I read all these things at the time and didn't believe them then or now. Bowden is wrong more than he's right and this rumor originated with him. Ken Rosenthal actually argued with him on the radio about this and JP Morosi said his sources couldn't confirm any of it either. The idea that Detroit would have any interest in Schwarber is silly on it's face as they're a team that won't be able to compete for years and certainly wouldn't need a MLB player. It also makes sense that they would offer the Eloy/Cease package for Fulmer and may have not wanted to pay quite that much for Quintana but in the end offered the same package for both. I just don't buy that they offered Schwarber to anybody and that much of this was driven by the media, specifically Jim Bowden. None of us will ever know but given what what we do know about their love for this player and the fact that there is so little to judge him on a an MLB player leads me to believe what I do.
And more to the point, if we assume the idea was as brett stated the sox turning down schwarber in the cubs deal it logically doesn't make sense. To start with assuming the idea was Eloy and Schwarber(which in my eyes is crazy but seems to be what he was suggesting), who plays LF long term? On the contrary if the idea was Eloy or Schwarber as the head line piece, if the idea was the cubs wanted to trade Schwarber because they like Eloy more they would have dealt Schwarber last year for Miller.
Whether or not someone agrees with the cubs assessment of Schwarber I can't see any realistic narrative suggesting they actually wanted to deal him. If you're not going to deal him for Miller last year then you're not dealing him. You don't say no to that and then the following year start trying to deal him. It's just inconsistent with everything the team has done with him.
Again maybe the cubs assessment on him is wrong but I would be shocked if they actually had any real discussions on him other than say the Sox/Tiger/whomever asking "what about Schwarber?" Teams just don't trade 24 year old position players who can hit 40 HRs. They will let a guy like that fail over and over again in the hope he figures it out because that kind of power is as rare as ace pitching.
