Even as the season approaches for the CUBS NEW LEADOFF HITTER, and a trade is just overwhelmingly unlikely right now for so many reasons, you’re still going to see stray rumors about Kris Bryant like the one out of San Diego this week.
For my part, I think reading about those rumors is still interesting for the information we can glean about the Cubs’ past interests, future thinking, etc. So, yes, I’m gonna track them when they pop up. But that doesn’t mean Bryant, who just wants to play baseball after an offseason of intense rumor scrutiny, should have to answer to the rumors every time they come up (and they probably will, in force, at midseason).
And the dude has a PERFECT response now to anything that comes up on the trade rumor circuit.
“It hasn’t been a distraction at all,” Bryant told Cubs.com about trade chatter. “I mean, Theo keeps asking for the moon for me, which is pretty cool, because I’m not going to get traded then. Keep doing that, Theo. ‘We want the team’s best player and their top two prospects.’ That’s all it’s going to take.”
It’s impressive how completely self-aware and chill Bryant is about a topic like this. And funny, too.
It’s also impressive how spot on his take is, in any case, because that was the Cubs’ approach to Bryant trade talks, clearly: pay an exorbitant price, or we’ll keep him. The question going forward is if that same level of aggressiveness would hold if the Cubs are floundering in July, but as Epstein has said, we’ll get there when we get there.
In the meantime, if you truly wanted to approach the Cubs about getting Kris Bryant right now, you should be prepared for the Cubs to ask an enormous price. And Bryant approves of that approach, because it means he can just comfortably focus on playing baseball.