The news of Dansby Swanson signing with the Chicago Cubs was not all that surprising. They were in on all four of the big four free agent shortstops this year (Swanson with Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, and Carlos Correa).
Obviously, Swanson was the fourth choice out of four but they got one of them which was important to them and their plans. They are clearly still a bad team and have a long way to go in order to become good again but this was a solid move.
It does guarantee that Nico Hoerner will move over to second base as Swanson is one of the best defensive shortstops in all of baseball. He proved that during his time with the Atlanta Braves. Now, he hopes to bring that to the Cubs with Hoerner moving to second.
These two are going to form one of the best defensive middle-infields in the league which should be pretty fun to watch. However, this leaves Nick Madrigal out of the equation.
Nick Madrigal just isn't working out on the north side of Chicago.
He isn't enough of a power hitter to be a designated hitter very often and he isn't as good defensively as any of their projected starters. Going into 2023, he looks like a bench piece which is a far cry from what anyone thought for a long time.
Maybe the Chicago White Sox didn't make as much of a mistake as people thought when they traded him to the Chicago Cubs for Craig Kimbrel. It was certainly a bad trade but it was the right move at the time of the deal. Tony La Russa didn't use him right and he was just simply bad on top of it.
The only way that the Cubs can call this a "fleecing", however, is if Codi Heuer becomes a top flight reliever which is certainly possible. He was the second piece included in the trade from the south side to the north side.
As of right now, however, it looks like the White Sox might have dodged a Madrigal problem. The Cubs already don't want him. As long as the White Sox start someone better than him, this may not end up being that big of a deal. It is more of a problem when you think about them wasting that fourth overall pick on him.
We will see what the Cubs end up doing with him. The White Sox would gladly take him back but they wouldn't be as high on him as they were when they sent him away. It is officially time to move on from thinking about him entirely and the Swanson signing proves that.