Chicago Cubs: Who to trade, Kris Bryant or Willson Contreras?
By Ben Fadden
The Chicago Cubs might want to go in another direction this offseason, and Willson Contreras or Kris Bryant could be on the move so which is more likely to happen?
The Chicago Cubs have a lot fo talented players on their roster, and a large number of them were on their World Series championship team in 2016, so the front office is aware of the potential they have to go on another run, but they also have to be realistic.
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras is going to be in trade talks this offseason, as the Cubs do have a little bit of depth at the position with Victor Caratini currently as Contreras’ backup.
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A positive for Contreras is he had a career year last season, setting career highs in home runs, slugging percentage, and OPS. But he isn’t projected to repeat the year he had in 2019 in 2020.
Kris Bryant is a free agent in two seasons and to make matters worse he has already rejected a $200 million contract extension offer earlier in his career so all signs point for him to go out and see what his market is like in the free-agent market, which makes the Cubs further inclined to trade him for young talent.
Another factor is Kris Bryant is just a very talented player, who has won an MVP already with a Rookie of the Year award in his house as well, so teams are going to want that talent even if it is for two seasons.
I think the trade market will be a lot better for Kris Bryant in terms of the value the Cubs would get back just because they have more leverage with Bryant than they do with Contreras.
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Bryant can play multiple positions and he is seen as a much better hitter than the Cubs catcher so unless a team doesn’t want to pay for Yasmani Grandal and can’t find another catcher, I just don’t see Contreras being traded.