After stops with the Washington Nationals and Boston Red Sox following his departure from the Chicago Cubs the offseason following the 2020 season, Kyle Schwarber hasn't just found a home with the Philadelphia Phillies; he has become a staple in the Phillies' culture. It's no surprise that the Phillies and Schwarber are already working on his next contract.
After the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the Cubs made the decision to non-tender Scwarber. It's a move that if you got Jed Hoyer without cameras in front of him, he likely would admit it was a mistake. But, the 2020 season ended the Cubs' way as fans have grown to understand it under Theo Epstein. In addition to Schwarber's departure, Epstein left the organization given the moves he knew were in the pipeline. Those moves included trading Yu Darvish that same offseason and moving on from the core that won the 2016 World Series.
Within one calendar year between the end of the 2020 season and the end of the 2021 season, Schwarber, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, and Anthony Rizzo all became former Cubs. It was a true "life comes at you fast moment" for those players as well as the fans who have grown to love them. As Schwarber mentioned on Foul Territory, the pain was rooted in the fact that there was a belief that the core would last forever.
"You think that team is going to last forever."
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 6, 2025
Kyle Schwarber says it was shocking to see the Cubs disassemble their core five years after winning the World Series. pic.twitter.com/a35WLJCa9C
Kyle Schwarber threw some shade at the Cubs' 2021 MLB Trade Deadline move
While admitting that realization he had that "nothing lasts forever" when talking about his departure from the Cubs, Schwarber also threw some shade in saying that they still had a good team and was surprised at how quickly the team tore the core down. History, however, would suggest that the Cubs made the right decision to move on from all of those players with the exception of Schwarber. Of course, the specific trades aren't looking particularly great at the moment.
The 20216 Cubs will certainly go down as one of baseball's marvels--the team that broke the curse. However, it will also be studied how winning the World Series not only marked the beginning of the end for their manager, Joe Maddon, but also, the relationship between those core players and the organization.