Chicago Cubs’ Travis Wood Does Not Want To Be Traded

Starting pitcher Travis Wood is the Chicago Cubs lone All-Star in 2013, but he doesn’t want to leave the Windy City.

Wood told CSN Chicago that he would like to stick around to see the fruits of Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, and the rest of the front office’s labor in the (hopefully) very near future:

"“Theo and Jed and them are moving in the right direction,” Wood said. “We’ve got a great group of guys there, and everybody plays hard and as of late we’ve played solid ball. … I’d love to be a part of the core group and stay around Chicago for a while, but that’s out of my hands.”"

Of course, there remains a decent chance that Mr. Epstein will deal Wood, as he is clearly out-performing his peripherals and secondary numbers to this point in 2013. While Wood has posted a very impressive 2.79 ERA, his Fielding Independent Pitching remains at 3.59, while his xFIP is a much higher 4.40.

This seems to be the exact kind of situation in which the analytically-inclined and opportunistic Epstein would flip an over-achieving piece for a nice return. Don’t be surprised if he pulls the trigger on a trade and Wood, who was just acquired from the Cincinnati Reds early in 2012, is shipped off to a fringe contender that is willing to overpay for his services.