CINCINNATI — One day shy of his ninth anniversary of signing with the Chicago Cubs as a teen from Mexico, Isaac Paredes finally put on the uniform of the organization that started his big-league dream.
A whirlwind 48 hours started when Paredes was sent from Tampa Bay to the Cubs in a trade Sunday. The teams exchanged third basemen as part of the deal, with Christopher Morel headlining the package to the Rays. Paredes joined the Cubs on Monday night and made his debut the next day, going hitless in the loss. Paredes had heard his name mentioned in trade rumors before the Tuesday deadline but felt relieved when he learned he would return to his old organization.
“It feels really cool,” Paredes said through an interpreter. “There’s a lot of the guys that I started off with in the minor leagues, we played at different levels and now we’re all up in the big leagues.”
Paredes hadn’t spent much time wondering whether his future in Tampa Bay would be limited until the rumors started. That’s when it hit him that his time there might be coming to an end after three years.
The Rays have a reputation for trading arbitration-eligible players prior to approaching free agency. It’s a strategy that has fueled success and in this case made a 25-year-old All-Star third baseman available. Morel is still in pre-arbitration next season, making him very appealing to Tampa Bay with another inexpensive year, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer noted. Rays baseball operations president Erik Neander, in a call with Rays beat writers after the trade, said it was going to take an offer meeting a high bar to deal Paredes, who had three more years of team control.
“They’re always trying to trade down the service clock, trade down the cost clock,” Hoyer said of the Rays. “They run a great organization and they stick to what they do well. … They’re very good at those kinds of deals, and they traded a bunch of more veteran guys in this deadline.
“You always have to evaluate the player yourself, and I know we weren’t alone in pursuing Paredes.”
Paredes is expected to bring stability and more consistency to the Cubs’ production at third base. His offensive profile skews heavily as a pull hitter. All of his 69 career home runs have been hit to left-center or left field. The Cubs carefully examined how his pull-side power approach would play at Wrigley Field. They ultimately felt confident about Paredes playing half of his games in his new home ballpark and that it would translate well.
Hoyer believes Paredes is an adjustable hitter and that was a profile he adopted because of how it played at the Rays’ Tropicana Field.
“I think he can adjust it a little bit,” Hoyer said. “He sees the ball really well. You look at his walk-to-strikeout numbers, they’re really impressive in a league that you don’t see many guys with those walk and strikeout numbers.
“He does have a really pull-heavy approach, which I think is why some of his expected stats are lower because he doesn’t spray the ball a lot.”
Paredes is expected to hit somewhere in the middle of the Cubs lineup. He slotted in the No. 5 spot Tuesday and batted second Wednesday with the Reds starting lefty Nick Lodolo. Manager Craig Counsell doesn’t want Paredes coming in trying to do too much, instead staying true to who he is as a hitter and his approach. There is a transitionary period that comes with being traded as Paredes gets to know a new coaching staff and teammates. But it’s a message Counsell conveyed to Paredes, subsequently giving him a confidence boost.
Paredes collected his first hit with the Cubs with a two-out double in the sixth. He pulled a 1-1 sinker from Reds reliever Jakob Junis to left field at Great American Ball Park, part of a breakout game by the offense ending in a 13-4 victory to avoid the sweep. The ball would have been a home run in five ballparks, according to Statcast, including — fittingly — Tropicana Field. He again doubled to left in the eighth inning.
“When I was in Tampa, when I started hitting my first couple of home runs I kind of realized that was my preferred side, the left side,” Paredes said. “In terms of Wrigley, I’ve heard nothing but great things about it. It’s a great ballpark to hit in so I’m just gonna go out there and focus on just hitting and let the home runs come themselves.”
