TODAY: The Cubs officially announced that Rizzo’s option has been exercised.
OCTOBER 30: The Cubs bought out left-hander Jon Lester’s option Friday, but first baseman Anthony Rizzo won’t get the same treatment. The team’s planning to pick up his $16.5MM option for 2021, which will be Rizzo’s last season of team control, Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reports.
Retaining Rizzo shouldn’t come as a surprise, but as we’ve seen this week, all bets seem to be off in baseball’s current economic climate. And while Rizzo has generally been fantastic since he first became a Cub in 2012, the 31-year-old took sizable steps backward this season. Rizzo put up a pedestrian 103 wRC+, his worst since his debut with the Padres in 2011, and batted .222/.342/.414 with 11 home runs in 243 plate appearances. Moreover, Rizzo’s .339 expected weighted on-base average was his worst since the Statcast era began, and it was a 55-point drop from the .394 mark he logged in 2019.
While Rizzo will return to the Cubs for another season and hope for a rebound, their lineup might look quite a bit different otherwise. After a first-round playoff exit this fall, president of baseball operations Theo Epstein suggested an offensive shakeup is forthcoming. That could put other Cubs mainstays (Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, to name a couple of examples) in jeopardy of sticking with the team in 2021.
A week ago I would have said that’s not a big surprise but I really don’t know what to expect anymore with the club options.
Thank you for retyping the gist of the first paragraph for us.
Actually, that was a recap of the 2nd paragraph.
I think you meant the second paragraph.
@mpleau- If you’re going to go around criticising harmless posts than at least get it right. It was the SECOND paragraph that 1225’s post sounds similar too. Also..you don’t get extra credit for being a little punk.
I started to sweat this after Hand was declined. It makes sense to bring him back though. He, at least, puts the ball in play more than most power hitters, something Cubs hitters have had problems with the last few years.
Now we’ll have to wait a month to see what they do with Bryant, but if no one claimed Hand, I doubt that Kris gets traded to anyone unless the Cubs chip in on the salary.
I am prepared to see Kyle get non-tendered.
No chance Schwarber is non-tendered. That’s flat out dumb.
Just a feeling. Watch a trade of Schwarber to Yankees. Cashman has always had a crush on #12 playing in Yankee Stadium. Again just a feeling and you’re right, Schwarber will NOT be non-tendered.
I hope Cashman lays off Schwarber. I don’t trust Schwarber’s fielding or his bat, and there’s no room at DH with Stanton there and others regularly being spelled there.
Schwarber is alot better in the field than most talking heads give him credit for. In 5 years. He has 11 career errors. Yet they say he’s a liability.
He’s not up for a contract. But he will be traded
Cashman sure had had a crush on him. Just curious what we could get back from them
Only 11 errors cause he can never get to the balls hit to him.
This would’ve been a stunning decline, even with all the declines happening today.
Wait, clubs can exercise options?
Dang!! I was hoping he would come to DC.
I wish the RS had never traded him to SD for Adrian Gonzalez….
Phew!
Should get an extension if you ask me
Picked up the option and now they work out an extension then they do the same with Javy Baez.
They better extend him
He would’ve been back regardless, and rightfully so. He’s a lifer there, and a dude that elicits respect league-wide.
Yeah he’s been the franchise cornerstone and face there. I’m the farthest thing from a Cubs fan but as a baseball fan I’m glad
Playing 40% of a season gives no value to a players true worth. Another shakeup coming? Same song second verse on this one. That tune played all last off season
They needed a shakeup after last year, and all these teams are declining options because the MLB is about to fold from the massive lost revenue this year
The MLB will not fold! This is the last year of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. A team like the Cubs lost around $100 million this year but was all due to greed with trying to push their own network to fans where it was free this year and the Ricketts buying up a lot of property in that area where businesses had to shut down during the pandemic.
