On December 13th the Cubs acquired superstar Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros. The price to acquire him was hefty, despite the fact he is only under contract for one more season. The Astros acquired major leaguers Isaac Parades and Hayden Wesneski in the deal, but perhaps the biggest part of the trade was prospect Cam Smith.
At the time of the deal, Smith was in his first year of professional baseball and was ranked as the 73rd-best prospect in MLB. The former 14th overall pick out of Florida State, burst onto the scene last year and made it up to the Cubs Double-A affiliate.
Cam Smith has been very impressive so far
Smith went viral for his six consecutive games with a home run last season. He impressed many people within the baseball community despite playing in just thirty-two games. One of the people he certainly impressed was Astros GM Dana Brown, who made him a centerpiece in one of the biggest trades all offseason.
So far in spring training Smith looks like an absolute steal for the Astros. His slash line of .423/.516/.773 at the time of writing this is incredible. Especially for someone who hasn’t even played professional baseball for a full calendar year. Add to this his three homers this spring, and it’s easy to see why the Astros believe they may have struck gold with this deal.
Despite not making it past Double-A so far in his career, some are speculating that Cam Smith may make the Astro’s opening-day roster. Entering this season as the 58th-ranked prospect in baseball, a fifteen-spot jump from last season, the expectations from Astros fans are high. His move from third base to corner outfield is a sign that the Astros want him to play in the majors sooner rather than later. Ironically, he may be Tucker’s immediate replacement in right field for the Astros come opening day.
Did the Cubs make a massive mistake?
Cubs fans are starting to wonder if trading Cam Smith away was a massive mistake. When you couple his immediate success with Tucker’s recent slump, pessimistic fans have jumped to the conclusion that this was a fleece job akin to the White Sox trading a young Fernando Tatis Jr to the Padres. But I would like to stick my neck out and defend Jed Hoyer on this one as I still believe he did the right thing.
For starters, the Cubs have a higher-rated prospect at Cam’s natural position, third base. Fair or not the Cubs held Matt Shaw in higher regard than Smith and early indications are that he will be a good player for Chicago at the hot corner. He is a top-20 prospect and he will get his opportunity to prove himself this season.
Next, Cubs fans have pointed out for years that this team lacked a true star. Sure they had good players, but no real difference-makers. Stars don’t come cheap, so when Jed Hoyer leaped to acquire one, it was inevitable that he would need to give up good assets in return.
And finally, Kyle Tucker will be fine. Let’s not overreact to a spring training slump. Conversely, let’s not crown Cam Smith as a Hall of Famer after a twenty-two-at-bat bat spring training sample size. Sure he possesses great ability as a player, and I was very high on him as a prospect, but a hot/cold streak in spring training is relatively meaningless in the long run. The sky isn’t falling and the Cubs will be fine.
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