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Cubs' David Ross Has Light-Hearted Approach To Helping Kyle Schwarber Deal With Trade Rumors

(CBS) As Cubs second-year slugger Kyle Schwarber finds his name swirling in trade rumors while he continues his rehab process from a season-ending knee injury, veteran catcher David Ross has quite the way of helping his teammate deal with the outside distractions.

That is to say, Ross approaches the topic head on and in a light-hearted manner.

"When we hear this stuff and have to answer these questions, I just put it out in the open," Ross told Hanley and Haugh on 670 The Score on Friday morning. "I walked in the other day and had been on a show, asked about Schwarbs being traded, I walked right up to him the next day, gave him a big hug and said, 'Man, I hear you're out of here. Give me a big hug. I'll never see you again.' So I do that every day until the trade deadline, and we laugh, just kidding around with him. It's fun to make light of things like that because they're out of your control. You can't control any of those things. So just like everything else, we give each other a hard time and poke fun at one another, you know, just make fun of it. We have a good time with it. It's part of the game, and guys are doing the best they can. They understand things are out of their control, so we don't worry about it too much."

Highly coveted by the Yankees, Schwarber is handling the trade rumors well, Ross said.

"He seems to be taking it in stride," Ross said. "He laughs with me. I seriously do it every single day -- 'Oh, this may be the last day Schwarbs, give me a hug.' Just little things like that, and he's laughing and kidding around about it. He's in the middle of just trying to come back stronger and be the best player he can be for next year and get that knee ready. So he's got a focus there."

Listen to Ross' full interview below.

David Ross with Hanley and Haugh

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