Indiana Sports stuck. I'm running King Glad to welcome on a great friend from baseball senior writer from the Athletic Chicago covering the Chicago Cubs. His Patrick Mooney. Hey, Patrick. What's going on? Not much. Good to hear from a man. Good to hear from you. Hey, I know the stove has not been very hot this offseason, but with the Darvish trade. It's getting going The Lindores stuff to the Mets. Do you think the whole indoor thing might get things started to roll a bit more? I'm not sure if it's Lynn door as much as teams waiting on clarity in terms of what the season's gonna look like, and I think the Mets have clearly been And out liar, in part because they have a new owner in Steve Colon. Um, you know, the the Cubs did this to kind of jump start their farm system and he had a gentle lawyer says they're going to be active in free agency, not at the top of the free agent market. But Feeling. You know several holes throughout this roster, so I think just everything's been kind of pushed back here that you know where you said around this time in December. You have the winter meetings and things heating up. I think everything's just pushed back. Weeks, if not months of people. Wait, wait for answers and kind of wait for direction. Where? Patrick Mooney, senior writer for the athletic, Chicago Hey, man, this talk about this summer and being at Wrigley covering these games, David Ross's first season. What was it like for you to be a reporter? Even cover? The cups are so long. It must have been just interesting every single day to show up to the yard. Well, it was definitely surreal. It was On some level nice to be able to go to work and Wrigley Field without anyone. There is actually pretty peaceful and soothing. And then you look to your left and there was kind of Ah Last divider between you and the person sitting next to in the press box and everyone's wearing masks. Everyone over Zoom, Um, for these group, things is Obviously sub optimal that you know it's Exponentially better to be able to go into the clubhouse and look someone in the eye and kind of observed, But I think everyone understood why we had to do these things and, you know, hopefully I don't think 2020 21 season will be normal, but hopefully we start inching our way in that direction. Well, it really hasn't been a normal offseason. In the sense, I guess, Patrick that Cubs fans, maybe since 0 2014 2015 have been used to a sense of just consistency and from a personnel perspective, But with everything changing since December with feel Len KASPER Yu Darvish, it's been a bit of an interesting I guess. Overhaul Kyle's former there. Wilson. Contrary to rumors, the Chris Brian trade rumors have been going on for years. So I will be very interested to see if Jed Hoyer pulled off another trade in that direction. Before players report to spring training, I think clearly Uh, if they don't do that, they'll be thinking about the trade deadline coming up this summer. Whenever that would be, uh, because clearly they're not going All in two in this year, and I think a real telltale sign will be how quickly and how aggressively they reinvest the money that they're saving from training. Darvish, San Diego to see kind of Um, you know how much they pour back into the major league team, And if they're able to kind of thread that needle, you know, which was a phrase that Theo Epstein used to repeatedly before. Hey, step down in November. What do you remember most about covering and talking to and getting the know Theo. Let's good question. I think they're amazing. The learned a lot from our conversations over the years and think of ah, very quick and sarcastic sense of humor that do not always match with kind of the persona. Was presented in Boston. I think if someone who could really see the entire field that when he would give an answer or think through a scenario, he could really kind of process. How that would be received, saying the manager's office in the dugout in the clubhouse in the media, you know in the bleachers, um and also Give me a lot of credit for being really available to the media, and, in essence being accountable to fans. I think it's really disappointing. When you look at other sports or other executives. You really kind of hide in their GM, sweet or up in their offices and feel for a future Hall of Famer was around a lot. On, Would you? No answer anything you ask, you wouldn't tell you everything. But hey, no doubt would kind of take the heat and try Todos elect some pressure off the rest of the club. You mentioned him being available. I remember when we were out at spring training together, and we did an interview and before the interview, you went up to Theo just a chat, and you know he's watching the guys stretching You guys spent 20 minutes just kind of going back and forth. I thought that was awesome. Because, like you said, you just don't really see things like that. But now as it transitions to Jed Hoyer, taking over Trades have been made. What do you buy into about the whole Contreras to Theeighties, Jal's or K B to the Mets talk. There's definitely something to the Angels and contrasts. Mike colleague Ken Rosenthal reported that and we're not exactly sure. How serious or how aggressive the Angels will ultimately be the really difficult to maybe kind of line up things here, but there's no doubt that Joe Maddon On Come of the coaches who fought him to Anaheim are big fans of Wilson Contreras. The Cubs are definitely in listening mode for all their players, Jed Hoyer said. I'm not in the business of talking about untouchables. I think Contreras is kind of unique among these players that are bandied about in trade rumors because He did have a good season. He has improved in his pitch framing,.