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What would be the point? Keep your prospects and just keep paying Heyward.
They aren’t in full rebuild mode.
That said, they’d have to give a good prospect or two to offload his contract. Or they could send a ton of cash with him. It’ll take a lot of value going along.
They would have to give 2-3 elite prospects - it’s that bad.
Man, Jason Heyward was a big, flashy player when he was acquired with a suitably huge contract. His Cubs drop off was unpredictable and basically just a cosmic let down. Theo was right to get him and we paid the price. He’s a great dude and sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes you pay the price for going big. Cubs ain’t paying shit for the next few years, I for one am cutting JHey some slack. He was also great last year along with currently bullshit Ian Happ. And I totally disagree with anybody who says we aren’t in full rebuild mode.
At the time of the signing though everyone knew something was broken offensively with Heyward. He wasn't crushing windshields during Spring Training batting practice anymore. But hey, it worked out, he is a veteran presence to have in the clubhouse, and not completely dogshit. Just paying money and payroll ain't gonna be a concern for a bit ya dig.
Wouldnt say full - maybe 75%. But it will be brief.
There is zero way to unload his contract. We are stuck with him for two years.
No. He can still provide veteran leadership however. Better to keep him around with the young guys coming up. J Hey is a class act and while he won't be producing compared to the level he is paid, he's a good guy to have mentoring the youth.
He can't hit and is declining defensively. Nobody wants him at his salary. Their best bet is the league institutes a salary floor with the next CBA, and a rebuilding team is willing to take on the contract to reach the floor. Otherwise he's a $22 million 4th/platoon outfielder for next two seasons.
Keep him at this point. Our pay roll is so low anyway and he'll sell jerseys and put fans in the seats.
Who the hell is buying a Heyward jersey the past three years?
I've considered it.
I know at least 1 person
Well what other jersey would you buy at this point? He's the only remotely big name left on the team other than Contreras and Hendricks.
Pretty much anyone else would be better. Heyward is an awful player and will forever be remembered as one of the worst signings in Chicago sports. If you want a current Cub then it's easily Contreras, but you can also just go get a really good deal on a Rizzo jersey to tide you over until free agency. That one will never go out of style.
Or past 6 years?
I get it if you bought one the off-season he signed or really early in the 2016 season. That's just bad luck. But there's no good reason to have bought one within the past 5 years, for sure.
Naw, at this point he's the defacto captain.
I do think Rizzo is coming back but until then its J Heys team.
Contreras is the captain.
Disagree, Willy is better but J Hey is a leader type.
Neither one has enough WISDOM
They should DFA him and cut their losses
Considering they would still owe him all of his contract this would accomplish nothing.
I don’t think they’re going to do anything with him. He’s one of the few name brands guys left and right now he’s being paid to provide leadership and be a veteran presence while they bring up all of these new guys. He’s a permanent starter in RF for the rest of this season, and probably something similar to that next year. I don’t see anything happening with him besides that.
At this point he’s a great veteran voice to have around while we bring in some mew pieces
Keep him for his leadership, and when his contract is finally off the books that’s when we make our next big splash in free agency, right around the time our prospects will hopefully be close to getting called up
Only thing you could do is DFA him. No one in their right mind would touch his contract. Cubs will just have to eat next two year and erase the horrible memory of this contract.
You could play him, we're uncompetitive and couldn't hurt having leadership and someone that knows how to play good defense around for the others in this rebuild. Even if he can't physically handle it anymore he knows what he's doing out there.
We're paying him either way
It’s Ellsbury 2.0. Can’t move him. Hoyer would need to pay 90% of remaining $$$. He’s a 4th OF’er. Stuck for 2 more years. Maybe they DFA him during his final year?? It’s sad, he such a good dude, but his $$$ def hurts the team.
I don't think they are in full rebuild mode as they have a ton of cash Jed is waiting to spend this off-season, but Heyward will probably be a Cub for the duration of his contract. Heyward is still better than a lot of teams last player on the bench, but he is just being paid way to much for what he's contributing. The Cubs have money though, so it's not worth sending the contract away at the expense of talent.