In an offseason when the Cubs front office has to get creative, you expect them to consider everything. Heck, you’d expect them to consider everything anyway.
So, the fact that the Cubs would be open to trade proposals for almost any of their players – as Buster Olney now reports, via sources – is not really a surprise. And that’s true even if you say that one of those players, as Olney does, is Kris Bryant.
That’s where I’d leave things, personally, because Bryant is a generational talent with three years of team control during a competitive window. Those guys don’t get traded, and that’s especially true when their team is looking to add offense, and when the player is coming off of a down season that was impacted by a shoulder injury. You aren’t going to get crazy over-the-top value for Bryant even if you considered trading him right now. So why would the Cubs really consider it?
According to Olney, the Cubs could save some money, re-stock their farm system/young talent, and replace Bryant with David Bote at third base. I think Olney is a perfectly fine reporter, but if that’s him speaking as an analyst and dot-connector … I … think he’s a perfectly fine reporter.
Read Olney’s piece if you like, but mostly I wanted to get out in front of this thing before people freaked when they saw that article’s headline.
Yes, the Cubs would consider anything, and if they were ABSURDLY blown away by an offer for ANY player, well, then obviously they would pull the lever. But that offer isn’t going to come for Kris Bryant right now, and the Cubs have absolutely no real incentive to trade Bryant at this stage in his career and their stage in the competitive window. I don’t see anything here.