Chicago Cubs officially introduce recently signed outfielder Jason Heyward

When it was announced that Jason Heyward made the decision to sign with the Chicago Cubs, the entire world of professional baseball stopped what it was doing to take a look at this new lineup that will feature two new players.

While some fans were completely against this, we’ll go ahead and focus on the positive and what this means for the 97-win club that reached the National League Championship Series for the first time since the 2003 season.

Now according to the Cubs official twitter handle, Theo Epstein, and Jed Hoyer were on hand to officially introduce Heyward to the North Side of Chicago with pinstripes.

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Heyward’s deal, in case you missed it, is an 8-year contract worth $184 million and includes two opt-out clauses. During today’s press conference, the 26-year-old outfielder talked about what made him decide to sign with the Cubs.

Before we get into that, he will, in fact, wear No. 22 on the back of his jersey which means infielder Addison Russell is going to have to pick another uniform number of his own. Which he admitted was fine with him the same day Heyward’s signing made headlines.

Russell just wants to help his team raise the W at the end of the day. Class act from a young player. Now back to Heyward and his remarks from earlier today.

As a member of the visiting or home team with the St. Louis Cardinals, one thing stood out for the veteran center and right fielder. That just so happened to be the way Joe Maddon was managing this young baseball team according to ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers.

"“For me, a winning attitude and culture and the fact that this group is such a young group and I could grow myself with it. And to be 26 years old and look throughout my, hopefully, eight years here that I was able to grow up with a group of guys and make them family and to be able to cherish that the rest of the way without feeling I had to restart.” – Heyward via Yahoo Sports."

On another note, he did mention that he’s fine playing in center field if that’s what Maddon will ask of him.

When comparing both the Cubs and Cardinals, you can see a huge difference in age. You have guys such as Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright coming close to retirement in anywhere between two-three years.

With the Cubs, there’s a handful of young players such as Jorge Soler, Jake Arrieta, Kyle Schwarber, Russell, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and a ton of promising prospects down in Chicago’s farm system.

"“The St. Louis Cardinals are always going to be a great organization, and I don’t think anyone would ever be surprised if they win a World Series any year, but if I were to look up in three years and saw a completely different team, that would be kind of different for me.” – Heyward via ESPN Chicago."

Another thing that Rogers pointed out is how well Heyward has played at Wrigley Field throughout his young career. He currently holds a career batting line of .311/.376/.522.

Hopefully, he’s able to keep that up now that he’s calling Chicago home.

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