David Price Pipedream

Buster Olney of ESPN believes that the Cubs are the very early front runners to land Tampa Bay Rays Ace David Price through a trade. While Olney does not believe that the Cubs have the attractive trade chips that the Cardinals and Red Sox have, the Cubs may be among the few teams capable of actually paying for Price. 

Would Theo and Co. be willing to gut the farm system in order to acquire the former AL Cy Young winner, though?

 In the last year, the front office has worked to build one of the better farm systems in all of baseball, making massive strides in the scouting department. They have established a legitimate crop of potential stars, including Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, and Alberto Almora. At least one, and likely two, of these three would need to be a part of any trade that brought Price to Chicago. 

Since they are both prospects, Baez, Almora, and Soler bring a bust potential that Price does not have.  Baez and Soler are very raw players with questionable tempers, and anything can happen. Still, they are  considered top prospects for a reason. Both of them can flat out hit. 

Equally worrisome might be what the Cubs might have to give up along with one of the three aforementioned prospects. Dan Vogelbach is destined for a designated hitter role, so his name is likely to come up. 

Looking at this year's Cubs team, trading for starting pitching would make no sense. The starting rotation has been phenomenal, and the offense has been the team's shortcoming. Carlos Villanueva and Travis Wood have been surprisingly good, and Jeff Samardzija has been proving that he is a top of the rotation pitcher. The performances from Villanueva and Wood are likely to regress, though for now they look like solid fixes. This being the case, would trading the future of the offense for more pitching make sense? 

If Baez and Soler can reach their potential, the Cubs could have one of the most potent offenses in baseball by 2016. Pairing them with Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo would give opposing pitchers nightmares. If they deal them, though, they could have the best starting rotation in baseball at about the same time. Either way, the Cubs come out a winner. 

As Olney said, the Cubs are very early favorites and nothing is likely to happen for quite some time. If Rays GM Andrew Friedman begins to shop Price, the Cubs will have an interesting decision to make.