Jed Hoyer, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations, told reporters in front of his crowded outfield on Tuesday, “We’re not done yet.” And he wasn’t kidding.

TRADE DETAILS
Yankees receive: OF/1B Cody Bellinger, $5 million
Young animals received: RHP Cody Poteet

In addition to increasing pitching depth with Poteet, a 30-year-old who has a 3.80 ERA in 83 major league innings for the Marlins and Yankee since 2021, the Cubs have already acquired Bellinger It has long been rumored that some surplus items from their depth chart will be available in trade. The Cubs already had Ian Happ in left field, Pete Crow-Armstrong in center and Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki in right field before Tucker arrived last week. Designated hitter provides some flexibility, but only to a point.

So Bellinger was transferred to New York with at least one year and $30 million remaining on his contract. He exercised his $27.5 million player option in November to remain with the Cubs and has another $25 million player option for 2026 with a $5 million buyout.

Bellinger, 29, revived his career with the Cubs in 2023 when he hit .307/.356/.525 with 26 home runs, 97 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. He re-signed with Chicago but didn’t deliver the same season in 2024 as his OPS dropped to .751, 130 points lower than the previous year. Meanwhile, the Cubs went 83-79 under new manager Craig Counsell.

So Hoyer went into the offseason looking for star power and found it in a trade for Tucker — who has four straight seasons of four-plus wins before his replacement with the Astros — even if that deal resulted in Chicago having too many outfielder had.

“There are a limited number of ways we can really improve as a team, especially on the position player side,” Hoyer said of the addition of Tucker. “Because to get a player who is better than our internal replacement level, you have to go pretty high. We have a lot of good players. We’re very balanced, so we just didn’t have that many players available that we thought, ‘Okay, this player definitely makes us a better team.’ ‘He offers something we don’t have.’ And of course Tucker provides that. “

Poteet, Miami’s fourth-round pick in 2015, has experience as both a starter and reliever in the majors, but in the minors he served primarily as a starting pitcher, posting a modest 3.76 ERA over parts of nine seasons 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

He was sidelined for most of last season with a triceps injury and went 3-0 with a 3.40 ERA in 13 starts between Double-A and Triple-A in the minors and a 2.22 ERA in five games (four starts) to 3-0) in the majors for New York.