Chicago Cubs: Who’s getting cashed in to pay for virus season?

Chicago Cubs: Who’s getting fired, sold or traded to pay for the virus season?

In 2021, the Cubs will need to extend or renegotiate contracts with many of the Cubs’ corps superstars. There are a lot of eyes of this deal because Chicago sports teams tend to make dumb decisions when it comes to bringing back superstars. To put it bluntly, owners tend to go the cheap route before engaging in career-long contracts.

Just last week, the Cubs already began sapping the juice from some of their coaching staff, and even the top brass felt the pinch, according to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune:

Employees in the baseball operations and business operations departments and those with uniform employee contracts (UECs) — which includes manager David Ross and his coaches, scouts, minor-league managers and coaches and other non-playing personnel — are all affected by the salary reductions. The percentage of the cuts vary, with higher-salaried employees receiving cuts of up to 35%, the source said, while the majority of the cuts are 20% or lower. Baseball operations President Theo Epstein and business operations President Crane Kenney are at the high end and already had their salaries reduced before the latest action.

There is a lot of discussions online that Epstein could be the first to go. Reports are that he is ready to do something else and is not interested in rebuilding another Cubs team. With an estimated $25 million contract over the last five years, Ricketts could go for a younger President of Baseball Operations and pay just $500 thousand to $1 million.

You could even give General Manager Jed Hoyer’s duties to the President of Baseball Operations and pay him or her a cool $1.5 million. Now you’ve just saved $20-$30 million dollars right at the top for both these staff.

Don’t count out that extra money is going a long way to help bring in and maintain some good players on the team.  However, with the team standing to lose at least $100 million this season, that $20-$30 million is not even half of what the Cubs need to get back to usual bargaining ground again.

So, where do you get another $70 million to get yourself back to normal bargaining grounds?  This is where the Cubs stable of players will have to be evaluated to see where the trades and profits can be made a long term for the team. But if you had to start cashing in players right away, who would be gone first from the Cubs team?

Chicago Cubs: Cubs players that the team just can’t afford any longer

We know that any real money that the team needs ($70 million) are going to come from one of the Cubs top performers like Bryant, Baez, Contreras or Schwarber.

I believe the team will keep Baez at shortstop and try to make the best deal they can to keep him in a Cubs uniform. I talked about the kind of money that Baez should be looking for earlier this month right here.

That’s a lot of money to pay out when you’re looking for $70 million to break even this virus season, but Wrigley fans knew back in April that the band was breaking up soon.

Hoyer told R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports back in January:

“I think there are certain realities where we are not going to be able to keep this group together forever,” Hoyer said about the foursome hitting free agency after 2021 that includes Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, and Kyle Schwarber. “It may be by them leaving through free agency. It may be by us trading some of them. We might be able to extend some of them.” Hoyer added that the Cubs are “past the point” of being able to extend all those players.

So the first place you might think about some value is Bryant. Since the Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper got a record-setting $330 million 13-year contract, what might Bryant fetch in 2021?

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Many insiders believe that Bryant is a better ‘catch’ than Harper and could most likely net $330 million over eight years, which is close to $41 million per year. A $70 million cash offer with some prospects or perhaps a trade for an up and coming third baseman and the organization have all they need to get through the virus season.

However, there will most likely be a few more Cubs leaving the organization to make room for a smart rebuild that helps the team financially. You can expect the Cubs to make deals for Rizzo and Schwarber as well. Rizzo would almost have to play for free for the team to keep him through a rebuild. While his numbers and performance are still at the top of the game, it may be smart to see still if there is a market for Rizzo outside of Wrigley Field.

The aging first baseman is still very healthy right now, like peak condition, but we’re talking about a seven-year contract, which is what the 30-year old Rizzo would like to secure. The Cubs see Baez at shortstop surrounded by young superstars like Cubs second baseman, Nico Hoerner, not a senior statesman like Rizzo. Look for the team to go young all around the infield and say goodbye to Rizzo.

Schwarber is the wild card that can net the team some good trades as well as money for operating the team going further. Schwarber has shown his value at the plate and can be a valuable addition to a team in need of a designated hitter. Schwarber has also got a rocket throw from the outfield that can be an asset to a team with a sub-par outfield.

With Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, Epstein and Hoyer gone by 2021, the fun is really about to start as the next evolution of Cubs baseball begins.