Is there anyway we trade some of our high-priced players?

He is injured and even if another team were willing to take the risk you can not trade an injured player. Z & Dome
would only be traded to clear salary as neither would bring you any value, you would have to eat significant salary on both. Also all three have no trade contracts but lets not let that bother us.

Z has a NTC, and the odds of finding a team that will (a) pay his salary, (b) give up enough to make a trade worthwhile, and © represents an acceptable destination for Z, are not high.

Demp is a 5/10 player, and thus has an NTC. See above.

Lilly has partial no-trade protection (don’t know exactly what) and is slated to start the season on the DL. He won’t have trade value until June, in which case the Cubs probably can’t afford to trade him.

Sori has an NTC, an albatross contract, and is coming off a horrible year. See above.

Dome has an NTC to go along with with dreaded CF bat / RF glove combination. See above.

Ramy has an NTC (which also includes a $1M “trade bonus”, interestingly enough). While he has good trade value, his opt-out clause diminishes the potential return.

DLee has an NTC, and he reportedly invoked it after the 2008 season.

Spellcheck has an NTC, and he apparently invoked it in the midst of the Peavy saga. Besides, who would want anyone who would choose Des Moines over San Diego?

Grabow has a NTC until 15 Jun 2010, assuming he signed a ML FA contract.

Riot, LBR, and Koyie don’t have much trade value now that they are arb-eligible.

Geo still has some value, though you would be selling low.

Baker has some value, though only as a utility player until he proves otherwise. (See DeRo, circa 2006.)

Guzman has some value, though his injury history negates a lot of it.

Miles has no trade value because he is bad at baseball and has an albatross contract.

Your main ML trade chips are Wells and Marshall, both of whom may be needed at the back end of the rotation, and Mármol. Which one of those are you willing to give up for someone like Granderson? Or would you rather give up Castro, the one hope I have of seeing a genuine Cubs SS in the next few years?

without us eating the whole contract. He’d make a lot of sense for the Giants, who just suffered through Randy Winn in RF and could use some OBP. There are two problems, however. First, Dome’s desires might not match up with the trade market. Second, you probably have to wait for the FA market to thin – and then where are we left – playing Jake Fox or Garet Anderson in RF?

I’d keep Dome this year because the Cubs need top of the order bats anyway. Best case scenario is that he raises his value this season and you can trade him next season if you really want, or wouldn’t mind keeping him because he’s playing well enough.