Cubs: Would you trade Willson Contreras for Joey Bart?

When the MLB lockout finally ends (although there’s no end in sight yet), one of the most pressing priorities for the Chicago Cubs will be deciding what to do with catcher Willson Contreras, who is heading into his final year of team control in 2022.

We know that letting Contreras play out the season under lame duck status isn’t the most intelligent option for Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins. If you’re unable to hammer out an extension (one that, I might add, the Cubs are going to have to overpay on to get it done), your best bet for the long-term future of the organization is trading the two-time All-Star now and maximizing the return.

With that in mind, Jim Bowden at The Athletic (subscription required) took up reader submissions for trades they’d like to see teams around the league make. When it comes to the Cubs, he weighed in on a deal that would send Contreras to San Francisco in exchange for catching prospect Joey Bart and left-hander Seth Corry – and also give the Giants a four-day window to extend Contreras as part of the trade).

For his part, Bowden doesn’t like the deal for Chicago – questioning Bart’s ability to hit at the big league level and suggesting Hoyer could get a better prospect in a Contreras trade – and also emphasizes he’d rather see the Cubs extend the 29-year-old backstop than send him packing.

Don’t forget. At the July trade deadline, there was a misinformed report that suggested Bart was coming to Chicago as part of the Kris Bryant trade. Now, whether or not that’s true is anybody’s guess, but it makes sense that in a Contreras trade (or another offseason move that’s tied to such a deal), you get a young, controllable catcher in return.

Note: In the team’s reported talks with the Padres about taking on Eric Hosmer’s contract were predicated upon the idea they’d get catching prospect Luis Campusano in return, as well.

Chicago Cubs: By Opening Day, a Willson Contreras trade or extension is a must

The Cubs’ depth behind the dish is suspect, at best. Yan Gomes helped – but only if he’s slotted in alongside Contreras on the depth chart. Top catching prospect Miguel Amaya will miss the 2022 season recovering from Tommy John surgery – and there’s not much else in terms of quality in the upper levels of the system.

Bart, despite being the Giants’ number two prospect according to MLB Pipeline, hasn’t found his stride at the plate in a very small sample size with the team, evidenced by a .612 OPS, 36.8 percent strikeout rate and 2.6 percent walk rate in 117 plate appearances. Meanwhile, Corry is still raw on the mound, struggles with consistency and is still a couple years away from the bigs.

We’ll see how Hoyer approaches a Contreras trade at some point – and no matter what, it’s hard to envision most fans being happy. Let us know what you think of this proposal in the comments.