When asked about whether or not a given player is “untouchable” or not, general managers will rarely say “oh yeah we’re not trading him no matter what.” Generally, they’ll turn up their GM Speak up to 11 and say something along the lines of “no player is untouchable, and we’ll trade anyone for the right deal.” This is technically true, but as technically true things often are, they are not functionally true.
Case in point: Adalberto Mondesi is an untouchable player for the Royals. He isn’t going anywhere. However, if the Los Angeles Angels called Dayton Moore and offered Mike Trout for him, straight up, you can bet your breeches that Mondesi is as good as gone.