MESA, AZ. -- Alfonso Soriano says he wants to win with the Chicago Cubs, but if the team falls out of contention -- and the Cubs are expected to struggle again after 101 losses last season -- Soriano would be interested in being traded.
"I want to go somewhere where I'd feel comfortable," Soriano said Monday.
Soriano is in the seventh year of an eight-year deal which pays him a total of $36 million over the final two seasons. He has a no-trade clause which he invoked last year stopping him from being moved to the San Francisco Giants. He cited how the cold weather would affect his knees as a reason he denied the trade.
"[The Cubs] know what teams," Soriano said of a trade this season. "We talked, my agent talked with those guys."
Soriano said there were "six or seven" teams in the "east or center" that he's given the Cubs as potential landing spots if he's moved.
"We've had a really good dialogue with Soriano and [agent] Pat Rooney," general manager Jed Hoyer said. "I'll leave those discussions between Soriano, Pat Rooney and the Cubs. He's been honest with us when we've discussed certain destinations with him."
Soriano reiterated he wants to win with the Cubs.
"I don't even think about it [a trade]," he said. "If they want to go somewhere else I just take it day by day and see what happens."
Soriano hit .262 with 32 home runs and a career-high 108 RBIs last season, and by most accounts he played the best defense of his career in left field.