Yesterday’s Phil Rogers rumor about the Cubs and Giants possibly getting together on a bad contract swap involving Jason Heyward, Jeff Samardzija, and Mark Melancon was one of those deals that was really interesting (and useful, in my view) rumors to discuss, but the logistics of which made it nearly impossible to see it actually coming together.
And, so it is that the rumor had a very short shelf life.
From out west:
Giants people seem as baffled by Heyward/Cubs rumor as the rest of us. Zero chance of that deal. Welcome to the offseason.
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) November 8, 2017
Sure, there could always be gamesmanship and obscuring and all that good stuff going on, but this time around, I’m inclined to believe that there’s just not much here. If nothing else, it was extremely difficult to see why Heyward would approve a trade out of Chicago at this time, and the Cubs were *never* going to push for that kind of deal unless they knew he’d be open to it (otherwise, you create friction where it isn’t needed.
So, for today, you can consider that rumor more of a fantasy concoction than something actually being discussed behind the scenes. The player fit made some sense, but you know it takes a whole lot more than that to actually put a deal together.
As Pavlovic said … WELCOME TO THE OFFSEASON.