I agree. If I’m Chicago, I want more than Beni. But Bryant is expensive and was awful in 2020 - whiffed a ton (30%), walked a little less, made little contact, OPSed .644. If they’re not planning to extend him and need to save money now, they could do worse than AB. But they probably should hold onto him and see what he does early in the year, build back value, and trade him mid-season if need be. Of course, we’ve been there. What do you do if you’re contending, and Bryant is contributing?
He's not likely to extend in Chicago. He's been at war with the club off and on after they transparently manipulated his service time to delay his FA by a year. I'm not a close follower of the Cubs, but I suspect that bridges have been burned, and there's value just in getting him out of there. Not because he's any kind of malcontent, to be clear, but because the team wronged him and he called them on it.
I wonder if the Sox have the pieces to get Darvish as well? If the Cubs are truly blowing it up. Three years left on his deal...
Dalbec could be in such a deal, potentially. Chicago will need another infielder, assuming Bote is back at 2B, where IIRC he's seen as a better fit.
The trade simulator thinks that [Dalbec + Beni <—> Darvish + Bryant] works as a four-player deal, but IMO Dalbec and Benintendi might be worth a touch more than Darvish and Bryant in the current financial environment (which the trade sim knows nothing about, of course).
Such a deal would subtract Benintendi's $5m AAV and Dalbec's league minimum, and add Bryant at 1/$22m (or so) and Darvish at 3/$59 ($19+ AAV). If the Cubs don't contribute any money, that spends most of our headroom to the first CBT threshold.
So I would judge that any deal with the Cubs probably depends on how motivated Hoyer and the Ricketts are to lower payroll.