{"id":104899,"date":"2025-07-28T14:49:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T18:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=104899"},"modified":"2025-07-28T14:49:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T18:49:15","slug":"cubs-mackenzie-gore-future-ace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/28\/cubs-mackenzie-gore-future-ace\/","title":{"rendered":"Could MacKenzie Gore Be the Cubs&#8217; Future Ace?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Cubs are going to be trading for a pitcher in the next few days. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">While it isn&#8217;t certain who that will be, there have been <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">rumors upon<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> rumors <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">going around<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> The Cubs <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">are expected<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> to go all in to get what they need to win a World Series this year. A guy that they think would help them achieve this goal is the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/24\/cubs-trade-targets-baseball\/\" target=\"_self\">Nationals&#8217; LHP, MacKenzie Gore<\/a>. According to PJ Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, the Cubs are currently very interested in acquiring Gore. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> would be <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">a very interesting<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> deal, as some see it as <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">an amazing<\/span> <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">deal<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">and some<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> don&#8217;t see its worth.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> What makes Gore so interesting?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Could MacKenzie Gore Be the Cubs&#8217; Future Ace?<\/span><\/h2>\n<h4><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Possible Trade Package<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Currently<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, the price for acquiring MacKenzie Gore is <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">extremely<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> high. The market for starting pitching this year is <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">fairly<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> sparse<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, so<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> the Nationals can shop Gore around at an over-the-top price. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> thing <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">about Gore<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> that <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">is different<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> from most trade pieces is that the Nationals <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">have<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> control through 2027.<\/span> H<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">e wouldn&#8217;t be just a one-year rental and would give the Cubs a possible ace for the next two years. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">There have been reports of a <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">possible<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> trade involving three of the Cubs&#8217; top-10 prospects, as well as<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0their #11 prospect.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Sources: <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Cubs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Cubs<\/a> are \u201caggressively pursuing\u201d MacKenzie Gore from the <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Nationals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Nationals<\/a>. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Cubs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Cubs<\/a> would need to include Caissie in the deal to finalize it. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Cubs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Cubs<\/a> are the \u201cheavy\u201d favorite to land him, if he gets moved. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MoccBomb?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MoccBomb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MoccBomb (@MoccBomb) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MoccBomb\/status\/1949468122563637361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Obviously, this would be a <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">huge<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> amount to give up. There have been numerous reports about who the Cubs are willing to give up. It&#8217;<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">s rumored<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> they will not give up any of their top prospects for one-year rentals, which Gore is not. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">If this trade is a real possibility, the Cubs&#8217; front office would ultimately have to decide whether it would be worth it, not only for this year but also in the long run<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Is MacKenzie Gore Worth the Price Tag?<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Gore is currently in his fourth year in the MLB and in his third year with the Nationals. He has blossomed into a young star and is pitching his best season yet. He has thrown 117.2 innings this year and conjured a 3.52 ERA with 144 strikeouts, which <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">is tied<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> for fifth in the league. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Gore has <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">a beautiful<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> baseball savant page, with only a few struggles with ground balls at times, walk rate, and barrel rate.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> But overall, Gore looks like he could be a future star with top-notch extension, amazing whiff and chase rate, and nice-looking xERA and xBA. Even with all the tools and ace potential in the world, the question remains: Is he worth giving up all these prospects?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Although the Cubs need pitching this year, trading for Gore would not be worth it in the long run. Gore is a phenomenal player, but he hasn&#8217;t proven to be a guy worth three top-10 prospects. While it would be a luxury to have control of him for two more years. He hasn&#8217;t yet proven he can be an ace for a team like the Cubs. The trade would completely limit the Cubs&#8217; ability to make other trades they need to fill additional holes. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">They would have very few prospects and a weak farm system in the end<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span> <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Although there are not a lot of great pitchers on the market, Gore is <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">simply<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> not going to make a big enough impact to give up this many high-caliber prospects.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: \u00a0Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cubs are going to be trading for a pitcher in the next few days. While it isn&#8217;t certain who that will be, there have been rumors upon rumors going around. The Cubs are expected to go all in to get what they need to win a World Series this year. A guy that they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5567,"featured_media":104941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1071,35],"tags":[1327],"class_list":["post-104899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","category-news","tag-mackenzie-gore"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5567"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104899"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104943,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104899\/revisions\/104943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}