Ranking the top 5 Chicago Cubs who’ve packed their bags in recent years

Unfortunately, all good things must come to end. As is the case with all professional sports teams. Though with the Chicago Cubs, it really didn’t have to end as abruptly as it did. The second half version of the 2021 team went on a terrible losing streak, but have also bounced back nicely and shown they have some solid pieces still moving forward.

Regardless, the core is no more. Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant are the three main players everybody thinks about when it comes to that group. However, they are not the only players we’ve seen pack their bags who had a significant impact and helped bring success along the way. Sometimes, you wish players could stay forever, regardless of if they play well or not. We tend to get attached to the ones we love and not think twice about what we see on the stat sheet. Some moves, like Yu Darvish, are just mind-boggling to try to understand until it all comes full circle.

The Cubs had a plan all along to cut costs and started doing so this past offseason long before any of the Wrigleyville faithful knew what was coming down the road. As the team’s president of baseball operations, I respect the decisions that had to be made and I admire the hard work and dedication Jed Hoyer put in to make the team as good as it can be moving forward. If Hoyer had endless funds available to him, I’m quite sure we would be seeing something different on the field right now.

Ultimately, it is up to the Ricketts family to give the green light to sign players to lengthy and expensive contracts. All Hoyer can do is whatever he can to make the Cubs an attractive place to want to play once funds are made available to him. In this case with the core, they simply weren’t.

Was it Jed Hoyer that didn’t want to sign Baez to a contract extension or was it Ricketts not being comfortable with the dollars involved there? Maybe we’ll never know. The fact is, over the recent years, many of our favorite players have come and gone. With that being said, let’s take a look at the top Cubs we’ve lost in recent years and their contributions to the team.

Chicago Cubs: Top players we’ve lost in recent years – #4: Kyle Schwarber

Kyle Schwarber burst onto the scene in 2015 batting .246/.355/.487 in his rookie campaign with 16 bombs and 43 RBI in only 69 games played. Schwarber capped off his 2015 season with one of the more memorable home runs in recent Cubs history, launching a seventh-inning NLDS Game 4 home run that landed on top of the scoreboard in right field.

Moreover, as the calendar flipped over to 2016, many remember Schwarber tore his ACL two games into the regular season and subsequently missed the entire year. Shockingly, he came back for the World Series in November, less than seven months after going down with the devastating injury. He returned with a bang, launching a double off the wall in Game 1 of the World Series and never looking back from there.

Unfortunately, Schwarber was non-tendered at the end of the 2020 season and, like Castellanos before him, went on to crush for another team and left a bad taste in Cubs fans mouths. In fact, Schwarber went on a historic tear this season before missing time with a hamstring injury, hitting 12 home runs in 10 games. Schwarber was a mainstay for several years with the Cubs core and though he didn’t play during the 2016 regular season, he is every bit the champion as everyone who did.

Chicago Cubs: Top players we’ve lost in recent years – #3: Javier Baez

El Mago. Javier Baez is and always will be remembered as a core member the 2016 championship team. Though the Cubs recently parted ways with the infielder, Baez’ electric plays in the field, at the plate and on the basepaths were an instant momentum boost anytime he made something happen. His baseball IQ is simply on another level. Unfortunately, he was traded at the deadline along with the rest of the core back in July.

It’s been a lot of ups and downs in his brief time with the New York Mets – but it’s nothing but aces right now for El Mago. Baez has rebounded and slashed an impressive .298/.360/.570, more than making up for the down first half of the season he had in Chicago. Whether the Mets hang on to him or not is yet to be seen. There will be other teams in on him if he finishes out the season strong.

One of those teams should be the Cubs. It would be nice to see the team bring back at least one of the core members they lost this season. As previously stated, Baez to the Cubs this offseason isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem. Baez has stated how much he loves playing for Chicago and if the Mets don’t intend to re-sign him, Chicago needs to come calling and get their magician back.

Chicago Cubs: Top players we’ve lost in recent years – #2. Anthony Rizzo

The heart and soul of this team and this city. When Anthony Rizzo was traded to the New York Yankees before Kris Bryant or Javier Baez followed suit, it sent shockwaves through Chicago. If anybody was staying, it was believed to be Rizzo. He was the captain of the team, after all. Once Rizzo was sent packing, though, all of the corresponding moves just became insult to injury as fans were already left numb by the departure of their beloved first baseman.

In a Cubs uniform, Rizzo slashed .272/.372/.489 with 242 homers with 784 RBI over the course of 10 seasons. Along with that, he earned three All-Star nods, four Gold Glove awards, one Silver Slugger, and of course, a World Series championship. Though the Cubs’ longtime first baseman is now 32 and has had more and more back issues flare up, I do believe he has a couple solid years left in him at the plate. For six straight years he had a batting average no less than .270 and now given the recent downward trend of 2020 and 2021, the front office more than likely thinks his best years are behind him and therefore are unwilling to pay the man.

After some post trade deadline back and forth banter between Rizzo and the front office, it now seems the relationship between he and the Cubs is soured to the point that he more than likely will not even be considered to be brought back, which is very unfortunate to say the least. Rizzo was the leader of this team, both on and off the field, and you can’t help but feel the front office didn’t do the best they could by him in the end.

Rizzo took an extremely team-friendly deal early in his career, and, of course, that doesn’t mean the front office should have just given him whatever he wanted, but I would have liked to see a little more effort by management to make something work out to where he’d earn more initially and less as the years went on should he decline in the coming years. Either way, Anthony Rizzo’s contributions on and off the field will forever be remembered by the Cubs and their fans. I wish nothing but the absolute best for Rizzo moving forward.

Chicago Cubs: Top players we’ve lost in recent years – #1: Kris Bryant

Last weekend, when the San Francisco Giants, and more importantly, Kris Bryant, returned to Wrigley Field, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place as the Cubs rolled out Bryant’s tribute video. Bryant himself notably was crying and one last time, we all dwelled on the memories of just how much this guy meant to this organization and the fans. The good times and huge moments he had at the plate: walk-off home runs, three-home run games and recording the final out in the World Series are just a few of the highlights.

When KB came up in 2015, the Cubs and everybody else knew they had someone special on their hands. Finishing the year with a slash of .275/.369/.488 to go along with 26 home runs and 99 RBI, Bryant set the Cubs rookie record with those 26 long balls, earning his first All-Star nod and winning NL Rookie of the Year honors.

The following year, Bryant picked up right where he left off, crushing 39 home runs to go with 102 RBI and a line of .292/.385/.554, earning the National League MVP as well as his second All-Star selection. Bryant’s production throughout the 2016 campaign propelled the Cubs to new heights and the team won 103 games, marking their first 100-win season since 1935 and only the second over the last century.

Bryant, a four-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, National League MVP and World Series champion will always be a Cub as far as I am concerned. The likelihood of Bryant returning to the Cubs in free agency once the season is over is slim to none, especially with Scott Boras as his agent. Of course, Boras looks to get his client every single dollar he can and will test the market accordingly.

Between the Cubs’ recent reluctance to sign high-dollar deals and Boras’ push to maximize what Bryant gets on the open market, it’s hard to see any common ground here. Forever in Cubs fans hearts, Bryant is up there with the top Cubs of all-time and has cemented his legacy in franchise history.