REPORT: Cubs Looking To Trade Kris Bryant (Not Clickbait)

You know what, this one actually made me laugh. Nothing big has actually happened in the offseason in terms of players, but I'm tired of arguing over Tom Ricketts and money, or if the financial concerns are all a smoke screen. Anyway, according to ESPN's Buster Olney and his sources, the Cubs are open to trading Kris Bryant. HOWEVA!!!!!!!!!! You want to know the basis of that report? So, Theo Epstein was at the GM meetings this week and he was asked about untouchables on the team in terms of getting traded. Obviously you look at Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Willson Contreras as guys that are a guarantee to be with the Cubs. But Theo answered the question, saying the team doesn't operate with the mindset of untouchables. Yet, he added that it would be pretty impossible to see any scenario where trading one of those four players would makes sense. Via the Chicago Tribune.

“We’ve never operated with untouchables,” Epstein said. “I think it sends the wrong message. The guys who (would be), given what we’re trying to accomplish, (it) would be virtually impossible to envision a deal that would make sense to move them. But I just don’t believe in operating with untouchables because why limit yourself in any way? “There are guys who are so important to us on the field and in the clubhouse, it would be going backward through whatever lens, narrow view or long view, of moving most guys. There are players who have almost made themselves untouchable, but it’s semantics.”

So yeah, those guys are basically untouchables. Pretty clear in my estimation. But then Buster Olney wrote this.

Via ESPN.

But it's possible that the Cubs will trade him, perhaps as soon as this winter. As part of their early off-season discussions, sources say the Cubs have indicated to other teams they are willing to discuss trade proposals for almost all of the players on their roster, including Bryant

There's never a mention of Epstein's second quote that appeared in the Chicago Tribune, which basically says Bryant, along with a few other players are essentially untouchables. So, all this started from Theo saying the Cubs don't technically have any untouchables, although he admitted they kind of do, and Olney then took the biggest name on the team and said the Cubs could be trading him.

You know what, props to Buster. I need to improve my clickbait headline game. That's why he gets paid the big bucks.