Chicago Cubs: Let’s all just pump the brakes on trading Kris Bryant

Chicago Cubs: Buckle up – it’s going to be a rumor-filled offseason

MLB insider Jon Morosi chatted with 670 AM WSCR earlier in the week and set Twitter ablaze, opining the Cubs would talk to the Texas Rangers this offseason about either Bryant or backstop Willson Contreras.

“I would say Texas’ farm system is solid, not great, but it’s good enough. They got some young pitching there, which is what the Cubs need. … I think that’s a really really good potential fit there. I think better on (Willson) Contreras than Bryant, but either one makes some sense.”

That, coupled with Epstein’s very general, completely reasonable comments in his end-of-season presser seems to have been too much for a lot of Cubs fans out there. My mother-in-law, who is a casual fan, texted me wondering if the team would really break up Bryzzo – and how life could possibly continue if such a travesty were allowed to take place. Because from what she’d heard, this was a done deal.

Of course, Cubs fans are now notorious for their ‘what have you done for me lately’ mentality. So you have a portion of the camp with my mother-in-law, ready to dress in black for weeks in mourning of losing KB – then you have the opposing camp who believe (for whatever half-cooked reason) that he’s overrated and soft because of the fact he rolled his ankle and missed the season’s final stretch as the Cubs faded into oblivion.

Chicago Cubs: Win now – and keep building for the future

Never mind the fact Bryant put up some pretty impressive numbers yet again in 2019. He cut his strikeout rate from the year prior, while improving his walk rate. After battling through a power-sapping shoulder injury, the former MVP and Rookie of the Year jumped back into the picture with a .239 ISO – a mark well above league average.

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He got on base at a .382 clip – a mark that trailed only perennial on-base machine Anthony Rizzo among Cubs teammates. All this comes together in a 135 wRC+, which is his highest mark since 2017. In short, Bryant was, once again, a very, very good player.

Would trading someone like Kris Bryant help replenish a farm system that Baseball America ranked as the second-worst in all of baseball at the trade deadline? Of course. He’s one of the best players in the game – period.

But with just two years left in the Cubs’ current championship window (barring Epstein managing to extend it during that time) – losing someone like Bryant in the middle of the Cubs order would make competing a much taller task.

“I look at them (Bryant and Baez) both the same,” Epstein said. “They’re fantastic players. I don’t think it’s mutually exclusive. I think they’re both hugely important and it would be hard to see them out of a Cubs uniform. But we’re at a transition point and we have to do whatever is best for the Cubs. I hope it includes both those guys.”

I’m not saying Chicago won’t have trade discussions regarding virtually every player of this roster in the coming weeks and months. In fact, I believe the team may very well move on from their two-time All-Star catcher in Contreras. But it’ll be a fine balance in retooling for the future and putting together a 25-man mix of guys ready to compete for a World Series title again in 2020.