Chicago Cubs: Which Cubs are most likely to be traded?

It’s that time of year again. The Chicago Cubs–and every other team in the league–will be rumored, speculated about and more on what they’ll do this offseason.

It’s been a week since the conclusion of the regular season, and the young offseason has already provoked at least one apparently baseless rumor for Cubs’ fans to pick apart. It’s hard to blame fans for speculating on rumors. Even the early offseason can be boring at times for the baseball world. However, this week MLB general managers are meeting, and fans may start to learn what their front offices want in the offseason.

Moving major league talent is the path forward to improving the Cubs. Theo Epstein said as much just a day after the Cubs were eliminated from the NLCS.

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The Cubs currently have a surplus of position players, but a deficit of pitching. Because of this, the Cubs are bound to move at least one of their young position players for pitching. That was Epstein’s plan since joining the Cubs’ front office: draft and develop bats, then trade for pitching.

Speculation on who the Cubs may target has already begun. Less talk has been dedicated to whom the Cubs will have to move to acquire those targets.

Many Cubs have perpetually been in the trade rumor mill. Kyle Schwarber has looked like trade-bait since his 2016 injury. Ian Happ’s breakout rookie year may attract the interest of other teams. Javier Baez and Addison Russell could also be on the table for the right price.

Of the Cubs’ major league roster, more players could be available than players who aren’t. Let’s see which Cubs are most likely to find themselves in a new uniform in 2018.