Marlins and Cubs are talking Willson Contreras trade

The Chicago Cubs are surely juggling offers for Willson Contreras, but things seem to be ramping up with the Miami Marlins.

Whether he’s being aggressively shopped or not, the Chicago Cubs are clearly open for business on catcher Willson Contreras with multiple suitors out there (reported or not). Now, according to Craig Mish of SportsGrid, the Miami Marlins have shown interest in Contreras.

The Marlins seem to have soured on Jorge Alfaro, who came to them from Philadelphia as part of the J.T. Realmuto trade. Over an even 100 plate appearances last season, Alfaro posted a .226/.280/.344 slash-line with three home runs, 16 RBI, 36 strikeouts and just four walks. He was supplanted by Chad Wallach in the playoffs, so the Marlins could at least get some defense from behind the plate.

Miami has signed catchers Sandy Leon (minor league deal) and Brian Navarreto, but they are merely depth. If there’s an opportunity to get Contreras, there’s nothing stopping them from pursuing it aggressively.

What would a deal sending Willson Contreras to Miami look like?

A run of good drafting and good trades has given the Marlins a top-end farm system in all of baseball. So as Mish pointed to, they have the kind of young, controllable assets the Cubs are sure to want in any deal they’ll make this offseason. The Los Angeles Angels are an easy suitor for Contreras, but they can’t compete with the Marlins in terms of prospect capital.

Here’s how the Marlins could shape a deal to get Contreras.

Sanchez and Garrett each got a taste of the big leagues last season, with 10 games and two starts respectively. Alfaro feels like a throw in to the deal, but he hit 18 home runs in 2019 and struggles over the circumstances of the shortened 2020 season have to be taken with the grain of salt they are at this point. He also has three years of team control left.