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Yu Darvish is gone and many predict the next player the Chicago Cubs will trade is catcher Willson Contreras, even though president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer denied a report that the Cubs were extensively shopping Contreras, calling it “fiction.”
“I think he’s one of the top handful of catchers in baseball,” Hoyer said during a video call following the Darvish trade. “We control him for two more years. I think that catching is a strength of this team as a result of having him on the roster.”
Despite the strong denial, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers tweeted that the Cubs have indeed talked with teams about Contreras:
Hoyer says a ‘report’ from yesterday that Willson Contreras is being shopped is ‘fictional’
Could be splitting hairs/words because the Cubs have talked with teams about him a lot, not just now but in the recent past. But nothing is imminent.
– Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) December 30, 2020
In trading Darvish, the Cubs clearly sent the message that 2021 is a reload, restart or retool, depending on your preferred description. While Hoyer indicated the Cubs aren’t going to go down the same road they did back in 2011