For the Chicago Cubs’ Kris Bryant and Craig Kimbrel, it’s hard to escape the shadow of the trade deadline even at the All-Star Game
Kris Bryant #KrisBryant
The image felt fitting given what likely awaits in the next 2½ weeks: Kris Bryant and Craig Kimbrel, in their Chicago Cubs home pinstripe uniforms, sat adjacent Monday afternoon inside Coors Field as part of All-Star festivities.
Bryant and Kimbrel project as the most likely Cubs to get traded before the July 30 deadline. Kimbrel, in his 12th big-league season, is familiar with trade rumors by now. He has been traded twice during his career, and the veteran closer understands he could be on the move again.
The expectation is the Cubs will be sellers at the deadline after President Jed Hoyer’s indication last week that the team will take that path.
“I wouldn’t say it’s clear (the Cubs will be sellers). I think we still have a good team,” Kimbrel said Monday. “Obviously, we go on an 11-game losing streak, it definitely pushes one way.
“But at the end of the day, that’s not a decision that I make. All I can do is go out and pitch, try to win ballgames. That’s all our team can do. If management decides to go a different direction, that’s their decision.”
Trade rumors are all too familiar for Bryant as well. He’s trying not to focus on them because he has no control over what happens.
“Whenever my time is done playing for the Cubs, whether I retire here or not, I certainly hope to go out representing who I am and just a good person and keep my head high and realizing, whether it’s one World Series or four or five more, whatever we did here was special,” Bryant said. “And when I’m done playing this game, I can look back on however long I spent in this uniform and be very proud of it.”
The reality is Bryant might have only seven games left at Wrigley Field as a Cub. He doesn’t plan to do anything different for those potentially final days. It’s a mindset he is trying to avoid.
There have been certain moments, though, that Bryant takes in during games, such as when fans yell at him in the outfield, “We’re going to miss you.” Then he starts looking around the ballpark, he said, thinking how cool this experience has been.
“All those thoughts run through your mind when you hear stuff like that,” Bryant said. “But it’s just nice to hear when I am in the outfield and fans are talking to me. They’ve all been great, just pumping my ego up.”
The Cubs went into the All-Star break having lost 13 of their last 15 games after Sunday’s first-half finale was postponed because of rain. As the losses have mounted, so too has frustration, specifically from catcher Willson Contreras.
Contreras made pointed remarks after Saturday’s 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals when he was asked whether the team is giving the effort it should.
“No, I don’t to be honest,” he said. “I feel like everybody was off. Everybody was distracted. I don’t know why. Probably because the All-Star break is pretty close. I don’t think that way, but I didn’t think we were on today.
“I think there is a lot going on. There are a lot of things I’d like to say, but I’d rather keep it to myself than say it.”
Contreras notably remarked that he can’t ask his teammates to play the same way as him or shortstop Javier Báez.
Kimbrel said Contreras’ comments didn’t bother him. He viewed it as Contreras venting frustration, something the team is feeling collectively after tumbling out of first place over the last two weeks.
“We know how good our team is and how we should play, and you go through a stretch like that, especially with the guy behind plate and him in charge, it’s just frustration — that’s all it is,” Kimbrel said. “There’s nothing personal behind that. We all want to go out and win every day.
“I love the passion. He cares. I don’t view it as anything other than that.”
Bryant said things were cleared up in a clubhouse conversation Sunday before the team departed for the All-Star break, and he expects everyone to be ready to go when the second half opens Friday in Arizona. Like Kimbrel, Bryant understands Contreras is frustrated and wants to win, noting the Cubs catcher “wears his heart on his sleeve.”
Bryant seemed to take some exception, though, to Contreras questioning his teammates’ focus and effort. When asked about the comments, Bryant began talking about how baseball is on his mind when he wakes up in the morning, from the opposing pitcher to his approach.
“I never go into a game not ready to play,” Bryant said. “So I take this very seriously. I’m super hard on myself. I’m always ready to play. And I’ve never changed, been the type of player I am, and that’s something that I’m proud of.”