Agree, no way that number makes sense for both sides. If he plays up to being worth another 20 mil next year he's going to want a multi year deal.
***Official 2023 Chicago Cubs Thread***
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I’m a little too young for that but I’ll take your word for it
It’s wild to see the old core playing for other teams (Schwarber, Baez, Bryant, Rizzo, Contreras, and Heyward) but that group combined has a salary of $120 million this year. I like seeing the Cubs stealing from the Braves playbook of extending talent when it’s young (Happ, Hoerner) instead of trying to pay outlandish contracts in free agency. Hopefully they can do that when the next crop comes up as well.
And for as difficult as that all was, they were right on all but probably Schwarber. Baez, Bryant, Rizzo and Contreras don't look to be worth anywhere close to what they got.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Rizzo's having a nice start, but yeah.
Javy is still my favorite, but he's fallen apart in Detroit.
Rizzo is close, and a guy I would have loved to have as a life long Cub. But the other 3 aren't playing up to their contracts at all.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Sandberg was the throw in minor leaguer Dallas Green fleeced the Phillies out of in the Larry Bowa for Ivan De Jesus deal.
Rizzo is a lock as a guy we would happily pay what he's getting in NY. He's still got the glove, and he's hit well in NY from Day 1. Schwarber, in hindsight, they got wrong. But when it was time to make that decision, it looked alright.
As for Javy, I'm sure a significant portion of the issue is just natural decline (I suspected he wouldn't age well), but also no longer having Rizzo at 1B (leading to more throwing errors on throws that don't get bailed out) and having far less raucous crowds (Javy's always been a guy who's great at feeding off of the crowd, and that element is missing in Detroit).
At the time, Rizzo's bat speed was in decline and he was having back issues. Yankee stadium has helped him out a bit.
It's definitely helped him some, and I'm not even against the trade in hindsight (I'm certainly not mad about getting Alcántara in the deal), but the Cubs could have easily afforded what the Yankees signed him for last offseason, which would have been a serious offensive upgrade at 1B and a modest one defensively over Hosmer (Mervis could still have been brought up to DH).
Rizzo was the 1 guy I wish they had just paid up for because he already had played out a very team friendly contract in his prime years and was the kind of leader they needed to transition into what they are trying to build now. He's been much more serviceable 1B option than anyone the Cubs have played there since he was traded and the $16 and $17 mil base salary he's been getting from the Yankees would not have been a huge burden on the payroll with the short term deals he's been signing with them. He's also a guy that just meant so much to the franchise and the fans that he kind of deserved to be rewarded for everything he had done.
In hindsight all those guys probably wound up taking less money than the Cubs reportedly were offering for extensions at one point and it's worked out in the Cubs favor as those contracts would have strapped them financially and not brought back the impact prospects that are about to come up soon. They maybe gave up too soon on Schwarber but at the time it made sense as he was coming off a terrible season. He still doesn't bat for a very high BA and still strikes out a lot so who knows if the change of scenery maybe helped him a bit too. I wouldn't take Baez and Bryant back given how bad they have been lately and you have to wonder if some of the Cardinals pitching problems right now have something to do with Contreras behind the plate as that was always the knock on him with the Cubs too and the splits of this current pitching staff when Contreras was behind the plate vs Gomes makes you wonder if the Cubs were onto something and that is why they would not commit that kind of money to keep him. Still wish we had gotten something in a trade for him at the deadline but maybe there just wasn't much of a market for him given that too?
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Would have been nice to at least split that 4 game series at home with the Dodgers, but I cant raise too much fuss about going 3-4 at home against the Dodgers and the Padres.
They were one out from sweeping the west coast trip. That would of been incredible.
Like I said in a later post, I don't have an issue with trading him in hindsight (though it still hurt for purely sentimental reasons). Getting Kevin Alcántara in that trade looks like it could be a boon (either as he reaches the show for the Cubs or gets moved as the centerpiece of another trade). But I wanted them to try and get Rizzo back in the offseason, and they could have easily afforded what the Yankees paid for him.
I'll believe it when I see it. He'd be a DH in an ideal world. He'll have to do a lot offensively to overcome the glove in a comparison with Rizzo.
