Lakeland, Fla. – He was in an apartment in South Bend, Indiana, playing cards with teammates, when the call came last July.
Isaac Paredes, who thought he someday might lace liners into Wrigley Field’s ivy, no longer was Chicago Cubs property.
He was headed to the Tigers.
“It was something I definitely didn’t expect,” Paredes said last week, by way of an assist from Bryan Loor-Almonte, the Tigers’ media relations staffer who deftly translates Spanish and English for players and media. “I didn’t know much about the Tigers. It was so unexpected.”
For an 18-year-old shortstop, trades qualify as shock.