5 potential landing spots for Cubs catcher Willson Contreras on trade market

Don't look now, but the Rays have leapfrogged the Toronto Blue Jays and tied the Boston Red Sox for the top wild-card spot in the American League. Perhaps the Rays will be content to stick with Francisco Mejía and wait for Mike Zunino to return from the injured list, but at least from an offensive standpoint, Contreras would be a massive upgrade over what Tampa Bay has gotten from its catchers so far in 2022. He could also get some at-bats at DH for the Rays, who are certainly a team for which Contreras would be viewed as a rental.

The Giants aren't on a 107-win pace again like last year, but they're still in the National League wild-card race, even if a repeat as division champions seems unlikely. Future Hall of Famer Buster Posey retired after a magical 2021 season, and former top prospect Joey Bart hasn't fulfilled his potential to this point. With Curt Casali now dealing with an oblique strain, the Giants feel like a team that would be an obvious fit for Contreras. If a deal gets done, it would mark the second consecutive year that the Giants and Cubs collaborated on a trade deadline deal, with former NL MVP Kris Bryant going from Chicago to San Francisco last July.

Even with the fourth-lowest payroll in baseball, the Guardians have hung around in the AL Central race, thanks in large part to All-Star-caliber seasons from José Ramírez and Andrés Giménez. At 40-40, the Guardians may wait a couple weeks before deciding whether their current roster is worth making a major addition to. But if they're going to add before the deadline, it's hard to overstate how much of an upgrade Contreras would be over Austin Hedges, Luke Maile and Sandy Leon.

Like his former Cubs teammate Javier Báez was a year ago, Contreras would likely just be a rental with the Mets. Make no mistake, the Mets need to upgrade from the duo of Tomás Nido and James McCann, and Contreras would give them that. Contreras would also join an NL East race in which the Mets are trying to hold off the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves, who happen to employ his younger brother, William Contreras.

The Astros are an unlikely fit for Contreras, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic previously reported, because the team is so high on how Martín Maldonado handles their pitching staff. Still, Maldonado is 35 and is slashing just .147/.222/.293 in 2022. It would seem naive to altogether rule the Astros out from at least seeing what it would cost to land Contreras.