One of the first moves of the Winter Meetings is a reminder of a trade deadline failure for the Chicago Cubs. The Arizona Diamondbacks have signed Michael Soroka to a one-year deal. When the Cubs balked at the asking prices for top-of-the-rotation starting pitchers at the MLB trade deadline, Jed Hoyer and Co. settled on trading two organizational top-20 prospects to the Washington Nationals for Soroka.
The Cubs' decision to trade for Soroka was questioned at the moment, considering the 28-year-old veteran was coming off a string of starts where there was a noticeable dip in his fastball velocity.