They should have declined the option and then resigned him to a longer contract with a lower 2021 salary. 4 years/$56 million. $10 million in 2021, $20 million in 2022, $14 million in 23 and $12 million in 24. The 10 and the 20 would even out to something similar to what he would have earned through the 16.5 option but discounts it a bit for the lower salaries expected throughout the league. He will be in his mid 30s in 2023-2024. Those salaries are fair in the current economic environment.
They can still rip up the current contract and extend him, but I’d be surprised if he goes for anything too far from the QO AAV.
I think the Cubs will work something out with Lester, he had to know that no one was going to pay him $25 million this year, I hate the way he left the Red Sox, but that ship is sailed, no need for him to come back to Boston, we still feel plenty good about him anyway, with the cancer stuff and all….That said I can’t believe he’s 37 years old, I just realized how old I am LOL
It’s a damn shame that 2016 team only appeared in one world series.
Well, the Dodgers have been favored every year after 2016. Let’s see if they can win it all again. Seven different champs in seven years and no repeats in the last 20.
And no repeats in the NL for even longer. 1975 and 76 Reds
EPIC collapse by what should have been a dynasty. Anyone who disagrees is a moron Cub fan, who defends team relentlessly. They finished worse every year since then and didn’t win 1 playoff game getting swept by the damn triple A Marlins this year! Selfishness & cockiness are to blame in my opinion.
Epic collapse? They played in the NLCS and wild card rounds in 3 of the following years with the group. Not many teams win more than one WS in a decade.
Winning the World Series is not easy, this is not the NBA.
And VERY few NBA teams have won a World Series ring!!!
After 2016 they didn’t have a better roster than the Dodgers. After 2017 they didn’t have a better roster than the Dodgers or Brewers. After 2018 they fell off a cliff. So much for their “dynasty”.
That Cubs team was never the same after Dexter Fowler left them for the Cardinals. There was never a true lead off hitter in that Cubs’ line up after Fowler’s departure. Bryant’s best year was in 2016 with batting in the two hole with Fowler batting in front of him. Facts are facts!
I hope this doesn’t turn into the cubs of the 60’s and early 70’s. Keep bring in the same people back until they absolutely have no value. I hope for Anthony Rizzo’s sake they plan on trading him to a team that has a chance to win a championship. This Cubs team is several years away from that.
Thwyre “several” years from anything. At most 2 years. Trading Kris Bryant and maybe Schwarber get you 5 players back. That trims the payroll by about 30mil. Get a lead off hitter. Maybe with another trade. Get a closer. It should be Jeremy Jeffress. Get middle relief help and 2 BOTR starters. Yu,Hendricks, Alzolay can be 1,2 and 4. Lester is most likely 3. They need a Marcus Stroman maybe Chris Archer on a minor league deal. Get him back to his Rays days. Not sure who else is a free agent for starting pitching. Bauer is gonna ask for Strasburg money. Just to start. Joe Ricketts isn’t gonna pony up that kind of again.
Roberto Perez, Anthony Rizzo, Rafael Dolis, Starling Marte, Leury Garcia, Zack Britton!
Legends.
Now extend him 85/4
They will work out an extension which will be more backloaded so the Cubs can save some money 2021
No surprise here with Jon Lester’s option bought out while Anthony Rizzo’s was picked up. The Cubs, like the White Sox, will be looking to add a couple of veteran SP’s this offseason and not strictly rely on their young arms to fill the last 3 spots in their respective rotations. Clearly the White Sox have more financial flexibility than the Cubs and are more likely to be players for a TOR like Trevor Bauer or Marcus Stroman.
Cubs are good on SP. Alzolay replaces Q, Lester signs for 2 years. They need line drive/contact/gap hitters.
Two more years of 5+ Lester ERA!
Yay for Cubs.
Cubs will eventually extend Rizzo. This past season was an aberration for lots of guys. Rizzo is as consistent as they come. He will retire a Cub. He’s Mr. Cub 2.0 after Ernie Banks.
What are you people worried about? It was a short season. His career ain’t over.