Chicago Cubs: Who Should Theo Epstein Unload by MLB Trade Deadline?

With the 2012 MLB Trade Deadline approaching on July 31, the Chicago Cubs are one of the few teams who will be major sellers in the trade market as they are one of the only teams with no logical hope to make the playoffs.

General Manager Theo Epstein has made it emphatically clear that he is looking to take the Cubs in a new, winning direction in the future and that includes making everybody on his roster available for trade bait. Holding the league's second-worst record at 20-40, Cubs fans could be seeing an entirely new roster take the field come the beginning of August.

Now that we know the Cubs will be sellers, the question stands as to who will, and should, be the players being unloaded?

There are a number of options for Epstein to look into, but these players are the ones who could see themselves out of town sooner rather than later.

Alfonso Soriano

Alfonso Soriano was once a highly touted youngster for the New York Yankees whom many expected to be the next big star in baseball.

Unfortunately, Soriano has not lived up to the big contract that landed him with the Chicago Cubs in 2007 after having a career season with the Washington Nationals with 46 home runs, 95 runs batted in and 41 stolen bases.

Since then, Soriano's numbers have been on a steady decline, bottoming out at a .258 batting average in 2010. Needless to say, of all the marbles that the Cubs organization has put into Soriano's basket have slowly fallen out of the holes in the bottom.

Soriano's $19 million contract may make him something of an "untouchable" in the trade market, but surely the Cubs would be willing to pay some of that contract in exchange for younger talent to help build their future.

While the Alfonso Soriano experiment was exciting at the time, he takes up a huge chunk of the team budget and he may be one of the first players out the door in the next month or two.

Bryan LaHair

Bryan LaHair is one of the few young, promising players currently on the Cubs roster, but he is still potential bait in the trade market at this stage of the game.

LaHair is having a splendid year, batting .310 with 12 home runs and 25 runs batted in, but that does not keep him off of the trading block.  Especially since the Cubs have Anthony Rizzo waiting in the wings in the minor leagues, plus the fact that LaHair is having a solid year, he could be moved without hesitation.

Moving LaHair would be a little bit tougher considering his small sample size, but it is something the Theo Epstein could very well be looking into to help rejuvenate the franchise.

Ryan Dempster

Sticking with the Cubs organization since 2004, Ryan Dempster has been the most consistent producer of any player on the roster since his emergence into the starting rotation in 2008.

Unfortunately for Dempster, his success hasn't amounted to much along the lines of overall team success for the Cubbies.

Dempster would help any rotation in need of help coming down the stretch late in the summer.  With Dempster, the Cubs have a quality pitcher to help lead their young rotation but as of right now, his production is doing nothing to help them move on into the future.

Moving Dempster may hurt the pitching staff for the rest of the season, but moving him is essential in order to rebuild.

Who Else?

Right now, Soriano, LaHair and Dempster could all be on Epstein's chopping block towards the trading deadline.  However, they may not be alone.

Who else could be moved before the July 31 deadline?  Who of these three, if any, would likely be retained?