Interesting thoughts from Jesse Rogers this morning on ESPN1000 saying he thinks Bryant will be traded and that Theo will leave after 2021 when his contract runs out and that Jed will take over. Nothing new here of course and Jesse stated these are his opinions.
ATL seems to be a good trade partner for Bryant and a market does seem to be emerging for whichever teams don't get Rendon and Donaldson. Let's hope if this does happen we get at least 3 high end, close to MLB ready prospects plus at least 1 other legit prospect. ATL seems to have a 3rd basemen close to MLB ready who they could plug in immediately in addition to a highly regarded switch hitting CF prospect and they have highly regarded pitching too. A 4 or 5 for 1 deal is what makes sense to unload Bryant plus that frees up his 18M anticipated salary for this season which can allocated to fill other holes of course.
And then maybe extend both Contreras and Baez??
As to Theo leaving, whatever. He delivered 2016 so hats off but he is not some baseball god like he was portrayed to be and he throws money around like a drunken sailor and has not built an organization that is producing young talent consistently. However promoting Barney Fife, a.k.a. Jed, is not something I favor. I just don 't see him as a legit top dog.
https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/201 ... llar-more/Thus, at The Athletic, Atlanta writer David O’Brien says “a trade for Kris Bryant is one possibility” to replace Donaldson’s production at the plate/on the field, and he’s not even the latest to bring it up. In supporting piece, MLB.com echoes the Braves interest in adding a third baseman, while conceding that Anthony Rendon is out of their price range and Josh Donaldson may end up too pricey, as well. They go further, however, suggesting that the Cubs would be open to dealing Bryant and even beginning to discuss a potential return: “The Cubs might be interested in third baseman Austin Riley as a replacement for Bryant, or Drew Waters (MLB Pipeline’s No. 23 overall prospect) as someone who can fill the club’s void in center field. The Braves also have a number of highly-touted pitching prospects, including Ian Anderson (No. 31 overall) and Kyle Wright (No. 35 overall).”
Likelihood aside, each of those prospects are very interesting. I’m a particularly big fan of Waters’ fit into the Cubs short-term plans, as a switch-hitting center fielder with speed, who’s already reached Triple-A, and Riley’s obviously got big-bat potential and is projected to stick at third base (where he could replace Bryant immediately). And, of course, the Cubs would be thrilled to get any top-30ish pitching prospects into this system, especially ones who are big-league ready, so both Anderson and Wright catch my eye. Put differently, I really like how the Braves match up with the Cubs as trade partners. If he’s going to go, they have as good of a system as any to pick from, as Brett highlighted yesterday when discussing the Braves fit relative to the Rangers fit.
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