Aramis Ramirez has maintained that he doesn’t want to leave the Cubs but on Thursday, he said no one from the front office has asked the third baseman if he’d be willing to accept a trade and didn’t say he’d reject one.

“We’ll see,” Ramirez said.

After Wednesday’s game, Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano said the Cubs needed to make some changes for next season. The team dropped to 42-63 following Thursday’s 4-2 loss to the Brewers.

“When you’re 20 games under .500, there are going to be changes,” Ramirez said. “Something’s not right. You can’t point to anything — you can’t point to the pitching, offense, defense. I guess that’s the [general manager's] and the front office’s job. Of course there will be changes because we haven’t played the way we’d like to. We’re 21 games under .500 so there are going to be changes.”

The Cubs took the first step before Thursday’s game when they dealt outfielder Kosuke Fukudome to the Indians for two Minor League players and called up Tyler Colvin. Ramirez is a 10-and-5 player, and can veto any deal. Now that he agrees with the concept of change, has he changed his mind?

“Nobody has come forward to me from the team to say, ‘We want to trade you,’ or this or that,” Ramirez said. “It’s only [discussed] in the media.

“Nobody has talked to me about if I’m wiling to waive my no-trade clause,” he said. “It’s only in the media speculation that ‘This team wants Ramirez’ or the other team. Coming from the guys upstairs, the people who make the decision, I haven’t heard from anybody.”

So, would he be willing to be traded?

“Nobody wants me, man,” Ramirez said. “They want good players. Nobody wants me. They come to me with a trade, we’ll see, but nobody has talked to me about it.”

There probably are a few teams who would be interested in a third baseman who is batting .293 for the season, and nine homers and 22 RBIs this month. But Ramirez recently said he wanted to stay in Chicago because of his family.

“That’s not a secret,” Ramirez said. “Everybody knows that. But I also understand this is a business. I don’t know which way they want to go. If they’re looking to rebuild, I can’t fit in. We’ll see.”

– Carrie Muskat