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

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.