"No-trade clauses are of so little concern to Alfonso Soriano that he doesn't even know he has one.

''I do?'' said the Cubs left fielder, who has had a full no-trade clause since the day he signed his eight-year, $136 million contract before the 2007 season. ''I have to talk to my agent.''

Point is, unlike Derrek Lee at this time last year or Aramis Ramirez now, Soriano won't stand in the way if the Cubs decide that trading him helps achieve their long-term plans — and if they find a way to eat enough of the $61 million left on his contract to make it work.

''If it was a contender, yes,'' Soriano said of waiving the no-trade. ''Of course, I want to win. I want to win here. But if not here, then somewhere else. .?.?.

''First of all, I don't want to leave here. I want to stay here because we've got to win it. But if they want to trade me, I think the team they would want to trade me to would be a contender that I could help.''

The bigger questions involve the Cubs' ability to match him up in a trade and the appetite ownership has for eating cash by the millions.

Don't believe every ''unconfirmed rumor'' you read about the New York Yankees having interest in Soriano. His contract makes him impossible to trade, even to a team with deep pockets, in a simple value-for-value deal.

But general manager Jim Hendry vowed to be ''aggressive'' approaching the July 31 trading deadline and made it clear that every player not in the Cubs' plans for next year and beyond is a candidate to be moved."