SAN FRANCISCO — Patrick Wisdom homered late in Thursday night’s game for the only run in the Cubs’ 4-2 loss to the Giants. He hit another homer in the fifth inning Friday and doubled during a three-run ninth as the Cubs won 4-2.
He picked a fine time to get hot again and show off his team-leading power, with scouts from at least a dozen teams watching the Cubs and Giants this series in the final days before Tuesday’s trade deadline.
If he keeps this up, he’s liable to get himself traded by Monday.
Wisdom’s name already has been floated in some rumor mills, albeit drowned out by the higher profile Willson Contreras, Ian Happ, David Robertson and a few other more obvious trade chips.
RELATED: Why Wisdom belongs on poster for new MLB deal
“If my name’s out there, hopefully it’s for good reasons,” said Wisdom, who added that he hasn’t thought about it because he doesn’t keep up with trade speculation or rumors.
This is where the Cubs ownership and front office have positioned the players in response to pandemic financial losses, as they embark on a second consecutive deadline selloff amid a multi-year rebuild with no timeline in sight.
MLB
“I guess it’s that part of the year, of baseball closing in on the deadline,” Wisdom said. “There’s a lot of rumors, a lot of hearsay — probably true rumors in some aspect. But I just take it day to day.”
He saw enough last year to know how startlingly true the rumors can be.
“Last year was kind of unique from my shoes,” said Wisdom, who stuck after a late-May callup, then watched nine players — including All-Star core guys Anthony Rizzo, Javy Báez and Kris Bryant — get traded by the end of July. “I come in with all those guys and a month later they’re all getting traded away. It was just very strange because I knew what they meant to the fans and to this organization. I’m just thankful to be here still and play every day.”
It’s at least a lesson to be prepared for anything.
Wisdom, a former first-round draft pick who broke Kris Bryant’s Cubs rookie record for home runs last year, doesn’t look at first glance like a trade candidate for good reason.
He was 30 by the time he finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting last year, and as a late-bloomer, he has built-in cost containment.
He won’t be eligible for arbitration until he’s 32 or free agency until he’s 35.
That’s a reason to keep the guy with the team’s best pure power — with 19 homers so far this year to go with last year’s 28 — despite a league-leading 129 strikeouts and a defensive decline at third base after an impressive 2021.
“He’s very strong,” teammate Justin Steele said. “When I think of him out there with the bat, I think of, like, a lumberjack, just swinging a big, old thing of wood, just knocking the ball everywhere. He’s very strong, a big dude.”
Manager David Ross also said he likes the idea of Wisdom as part of a bolstered lineup in the coming years, a powerful threat in the bottom half of the lineup, where the swing-and-miss isn’t necessarily as critical.
On the other hand, if somebody needs right-handed power in the next few days and offers team president Jed Hoyer something he likes (a swimming pool for his new adjoining-lot digs in Winnetka?), don’t discount a willingness to put Wisdom on the Cubs clearance rack.
“I kind of know what to expect,” said Wisdom, who has been traded once, by the Cardinals to the Rangers after his 32-game debut season in 2018. “I’ve never been traded in-season. I’ve been traded in the offseason. I’m not new to it.
“But at the same time I love it here. I love the guys in the clubhouse. I love the staff. I don’t want to go anywhere,” he said. “But then again if somebody’s trading for me, that means they want me. So it’s kind of win-win, you know.”
Win-now, even.
“Yeah, depending on the team,” he said. “I’ll just take it day to day, and if my phone rings and they say you’re traded, then so be it. If not, I’d be thrilled to stay here and play with these guys.”