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The Cubs have already traded Joc Pederson to the Braves and are expected to continue selling veteran players in the two weeks leading up to the deadline, but will make a final push to close contract extensions with a shortstop first. Javier Baez and first baseman Antoine Rizzo, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via twitter).
Rizzo and Baez have both been considered expansion contenders with the Cubs for several years, but neither have made a deal to stay in Chicago beyond the 2021 campaign. Rizzo is playing the second of two optional seasons. included in his original seven-year, $ 41 million contract with the club.
Unsurprisingly, Chicago has chosen both of these club options, and Rizzo will end up earning a combined $ 75 million over a nine-year term. Cubs reportedly offered Rizzo a five-year, $ 70 million contract extension in spring training – about $ 60 million less than the Cardinals guaranteed Paul Goldschmidt for the same part of his career.
As for Baez, he is playing his final year in officiating and earning $ 11.6 million before reaching free agency. The two sides are said to have made progress in talks on a long-term deal in the spring of 2020 before the season closes.
Neither Rizzo nor Baez are playing at peak levels in 2021, although both have rebounded somewhat from a declining year in 2020. Rizzo posted a .222 / .342 / .412 hitline in 243. home plate appearances last year, but hit .247 / .342 .429 so far in 2021. His ISO of .182 (slugging less batting average) is his lowest score since 2012, as is his hit rate. 9.7% walk. Rizzo’s production this season is still comfortably above the league average, by wRC + measurement (111), but it’s nowhere near its 2014-19 levels (.284 / .388 / .513, 141 wRC +). However, he will be 32 next month, which certainly has an impact on how comfortable the team is in terms of contract length and annual value.
For Baez, the 2020 season has been a nightmare. He only hit .203 / .238 / .360 with the worst career goalscoring percentages (3.0) and strikeouts (31.9) as his power plummeted to its lowest level since 2016 This year, he’s hitting .238 / .284 / .493 with 21 homers – some of the best returns of his career. However, Baez’s strikeout problems reached new heights in 2021, when he was stoked in 36.6% of his plate appearances. He remains an excellent defender and won’t be 29 until the offseason, so Baez has several more years to go.
Both actors are somewhat difficult to assess from an expansion standpoint at the moment. Rizzo hasn’t quite bounced back since the production slowdown last year, and any new contract would buy out his 30-year-olds. Baez is younger and enjoys a bigger rebound effort, but his blatant swing-and-miss tendencies and low-end OBP are hard to ignore.
The Cubs have tried at various times to lock the two players up, and it looks like it will be even more difficult now to find terms in a two-week window leading up to the trade deadline – especially when the front office is focused. also to a lot of time to generate the commercial interest of the other players on the list. That’s not to say that overtime for either player is out of the question, but the timing doesn’t exactly work in their favor. The absence of an extension does not, however, make an exchange inevitable; either player would be a candidate for a qualifying bid, which would give the Cubs the option of keeping them on a high-priced one-year contract or at least getting a compensatory draft pick if they signed elsewhere.
As Heyman’s report on the likelihood of overtime talks with Baez and Rizzo shows, it looks like neither of those talks are planned with the star third baseman / outfielder. Kris bryant. The former NL Rookie of the Year and NL MVP is enjoying a bigger rebound season than either of his aforementioned teammates and is listed to enter the offseason as one of the best free agents in the open market. It will spark the interest of a large number of candidates as they look to strengthen their roster over the next 14 days, and the absence of last-minute talks on an extension would seem to indicate recognition that this ship has sailed.
Bryant, Craig kimbrel, Zach Davies, and André Chafin are among the Cubs most likely to change hands in the coming days, and they will surely be interested in veterans Willson Contreras and Kyle hendricks as well as. Contreras, however, is controlled until 2022 via arbitration. Hendricks is signed at an affordable price throughout the 2023 campaign with an option for 2024. Given this level of control over the remaining club, it is less urgent to strike a deal involving either player, although that won’t stop the other teams from trying to untie them.
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