Cubs: Try not to read too much into Willson Contreras’ latest comments

As soon as Tuesday’s festivities in Los Angeles wrap up, the attention of the baseball world will immediately shift to the looming Aug. 2 trade deadline, which is shaping up to be another significant sell-off for the Chicago Cubs, who ended the first half by losing nine of their final 10 games.

The biggest name likely to be on the move? Three-time All-Star backstop Willson Contreras, who will start behind the plate for the National League in the Midsummer Classic and hit back-to-back with his younger brother, William, who earned the first All-Star selection of his career this year.

But when asked about this potentially being his final All-Star Game in a Cubs uniform, the elder Contreras had an interesting response that has me desperately clinging to a fool’s hope that somehow, even if Chicago winds up trading him in the next two weeks, he ends up back with the team in free agency.

“But to be honest I don’t feel like this is gonna be my last [All-Star Game] with a Cubs uniform,” Contreras told reporters, including Marquee Network, this week. “I don’t know why. I haven’t had talks with the team, I haven’t had anything, but it’s just a feeling that I have that this is not gonna be my last one with the Cubs. It’s something that I’ve been feeling throughout the year.”

As Contreras himself alluded to – there aren’t any sort of talks taking place between his camp and the front office. He’s clearly come to peace with what’s about to happen. But the fact that he’s simultaneously leaving the door open on a return to the Cubs… man, it gives me just the smallest bit of hope that maybe Jed Hoyer will do right by Contreras and bring him back after pillaging another team’s farm system ahead of the deadline.

Can the Cubs bring back Willson Contreras in free agency this winter?

“It’s more where am I gonna be happy,” Contreras said. “Where I’m gonna be, where my family’s gonna be happy. I know that we all want to win, and I want to win. I love to win, but I also wanna be somewhere that I feel happy about it, that I know that the fans are gonna have my back and everything.”

We all know Contreras values winning – highly. This is a guy who can’t stand to lose and has had to endure far too many lengthy losing streaks in the last 12 months. But he also touched on the human element of choosing a team during his All-Star Week presser, and as frustrated as the fanbase is right now, there’s no doubt that we, on the whole, love our guys deeply.

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At the end of the day, I think money talks – and Contreras, hitting free agency for the very first time and getting wined and dined by other teams looking to improve behind the plate in a big way, is going to get a lot of exposure to different organizations and cultures this winter. Hopefully, the Cubs do right by him and make him the building block for the future. I don’t have a lot of hope, but I’m desperately latching onto his remarks and hoping for a miracle.