Blue Jays: Rebuilding Cubs have several worthy trade targets

It sounds like the Cubs have already moved on to the next trade

After the Cubs surprised the baseball world by dealing Darvish to the Padres, it didn’t take long for the next rumours to pop up. According to mlbtraderumors.com, the Cubs are “extensively shopping” their All-Star catcher Willson Contreras.

Contreras continues to be one of the best two-way catchers in baseball, and it’s a bit surprising to hear that the Cubs are aggressively looking to deal him. That said, now would be the time to maximize their trade return for the signal caller, as he’ll be a free agent after the 2022 campaign, and the Cubs can sell him as a multi-year option. Could the Blue Jays be one of the teams that come knocking?

Personally, I don’t really see there being a fit here, even if they’ve shown interest in J.T. Realmuto over the winter. Realmuto is a free agent and would cost them nothing but money (and a compensation pick), where they’d have to give up a fair bit of prospect capital to acquire Contreras. The Blue Jays also have plenty of talented catching depth, so much so that they’ll likely have to make a trade this winter regardless. I can understand the interest in upgrading to Realmuto, and then using Danny Jansen and/or Alejandro Kirk as trade chips to improve the pitching staff, but it’s not as clean if they’re pursuing Contreras, even if they sent a catcher back in the swap.

Still, the Blue Jays are mentioned as a possible suitor according to MLBTR, and based on the way that they’ve seemingly checked in on every available player winter, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. That said, this is my least favourite idea so far, and the one I believe to be the least likely as well.