MESA, Ariz. — This time the trade rumors hit harder.
“It might hurt,” Cubs All-Star catcher Willson Contreras said Monday, between unofficial workouts the day before pitchers and catcher officially report. “But it’s part of the business.”
It’s been a conspicuous part of the Cubs’ business since an 84-win season ended in 2019 without a playoff berth for the first time in five years — even if they have yet to trade Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Contreras or anyone else linked to various rumors over the winter.
Team president Theo Epstein said the day after the season ended that big changes were coming throughout the organization, including an openness to consider trading core players.
“Now that you’re here,” Contreras said of arriving in Arizona, “I feel more secure to my team. I feel like now I’m going to be starting the season with my team, even though if I get traded — who knows? But I don’t have my mind on trade rumors. I have my mind on my pitchers, into my team and I want to make them better.”
Contreras on rumors and making it to camp without getting traded. pic.twitter.com/5h8GzoYNF7
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) February 10, 2020
That doesn’t mean a trade from the Cubs’ core can’t still happen. Bryant talks have picked up since he lost his grievance over service-time manipulation last month.
It seems less likely than something happening at the trade deadline or next winter. But the trade questions swirling around Bryant — and others the Cubs have fielded calls on — won’t go away just because spring training camps have opened across Florida and Arizona.
But Contreras — whose name popped up almost as soon as Epstein said publicly the Cubs were open-minded about the core — won’t let it be a distraction. It certainly will remain a question dogging players in camp until or unless this team with budget concerns pulls off a deal.
Contreras caused a social media stir in November when he changed his Twitter profile picture to one of him in his All-Star uniform — coinciding with the first round of rumors. A few days later as his name became more prominent in speculation, he tweeted, simply, a smiley-face emoji. “It didn’t mean anything,” he said.
“This past winter the trade rumors were more consistent than the year before, and I was aware of it,” Contreras said. “I was trying to not pay attention to it, but it was impossible. Every time I was on social media, a new article was coming out about me being traded. Now that I’m here I feel blessed once again. I’m happy to be here. I love this organization and my teammates.
“I’m really excited to have another great 2020 season with all my team.”
Unlike Bryant, Contreras’ inclusion in trade talks is more about sheer value and potential return than the added value of shedding a big contract or a belief that a contract extension can’t eventually negotiated.
Contreras has three more seasons of club control, one more than Bryant. And while he hasn’t been approached this winter about an extension, he said Monday he’s “always going to be open about talking to the Cubs about an extension.”
“My agent and I talk a lot about it,” he said. “We just have to wait for the right time to talk about it.”
When might that be? “Maybe after the season. Who knows?” he said. “It might be midseason. …”
For now, the National League’s All-Star starting catcher the last two seasons has two things on his mind: avoiding the kind of hamstring injuries that have sidelined him for lengthy stretches the last two years and getting back to the playoffs.
Not that the Cubs have improved the roster, at least on paper, since last season.
“We still can get to the playoffs, for sure,” Contreras said. “We know what we didn’t add two huge, or three huge, names to the bullpen. That doesn’t mean that we cannot get to the playoffs; that doesn’t mean that we cannot win the division.”
Barring any sudden subtractions from the roster.
“I’ve been here for 11 years now,” said the Cubs’ most tenured player (signed at age 17 in 2009). “I feel blessed to be here. And even if I get traded I will always love the Cubs.”
