked) in order to get Benintendi. The Cubs are hoping that they can get a little bit more than that for Happ.

The Andrew Benintendi trade is mostly bad news for the Chicago Cubs right now.

There are still a few teams out there that would love to add a 2022 National League All-Star for the stretch run. The Royals may have set the market but Happ might bring a team just a bit more. With how good the Yankees are, it is strange to see them go that route.

They do have some incredible outfielders on the team with guys like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton but the latter might miss a few weeks due to injury. They also have Joey Gallo but he is having an abysmal season at the plate so seeing them shop for an outfielder is not surprising.

Benintendi is going to be a good fit there but it will be strange seeing someone that was a prominent Boston Red Sox player wear pinstripes. As for the Cubs, they can only hope that Ian Happ lands them just a bit better of a haul.