Chicago Cubs: Three players who won’t be on the Opening Day roster

Change is coming for the Chicago Cubs. When the 2020 season begins, this roster could look wildly different. These three guys won’t even be on the roster.

Only a handful of Chicago Cubs players will be able to fully enjoy the offseason without fear of losing their role on the team. If your name isn’t Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Jon Lester, Craig Kimbrel, Kyle Hendricks or Yu Darvish, then you better buckle up.

Kris Bryant barely falls outside of that group in my mind. It would take an overwhelming haul for Chicago to move the former NL Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player and it’s hard to envision a contender that would get notably better in the immediate future, while also being able to give the Cubs a package Theo Epstein would deem worthy in return.

That’s not to say it’s impossible, but pretty unlikely.

Jason Heyward‘s contract isn’t nearly as unmovable as a lot of folks seem to think it is, nor is Tyler Chatwood‘s – which has just one year remaining on it. Then, you get to the once-heralded wave of former top prospects, many of whom have failed to live up to the hype.

Coming off just 84 wins and finishing the season by dropping 10 of 12, a reckoning is at hand for the Chicago Cubs – and rightfully so. Their contention window is rapidly closing and unless Epstein pulls the right levers this offseason, our memories of 2016 may be all we have to sustain us in years to come.