Giving away a player of Bryant's talent for nothing is stupid. Theo isn't stupid.
Gordon Whittenmeyer was on the podcast and he sounded like a more reasonable voice than Kaplan.
The Cubs have 3 options
1.) Blow up the roster and rebuild, which is where Kaplan is.
2.) Try and tinker with the offense and get a starting pitcher. This seems more likely, but they have to be to find trade partners and the Cubs player are expensive. Getting much back for them might be hard.
3.) Repeat last offseason. Low cost players and try and catch lightening in the bottle. I think this is the most realistic.
Happ, Darvish and Hendricks are probably your best trade pieces, but if you are moving them then it is more of a full rebuild. Of the more realistic guys to get traded I think only Willson with an extra year of control could bring back something close to his value to the Cubs. Maybe you try and swap out Schwarber for a righthanded hitter with more contact in LF or CF (and move Happ to LF), second could be another possible upgrade if they don't want to give the job to Horner.