SAN FRANCISCO – Anticipation had been building since the Cubs’ last home series, and on Saturday, the club made their first trade of the deadline. The Cubs sent reliever Chris Martin to the Dodgers for utility man Zach McKinstry.
Martin is likely the first of a trio of back-end relievers who the Cubs will deal before the Aug. 2 deadline. The Cubs signed him this spring to a one-year, $2.5 million deal. Martin posted a 4.31 ERA in his short tenure with the Cubs.
McKinstry, 27, has a .210 career batting average in 74 major-league games. He debuted in 2020 and played 60 games last year on either side of a right oblique injury. But his big-league playing time has been sporadic this season, with just 11 at-bats. He’s slashing .335/.417/.487 in Triple-A this year.
“They’re professionals, they’ve been through it before,” Cubs bullpen coach Chris Young said this week of Martin, Mychal Givens and David Robertson, veteran relievers who have been navigating trade speculation. “It gets talked about because it’s the elephant in the room and everyone understands it’s real, but you respect how professional they are, you respect that they still want to pitch, they still want to be a part of it.”
When Givens, a late-inning reliever who signed a one-year deal this spring with a mutual option for 2023, held the Giants scoreless in the Cubs’ 4-2 win Friday, it was his 16 straight outing without an earned run dating back to mid-June.
“Right now, I’m wearing red and blue,” Givens (6-2, 2.66 ERA) told the Sun-Times on Friday, “and I’m happy where I’m at right now. If they trade me, they trade me – or not. But I’m not worrying about that. It’s something I can’t control that has everything to do with the front office and other teams’ front offices. Right now, I’m just excited and been happy.”
Robertson (3-0, 2.23), has established himself as the Cubs’ closer since joining the Cubs on a one-year deal this spring. He’d recorded 14 saves entering play Saturday.
‘The organization is going to do what they need to do to make themselves better for the upcoming years,’ Robertson said this week. “And if part of that is moving me and other players in this clubhouse to get the talent that they need to get to where they’re where they want to be, then so be it. There’s not much I can do about it. I still am going to get an opportunity to play baseball, and I signed up to play, and am being paid to play, and I’m going to play for whoever has me between the lines.”
