Chicago Cubs should trade Kris Bryant – are you kidding me?

For the record, I don’t support the notion we’re about to discuss. Fans who think the Chicago Cubs should listen for trade offers on Kris Bryant must be crazy.

Friday marked the one-year anniversary of former top prospect and Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant winning the National League MVP Award. As if winning the World Series wasn’t enough, the former Rookie of the Year received all kinds of accolades for his work in 2016.

Great. Memorable. We’ll never forget. Well, some of us won’t.

The Cubs’ social media platforms posted a hype video of Bryant’s MVP season Friday commemorating the one-year anniversary.

Kris Bryant named NL MVP

One year ago, Kris Bryant was named the National League MVP!

Posted by Chicago Cubs on Friday, November 17, 2017

I commented on the Facebook post, like a normal crazy Cubs fan, naturally.

"“Never take this guy for granted. He’s everything you want in a franchise player on and off the field. He had what many call a ‘down year’ this season and still got a first place MVP vote. And it wasn’t even from the Chicago media.”"

We all know by now that Giancarlo Stanton won this year’s NL MVP award. Although the vote was historically close, no one was really surprised by the news. After all, he narrowly missed joining the 60-homer club, smacking 59 on the year.

A first-place MVP vote for KB

Bryant and teammate Anthony Rizzo finished in the top 20 in voting. The former came in seventh, with the always-dependable Rizzo finishing 13th. However, Bryant received a first-place vote, which is a bit surprising. MLB.com Atlanta Braves reporter Mark Bowman offered his explanation after the fact here.

"Though I don’t believe the MVP must come from a playoff contender, in an attempt to differentiate the value provided by each of these three players, I chose to reward the impact made by Bryant, who produced the NL’s fourth-best OPS (.968) after the All-Star break, when the Cubs distanced themselves from a sub-.500 record and produced an NL-best 49 wins."

Anyway, back to my Friday. I thought my comment was fair and true. Plenty of teams wish they had a player of Bryant’s caliber – not only to help the team, but for marketing purposes, as well.

I received a handful of responses to that comment. It’s clear that Bryant and Rizzo are the most popular players on the Cubs, thanks to Bryzzo Souvenir Company commercials and their work both on and off the field.

However, I did not expect to see negative comments about Bryant, which included trading him. It was pretty shocking, to say the least. And I’ll leave it at that because, if you didn’t know, the Internet can be like a no-holds-barred WWF wrestling match in 1998 sometimes.

Another stupid opinion on the Internet – shocking

Fans all have different opinions, but trade Bryant? He’s a guy who remains under contract through 2021. He’s a guy who’s as versatile as they come defensively with the ability to play third base and all three outfield positions. Bryant just helped make the greatest historic sports story happen just over a year ago. He’s a guy who, in a ‘down year,’ had better numbers at the plate than in 2016 in some aspects.

Bryant’s .946 OPS, .295 batting average, .409 on-base percentage, 95 walks and 38 doubles were all career-highs in 2017. He also only saw 128 strikeouts, which was a career low.

No doubt, it would be interesting to see what the Cubs could get back for Bryant right now. He’s a a young, controllable position player with a ton of playoff experience and a World Series under his belt already. Not to mention he’s an annual MVP frontrunner.

Off the top of my head, I’m thinking the Cubs could get four-to-six players from some team but none of them would make up for his production right away.

Next: Schwarber closer to providing significant value than you think

I understand the Cubs need to make moves to get better in 2017, but there is a reason Tom Ricketts lets Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer make the moves. Who knows where professional sports franchises would be if fans were running the team.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is this: enjoy this window, Cubs fans. Players like Kris Bryant don’t come around every day. Try to understand that.