Cubs Rumors: So let’s talk about these Nolan Arenado trade rumors

A second report has connected the Chicago Cubs to Colorado Rockies superstar Nolan Arenado. Could the team be ready to flip the script on a woeful offseason?

So far, this has been one of – if not the – most underwhelming offseasons in recent memory for Cubs fans. The team is yet to make a single major league free agent signing – with just over a month until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.

It’s not like it’s justifiable, either. Chicago won 84 games in 2019, finishing third in a National League Central that could be even more competitive this year with Cincinnati locked and loaded in pursuit of their first division crown since 2012. Right now, the Cubs seem poised to roll the dice with the same squad and hope for better results.

But that could change in short order as the team has done their ‘due diligence’ on Colorado standout Nolan Arenado. Now, I know what you’re thinking – what about Kris Bryant? As things currently stand, Bryant is penciled in as the team’s starting third baseman. That may be true, but there’s been no shortage of rumors surrounding the former Rookie of the Year and NL MVP this winter – and that remains the case.

For now, the team (and all of us) are awaiting a ruling on Bryant’s long-standing grievance over supposed playing time manipulation back in 2015. Expected this week, it could finally give Theo Epstein some answers as he attempts to make some late moves in hopes of getting the Cubs back to the postseason in 2020.

Chicago Cubs: Contreras and a contract headed to the Rockies?

So here’s the latest. Jeff Passan is reporting the Cubs have at least kicked the tires on Arenado – and here’s how such a deal might go down.

The Cubs would make sense if they move Bryant. They are not primed for some sort of a rebuild as much as a refresh or reboot — an always-difficult needle to thread, particularly if they hope to dip under the luxury-tax threshold. One source characterized the Cubs as doing due diligence, as they’ve done throughout the winter with myriad trade conversations, but the notion of trading catcher Willson Contreras and a higher-priced, underperforming player in an Arenado deal, then flipping Bryant to revitalize a mediocre farm system, squares in the short and long term.

So for this to work (and let’s assume Contreras is the big piece going the other way in this deal) – you almost have to assume Jason Heyward is the ‘higher-priced, underperforming’ player noted by Passan. The five-time Gold Glover has four years and $86 million left on his deal and, by and large, he hasn’t lived up to the hype.

The Cubs have the pieces to fill the void in right field. In theory, at least, you could make this deal, flip Bryant for prospects (thus, saving another nearly $20 million in payroll) – then go out and bring back Nicholas Castellanos. Here. For. That.

This is one of those scenarios that could work – not just this season, either, but making the Cubs a better team for the foreseeable future and hopefully helping extend the team’s competitive window that stands to slam shut in the next couple years.