Chicago Cubs: 2020 is the most consequential season in a long time

Chicago Cubs: Who will stay and who will go?

The Cubs are just $4.717 million over the 2020 CBA threshold, and no doubt that will be trimmed even before the season starts.  Plus, Jon Lester, Tyler Chatwood, and Jose Quintana are in the last year of their contracts.  Lester has a ten million dollar buyout, but just those three at $43.5 million account for twenty percent of payroll.

To recap, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Kyle Schwarber are all free agents after 2021. Willson Contreras and Albert Almora follow after 2022.  Then there’s David Bote, Ian Happ, and Robel Garcia, among others, who are all on the bubble this year.  This season, perhaps more than the last or the next, will determine who the front office decides to keep, trade, or offer extensions to heading into 2021.

After 2020, the Cubs will have payroll flexibility, added resources from the Marquee Network, and 2021 is the last year of the CBA so that penalties will reset with the new CBA in 2022.