As the great Al Pacino once famously said in the infamous Godfather III movie, “just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back!”
This phrase can be used to look like trade talks that took place between the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs during the off-season regarding the third baseman. Kris Bryant.
As Andy Martino of SNY initially reported last month, talks between the Mets and Cubs initially whispered. And like Mike Puma of The New York Post noted, this was due to Chicago’s asking price of Mets’ no. Francisco Alvarez, which was pinned down by the organization as inviolable.
On Wednesday, Martino reports that the Mets and Cubs have resumed trade talks around Bryant. Start pitcher Kyle Hendricks‘name was also floated around in the package scenarios, given the needs of the Mets in their rotation, but this has not been officially confirmed.
Tell a source Metsmerized, the Cubs were very close to Bryant’s non-offer this season before deciding to keep him and listen to trade proposals from other teams. But as SNY’s Jim Duquette reports, the Cubs are more likely to hold on to Bryant until the July deadline, unless they are knocked out by an offer.
Bryant will earn $ 19.5 million this season and could be an expensive hire for a candidate in need of offensive assistance. For now, it looks like the Mets will go along JD Davis third, but if this plan fails, we may see Bryant in Queens coming mid-summer via trade.
The 29-year-old is coming off a disappointingly shortened season, where he hit four home games with 11 RBI while beating 0.206 / .293 / .. 351. For his career, Bryant won the MVP and Rookie of the Year award, while making three All Star appearances and helping the Cubs in their 108 years of drought in the World Series in 2016.
