Dumping his salary will not benefit the team unless they dump it to free up space to sign someone like Mark Teixeira. I don't think they'd dump Lee without the intent on getting a equally good or better 1B. This team is trying to move forward, not backward. If they try and trade Lee, it will likely be for a step forward. And you keep talking about "Who said they are trying to trade Lee?" when you yourself posted your source who, when you cut through all the muck, pretty much said they're trying to trade Lee. "Derrek has blocked a trade already" as quoted from his agent makes it seem pretty clear cut to me that yes, they are in fact trying to trade Derrek Lee. So I don't know why you keep going on about "There's a difference between trying to trade and listening to offers" when it's clear that the Cubs are trying/have tried to move him already based off Churchill's interactions with Lee's agent, so I'm confused as to why you keep harping on that whole thing. How do you not see the difference? trying to trade Lee- calling around, telling GMs that he's available. aka not wanting to go into the season with him listening to offers- willing to trade him if the right deal presents itself, but ultimately being fine going into the season with him that's what i'm talking about, at least. you may choose to use different words. churchill said they tried to trade him to a specific team. that doesn't automatically mean they are trying to trade him to any team. maybe that team offered them something that they really liked, or something that the padres really liked. for example..... the cubs are willing to trade vitters, while the padres are trying to trade the padres. do you see the difference there?