The Cubs just got rid of the organization's longest-tenured player for a pitcher named Adam Warren.
Most Cubs fans reacted with a simple, "Who?"
Starlin Castro has been a franchise cornerstone for the better part of a decade with the Cubs and after Theo Epstein's front office inked Ben Zobrist to a four-year deal Tuesday, Castro was shipped off to the New York Yankees.
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Warren is the return and at first glance, a 28-year-old pitcher who is not a household name might seem like a minor haul for a player loaded with potential, has almost 1,000 hits on his resume before his 26th birthday and is on a reasonably team-friendly deal for at least the next four years.
But Warren - the Yankees' fourth-round pick in 2009 out of UNC - can be a solid return for the Cubs.
For starters, teams around Major League Baseball have already reached out to the Cubs with interest in Warren.
The Cubs believe Warren will benefit from moving to the National League and ZiPS (a projection system mostly used at FanGraphs) agrees:
Those are some eye-popping numbers, even if Warren just sticks as a reliever (though the Cubs believe he could become a quality starter).
MLB
Warren has already proven to be a near-dominant reliever, posting a 2.29 ERA out of the Yankees' bullpen in 2015 with a 1.019 WHIP and 37 strikeouts in 35.1 innings. He also had a 2.97 ERA, 1.107 WHIP and 8.7 K/9 as a reliever in 2014.
But if Warren can start - he was 6-6 with a 3.66 ERA and 1.219 WHIP in 17 starts in New York last season - he would provide the Cubs with a lot more value.
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Warren could be the reliable arm the Cubs are seeking for their rotation and they didn't even have to dip into the farm system or give up Javier Baez or Jorge Soler.
The move still leaves the door open for the Cubs to acquire a potentially game-changing pitcher, but for now, they bolster a pitching staff that already includes five proven starters (Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, John Lackey, Jason Hammel, Kyle Hendricks), three other versatile swing options (Trevor Cahill, Clayton Richard, Travis Wood) and a bullpen with several intriguing arms (Hector Rondon, Pedro Strop, Justin Grimm, Neil Ramirez, Rex Brothers and Carl Edwards, Jr.).