With the Chicago Cubs facing a huge offseason in terms of hiring a new manager and player management, the topic of Kris Bryant becoming a potential trade piece has surfaced. While the team, which is locked into some nasty big-money contracts with no real end in sight, would surely be worse without Bryant starting every day at third base, would this ultimately become the better move for their long-term franchise goals?
Bryant, who has dealt with some injuries this season and in his career, has always been an offensive catalyst for the Cubbies. But with the emergence of some of the franchise’s minor-league studs, like David Bote and Nico Hoerner, the coverage of third base would be somewhat easy to deal with if Bryant was traded from this team.
The issue, though, is what can be considered true and fair value for Bryant and if there is any team that has those pieces and is willing to make the move to acquire him. One team, who is in the National League playoffs, fresh off of a divisional title and has two of its young core pieces locked down for a number of years at a cheap price, comes to mind – the Atlanta Braves.
After having won the competitive NL East divisional title this season, the Braves are marching into the playoffs with the second-best record in the NL, which is not a small feat with how competitive this league was down to the final day of the regular season. With their minor-league system having been a consistent feeder of awesome talent over the past few seasons, it provides the team with the needed ammo to even begin to entertain the idea of acquiring Bryant.
For any team that is looking to acquire Kris Bryant, the Cubs will want a huge return for him, especially with his two seasons remaining of arbitration eligibility. The 2016 NL MVP has had only one down season, so his consistency, as well as his ability to keep that level of consistency at such a high level, has got to be interesting to all teams, but also at a steep price.
With their five best prospects all falling with the top 63 in the entire MLB minor league player rankings, this team has probably the best firepower to go out and get Bryant. Their main competition would probably be their NL counterparts, the San Diego Padres, who have poured a ton of money into their free agent acquisitions over the past few seasons and could look to cash in on their farm system for another true veteran asset.
If looking into the specifics of any deal between the two teams, it does warrant a look at what the Cubs would be in need of.
Their outfield will have Jason Heyward manning a role in it for at least 2020 because his albatross of a contract truly holds this team down financially. Kyle Schwarber could become another trade target this offseason, and Nicholas Castellanos is a free agent, so playing time is open for a corner outfielder role for next season.
They also are in need of starting pitching, as Yu Darvish’s injury history decided to rear its ugly head this season, Cole Hamels is a free agent, Jon Lester has lost a step and Tyler Chatwood has become the league’s highest-paid long relief pitcher for no reason.
With those two needs, as well as bullpen and infield depth help needing to be addressed, Theo Epstein and company easily has a wish list to accomplish and cross off in any deal, and a deal for Bryant with the Braves could address a few of those key issues.
In return for Bryant, the Cubs would most likely ask for three of the Braves’ top five players, which is steep but not surprising. Epstein and Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos would need to agree on how much is too much and back it down from there, because if the price is too high, then the Braves could simply resign Josh Donaldson or go out and get Anthony Rendon from their divisional rivals, the Washington Nationals, in free agency.
But if they have their sights set on Bryant, a deal could take shape to resemble something like this:
Braves receive: 3B Kris Bryant
Cubs receive: OF Cristian Pache (#11-best prospect according to MLB.com), RHP Kyle Wright (#35), LHP Kyle Muller (unranked) and OF/UTL Austin Riley (MLB)
Pache and Wright would easily become the top two players in the Cubs system that was ranked dead last during the 2019 campaign. Holding true to their mantra of trading the vast majority of their prospects for players the past few seasons, both Pache and Wright would have great staying power for many seasons to come.
Muller is a solid left-hander who has pitched as high as the Double-A level and is not just a throw-in. Riley, who was pushing for the Rookie of the Year award last year, would immediately push for one of the corner outfielder starting spots in spring training this upcoming winter, and his bat makes him a player that they would need to start on a daily basis.
If Bryant were to be shipped out of town, not many teams can and would be willing to put the necessary trade package together to get him. For the Braves’ sake, the Cubs look to be reassessing their assets and would potentially be alright with shipping out one of their franchise cornerstones before he prices himself out of Wrigley.
A minor league return package of players is always hard to gauge, but on paper, that may be the best that the Cubs can get at this time. Always looking for the best deal to efficiently contend every season, the Cubbies could have a very different look and vibe to them in Bryant were to be shipped out this winter.
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