Isaac Paredes swaps Tampa Bay for Chicago

On Sunday, after Randy Arozarena’s departure to join the Seattle Mariners was finalized, it was announced that the Tampa Bay Rays will be losing another member of the team. Mexican third baseman Isaac Paredes will continue the 2024 season in Major League Baseball with the Chicago Cubs, after the franchise sealed a trade involving other players.

Despite interest shown by other teams including the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays, the 25-year-old third baseman will go to the ‘Windy City’ to continue his progress as a baseball player in the Major Leagues. The native of Hermosillo will live a new experience and this will be his third organization in North America’s premier baseball league.

According to information from Jeff Passan for ESPN, with Paredes joining the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay will receive Dominican Christopher Morel in exchange as part of the deal, so they will quickly cover the position of the Mexican player. In addition to Morel, the Tropicana Field franchise will obtain a pair of Cubs prospects - both right-handed pitchers: Hunter Bigge and Ty Johnson.

The panorama continues to change as we reach the halfway stage of the 2024 MLB campaign.

Cubs President of Baseball Operations, Jed Hoyer explained, “As we have stated, our goal is to add players that will help us not just this season, but into the future. In the last two days, we feel we have worked toward that by trading for those types of controllable players. Acquiring Paredes adds a proven bat to our lineup immediately and for years to come.”

Pending official confirmation, Morel already said goodbye to Wrigley Field in this Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Royals. Meanwhile, Paredes played with the Rays during their victory against the Cincinnati Reds (2-1), playing third base and later moving to first base. The baseball player from Sonora only had two at-bats and received a walk in one of them.