Royals Reacts Survey – Let’s make a deal

Jeremy GrecoFri, July 24, 2026 at 2:28 PM UTC·2 min read

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In a recent Trade Deadline-focused piece for The Athletic, writer Jim Bowden proposed a trade between the Cubs and Royals that he would like to see:

Cubs receive: Michael Wacha, RHP

Royals receive: Matt Shaw, INF/OF; Kevin Alcántara, OF

In return, the Royals get two young bats who can’t crack the Cubs’ starting lineup in Shaw and Alcántara. Shaw, 24, can play second base, third base and corner outfield. As an everyday player, he projects to have 15-20 home run power. Alcántara, 23, has never been given a legitimate chance with Chicago, but he’s having another strong season in Triple A.

Both players are 24. Shaw is nominally a third baseman, but has played primarily in right field with some second and first mixed in. Alcántara is a centerfielder. Shaw was considered the 22nd overall best prospect in MLB by FanGraphs when he graduated last year and was hitting about league average before being sidelined with an injury on June 29th. He still needs to tap into some game power to be as good as he’s projected, but the projections are very good indeed.

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Alcántara is still considered a prospect, and the fifth best in the Cubs’ system, despite debuting in 2024 due to a lack of plate appearances at the big league level. On his third run at AAA, he’s doing quite well for himself with a .936 OPS and a double-digit walk rate. He strikes out nearly 1/3 of the time, but if he can access in the big leagues the power that’s seen him hit 17 home runs in 55 AAA games this year, he could be a very valuable player indeed. Despite having well-graded speed, he’s never stolen as many as 20 bases in a single season.

Ideally, I think the Royals would want to focus on guys who were still true prospects rather than graduated and nearly-graduated guys. They might also prefer someone for whom baseball was more of a priority than Shaw has shown it to be for him. But these are still a pair of very talented hitters and would probably be a huge boost to the youth and talent of the Royals organization. How would you grade this trade if the Royals and Cubs agreed to it?