Cubs interested in Giancarlo Stanton

Nick Cafardo says the Cubs are one of many teams interested in acquiring the Marlins 22 year old superstar.

1. Giancarlo Stanton, RF, Marlins — It would be a coup for whichever of the 25 teams (I’m exaggerating) that would or have bid for him to actually acquire him. But commissioner Bud Selig is watching the Marlins closely after the salary dump in the Blue Jays deal. While Selig did not step in to change or block that trade, he may not look too fondly upon a deal for the Marlins’ biggest draw. Teams would have to give their very best to the Marlins for baseball’s best young slugger. The Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Cubs, and many more are inquiring, according to a major league source.

If Stanton is available, and that's a big if, of course the Cubs are interested. Along with every other team in baseball.

But let's dream for a moment and pretend the Cubs are only one of a few teams interested and that the Marlins are desparate the shed the salary of someone making the major league minimum. Are you dreaming yet?

He has a career .383 wOBA and only just finished his age 22 season. He has already totaled over 13 fWAR and 12 rWAR in 3 seasons in which he's been one of the youngest players in baseball. If he's not aready a superstar, he soon will be. Bill James projects he'll have a .403 wOBA next season.

Both UZR and DRS agree he's a well above average fielder too.

Are you dreaming now?

What would it take to acquire him?

You can forget about Javier Baez being enough to get it done. It's going to take a hell of a lot more than that. Stanton has one year in which he makes league minimum and then three years of arbitration. HIs surplus trade value is as high or higher than anybody in baseball.

I wouldn't really even know where to begin to estimate what it would take to acquire him, but I'd start with 3 of the top 5 Cubs prospects and then you can probably add on to that.

The Cubs would have a core that includes Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo and Stanton. All of them are very young and should only get better and better. It would probably be one of the best young cores of talent that I've seen an offense have in my life.

More on Theo Epstein compensation

Nick Cafardo hears from one AL executive that the compensation for Theo Epstein will likely be significant.

10. The Cubs and Red Sox will soon meet with a representative of the Commissioner’s Office or the commissioner himself to discuss the Epstein compensation issue. The best school of thought on this comes from an AL GM who is not associated with either team: “I think the commissioner will give the Red Sox a significant player. I don’t think MLB wants executives leaving their teams before their contracts are up and therefore he will try to deter teams from doing that again.’’

This doesn’t make sense to me. If anything I’d think that MLB would not want teams to stand in the way of a person’s chance at a promotion. If MLB decides that significant compensation is what’s due here, what impact will it have? Mercurial Outfielder mentioned in the comments that the impact would be that no ambitious executive would take more than a short-term deal.

There’s one thing to remember here: the Red Sox granted the Cubs permission to talk to Theo Epstein and allowed Theo to accept the job. The Red Sox did not even have to allow the Cubs to talk to him. They chose to do so. If MLB doesn’t want executives leaving, it’s very simple: teams don’t have to allow other teams the right to talk to their employees. There is already a system in place to prevent executives from leaving before their contract is up. The Red Sox chose to ignore it. This is fairly common in baseball when it comes to an executive leaving for a promotion.

As far as I’m concerned, the Red Sox are owed nothing. They had the ability to keep Theo and chose not to. How MLB could award a significant piece to Boston is beyond me.