Left-hander Travis Wood has been with the Cubs for just over 18 months after being acquired in a rare intra-division trade that saw the Reds send Wood, Dave Sappelt and Ronald Torreyes to Chicago in exchange for setup ace Sean Marshall. However, as Wood explained to Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com, he'd like to be wearing a Cubs uniform significantly longer. Wood told Hayes that he hopes to be considered a core component and receive an extension similar to the ones signed by Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro in the past year:
“Theo and Jed and them are moving in the right direction,” Wood said. “We’ve got a great group of guys there, and everybody plays hard and as of late we’ve played solid ball. … I’d love to be a part of the core group and stay around Chicago for a while, but that’s out of my hands.”
The 26-year-old Wood has enjoyed a breakout campaign with the Cubs thus far in 2013, pitching to a 2.79 ERA with 6.3 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and a 33.7 percent ground-ball rate. Advanced metrics like FIP (3.59), xFIP (4.40) and SIERA (4.45) all suggest that Wood's ERA should be higher than its current mark. He will be arbitration-eligible for the first time following this season and is under team control through the 2016 season.
Wood's former teammate Joey Votto offered high praise for Wood within Hayes' piece, stating that he always thought highly of the left-hander and that he feels it's unfortunate Wood didn't enjoy this level of success in Cincinnati.
