It's Been One Hell Of A Week For The Chicago Cubs & It's Only Tuesday Afternoon

Carl2/08/2022 10:20 PM

Idk exactly who needs to hear this but it's time to set Anthony Rizzo free from the bullshit. I'm doing everything I can to move on from one of my all time favorite Chicago athletes and then this shit becomes a story and I get sucked right back in. Like in the last Bobba Fett (spoiler) when Ashoka resists Din Djarin's reunion with Grogu. The bond is simply too strong to hang out casually... the inevitable pain of separation will dwarf whatever short-term benefit you get in the meantime. Grogu and Din are healing. Cubs fans and Rizzo are healing. Bringing us back together on a casual 2-year puts me in a very uncomfortable position.

I know Rizzo wants to make some money on the market and it's likely that leads to him taking the best terms available. If the Cubs offer it, maybe he comes back? Maybe... if it's CLEARLY the best deal. That moves the needle. But the idea of a friendly or incentive based contract is so unlikely that I can see him signing a 1-year deal over more years and security. I very much see Anthony Rizzo as a man who wants to bet on himself and that has much greater upside away from Wrigley Field.

Imagine his first press conference back. Then the spring training and the questions about the Cubs prospects that he will undoubtedly hate. He'll be asked incessantly if there's any hard feelings while reliving his short time with the Yankees in vivid detail. And that's just public relations stuff that we see.

Internally is probably way worse. He'll have to accept that Jed Hoyer is yet again the chief decision maker in his life. There's a lot of pride on the table here and I don't think it's quite understood just how much Rizzo wanted to play his whole career as a Cub. He wanted one team on the back of the baseball card. A guy who lived up to the hype at a discount and sincerely believed he'd be rewarded with a new contract. It was never even on the table until last offseason. A complete nonstarter when he wanted to put roots down and avoid the mess we find ourselves in today.

Then the day comes and they say 5-years/$70M. Not shabby but a full 40% less than what Freddie Freeman is looking at today. Freddie has an admitted edge but it's not 40%. Factor in the soft stuff (at the time) and it's not even close. Rizzo couldn't be the face of the franchise and take that kind of number, which brings us back to one of my original points: Anthony Rizzo wants to bet on himself. When you look at all he's done, it's hard to blame the fuckin guy. I would feel the same way.

That's why I find it so hard to believe he would even consider coming back to the Cubs. He'd have to clear all that baggage amidst pressure of putting up a comeback season. That's just way too much head noise for a guy that wants to put up big numbers and prove his worth.

As for the Cubs, maybe this is all just smoke and mirrors to distract from the streaming service news. Maybe that deserves another blog but I'd rather talk Anthony Rizzo. Given the choice of pretty much any topic and I'd feel the same way. There's always time for Rizzo.

But since we're here, I'll just say this news from the Cubs sounds like a disaster:

Audacy - Major League Baseball is not keen on that prospect, especially given Sinclair Broadcasting’s financial situation. MLB also reportedly does not think the initial price tag being floated - $18 a month for subscribers - would be a winning price, saying that it would only attract the most diehard of fans.

The Cubs got promptly dragged on every social media platform following this news and rightfully so. That's because it's a goddamn ridiculous idea to charge Cubs fans $18/month when an overwhelming majority of the national base developed their passion through WGN. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here. How stupid do they think we are?

We watched Zach Davies barf his way through 32 starts last year. The farm system is lucky to be mediocre. Everybody got traded and nobody is having fun anymore. As quickly as the success came, the Cubs are back to Jim Hendry level rosters. Now is not the time to be floating out $220 worth of annual charges to stream the Cubs on your mobile device. Not when it's well known this revenue would go to debt service and not player contracts.

The only saving grace is that maybe they floated this to get a projection on a new revenue stream and they're using these projection to secure more money to pay Carlos Correa. Maybe there's a bigger and better reason for this development. Maybe I shouldn't be mad?

I wish that were so but all this Rizzo "internal discussions" nonsense just screams like the Cubs are trying to strike balance with fans in the middle of a lockout. We're as pissed off as ever and then we get the $18/month news. So what's the easiest way to calm us down?