It's pretty ridiculous that we even have to talk about this.
Fox Sports' Jon Morosi reported on Tuesday that the Nationals have "inquired" about Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant. This is the third or fourth time this offseason that Bryant's name has been attached to trade rumors, and it's just silly.
Kris Bryant, when right, is one of the best players in baseball. He's coming off a 4.8 fWAR season and it wasn't too long ago that the star third baseman won the NL MVP award and was a key cog in ending the curse of the Billy Goat in 2016.
There's some question as to what happens with his service time: Should Bryant's grievance be resolved in his favor, he could be a free agent after the 2020 season as opposed to 2021, as he dealt with that nasty service time manipulation in his rookie season. Surely, this will impact the package that the Cubs will want if they're just desperate to get rid of a talent like Bryant.
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His 2018 season was a lost one as he dealt with back injuries throughout the season, and 2019 was a year of ups and downs. But let's not forget how good of a player Bryant is, folks.
His first three seasons in the majors (2015-17): 94 home runs, .288/.388/.527, 141 OPS+, 19.6 bWAR/20.7 fWAR. Yeah, let's trade that guy.
It seems pretty dumb, considering the Cubs are a team still good enough to compete for a championship in a pretty weak NL, and new manager David Ross deserves an opportunity to play cards with a full deck in 2020.
Anyway, if the Cubs are determined to do something stupid, here are teams that should be eager to get Kris Bryant in their uniforms.
Nationals
Yes, the rumored team involved does make sense as a landing spot, but the question is what Washington would be willing to give up. Would top prospect Carter Kieboom be on the table? Or maybe Trea Turner, if Washington truly believes in Kieboom as a shortstop option at the major league level?
Stephen Strasburg returning to Washington likely takes the defending World Series champs out of the Anthony Rendon market, though that door is still open for now. Rendon had a better year than Bryant did, but at the moment is probably looking at a big-time contract, likely in the neighborhood of $200 million. Bryant will get much more in free agency (presumably) if he has a big year in 2020. But for now, he'd only cost prospects, not money. The Nats are (somehow) crying poor, anyway. Coming off a World Series, too. Weird.
It would be pretty, pretty risky for the Cubs to want to trade Bryant to Washington, a team that Chicago could be competing against in a potential NLCS matchup, but such is baseball in 2019. If the Nats are out on Rendon, then trying to wrestle Bryant from Chicago would be a pretty healthy Plan B.
Rangers
The Rangers have top prospect Josh Jung waiting in the wings, but there are a few caveats to that: Jung has a major league ETA of 2021 per MLB pipeline, and and Texas is reportedly in the market for Josh Donaldson, which means the Rangers are probably dissatisfied with the way things have worked out at third since Adrian Beltre retired.
Texas, desperate for a winner and opening a new stadium in 2020, could look to bring Bryant in to solidify the position — at least for a year, maybe two — and build on a sneaky-good 2019 season in their new building.
There's also the Joey Gallo "question" — Gallo has played all around the diamond in his career, including all three outfield spots, first and third, after coming up as a third baseman. He seems to be exclusively an outfielder now, having played all of his innings in center and left field in 2019.
The advanced metrics show that Gallo is a tad bit better defensively in the outfield than the infield — but not by much — but his bat certainly profiles as a corner infielder. But with the versatility that both Gallo and Bryant have, it would be a nice fit for Texas.
Yankees
New York is dealing with a weird third-base situation right now; the Yanks have Miguel Andujar, who had a good rookie year in 2018, coming back from a labrum injury. There's some uncertainty, too: Was that rookie campaign smoke and mirrors, or is he a legit bat? The Yankees seem to believe that his "elite swing" plays at the major league level, but there's some question as to whether his offense will ever be good enough to outweigh his poor defense at third.
And then there's Gio Urshela, who had a miraculous season despite having never been tremendously productive in his major league career, playing flashy defense at third and coming alive with his bat. Urshela slashed .314/.355/.889 in 2019, far surprassing his .225/.274/.315 line in his years prior to the Yankees.
As New York's farm system stands, it has minimal options at the hot corner, so the team will likely stick with one of those two in-house options rather than empty the farm for Bryant. Maybe New York really wants to make a splash and potentially strike a contract extension for Bryant (he's going to want to hit free agency, so that's a longshot), so maybe he's on their radar. Or maybe Andujar's controllable contract and youth excites the Cubs — considering they want to move away from a potentially big contract on Bryant, it makes sense.
Braves
There's some question as to whether the Braves could put together a package good enough to bring Bryant to Hotlanta, but if Atlanta can't re-sign free agent Josh Donaldson to play third, why not swing a trade for Bryant?
Austin Riley seems destined to play a corner outfield spot before third base at the major league level, despite coming up as a third baseman. He played in just five games at third base in 2019 (38 innings total), with the majority of his defensive innings coming in left field.
So, as some of that was part of Donaldson playing third, maybe Riley gets a shot there every day in 2020. Or maybe the Braves try to trade Riley in a package for Bryant. It would take much more than just Riley, of course, but it would be a decent starting point.
Cubs
So, here's the thing: The Cubs are pretty dumb for wanting to trade Kris Bryant in the first place, as mentioned up at the top. Bryant is a top 15 position player in baseball when he's right, probably closer to top five, injuries and waning defense aside. (There's always time to get that defense part fixed up, anyway — he has a history of being a solid, league-average defender.)
So the Cubs need to smarten up and realize what they have here: the window is still wide, wide open in an NL Central that doesn't seem to be getting much better at the moment — a division where they're still the most talented squad. Why the rumors over Bryant and even Willson Contreras?
For whatever reason, the North Side couldn't put it together on the road last season, a detriment that has to be due for some positive regression in 2020. It's hard to see a world where the Cubs finish 15 games under .500 again on the road, one of baseball's weirder aberrations.
David Ross deserves to have Bryant manning the hot corner (or the outfield or wherever he wants to play him). Trading one of the best players on the team right now would be doing a disservice to him in his first year as manager, and they should realize this.
Not to mention, trading Bryant for players you hope are as good as Bryant is someday, when you're trying to win a World Series now, is a weird way of doing business. It's essentially throwing up your hands and saying, "We have no chance for October" … in December.
So, please, Cubs: Don't do this to your team or your fans. You're not as bad (or poor) as you're making yourselves seem — so cut it out.
