The Cubs don't need an ace more now, they needed one all along

The Cubs are going to be without their second-best pitcher, Justin Steele, until likely next year's All-Star Break. This is a team that was in dire need of an actual top of the rotation arm anyway, but it's exacerbated when your rotation is one really good pitcher, Shōta, and some dudes, and it's April 15. That's a long way to limp through a season.

The problem is that the Cubs aren't the only team in need of an ace, and there really aren't all that many, and if a team has one they are willing to deal the price is gonna be prohibitive.

Well Jed, you know what happens when you tell the world your problems? Eighty percent don't care and twenty percent are glad you've got 'em.

The Marlins have an ace and they are likely going to trade him. Sandy Alcantara won the Cy Young in 2022, was still pretty good in 2023 though not as dominant, but then he caught the Tommy John Disease and he's just now back. So far, through three starts he's walking too many guys (eight in 15 innings) but everything else looks good. He's allowed just 10 hits in three starts, he's struck out 12, fastball velocity is 97.0, which is nearly exactly where it was in 2022 and 2023, and he's inducing a lot of groundballs (65%, which is in the 93rd percentile.)

He's 29 years old, is signed through 2027, with salaries of $17.3 this year and next and a team option for $21 million in the final year. It's all good.

If he stays healthy, he should command a pretty big package. And this is where the prospect perverts get all sweaty.

OK, they get all sweatier.

The Cubs vaunted farm system was good enough to get them Kyle Tucker, the best hitter on the planet, and there is supposed to be plenty left to do something like this.

Sounds good. Sign us up.

The problem is teams don't trade their big assets this early in the season. Pitchers get hurt all the time. By early July, the Cubs could be joined by other contenders with a need for big Sandy, which will only drive his value up.

Now, there is some risk for the Marlins. Because, like we just discussed, pitchers get hurt. Sandy's healthy now. But he's only 15 innings into his life after the Tommy John Disease cure. Do they want to risk him making it intact all the way to July?

If you're Jed, you have to make the call and you have to keep making it.

There is another wrinkle to this.

MLB insider Hector Gomez reported on Saturday that...

Nobody knows if there's anything to this, but it is something the Cubs "should" do.

And, our old pal Jeff Passan agrees.

All of the arguments make sense. Nobody with a brain gives up their best prospect and two other useful players to get a great player and then just let him walk. Did the Dodgers trade for Mookie Betts and then let him go the Yankees? No, they did not.

Tom Ricketts does have a reputation now as a cheap bastard, and that might actually bother him. Plus, the Tucker trade has worked. For those of us who felt like Jed had built a team full of pretty good players that needed a star to actually be good, well, he added the star and holy shit, we were actually right.

But that's assuming Tom is capable of actually feeling shame. I mean, if he was, would he have that haircut?

Here's where things get stupid. There is some thought in Cubs' fan circles (and Cubs fans are really good at wandering around in circles) that the Steele injury will end up being a good thing because, now the Cubs have to re-sign Tucker!