All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s contract talks with the Cubs are stalled for the same reason contract talks usually stall: A difference of opinion on the player’s value.
The Cubs offered Rizzo a five-year extension for $70 million, according to major-league sources. The proposal, an initial offer subject to negotiation, was front-loaded and included escalators that would have enabled Rizzo to earn more on the back end, sources said. But the guarantee was barely more than half of what the Cardinals gave first baseman Paul Goldschmidt when they signed him to a five-year, $130 million extension in March 2019.
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Rizzo is in the same position Goldschmidt was then, eight months away from free agency, entering his age-31 season. Goldschmidt had superior offensive numbers over the same period, a park- and league-adjusted OPS 45 percent above league average, compared to Rizzo’s 29 percent. And, after a shortened 60-game season with no fans, the Cubs might argue the market has changed.
Yankees second baseman DJ LeMahieu, coming off two top-four MVP finishes at a more valuable defensive position, signed a six-year, $90 million free-agent contract this offseason entering his age-32 season. Rizzo would turn 33 on Aug. 8 in the first season of his new deal, at a time when most teams are reluctant to pay players big money into their mid-30s.
The difference between Rizzo and other players is that he is a mainstay in the Cubs organization and community, a fan favorite who won the 2017 Roberto Clemente Award for his contributions off the field. The Cubs, meanwhile, are inviting skepticism from their fan base with their recent cost-cutting approach after three straight seasons of fielding top-five Opening Day payrolls. The team’s biggest move this offseason was its trade of staff ace Yu Darvish to the Padres for Zach Davies and low-level prospects.
Rizzo, who remained composed and decisive while addressing his contract situation Monday during a 15-minute Zoom conference with the Chicago media, said he views Opening Day as a hard deadline for the negotiations and insisted he wants to be 100 percent focused on baseball this year.
“We’ve had enough time to talk and try to figure it out,” Rizzo said. “I told my agents to not talk to me about it anymore, even from this point on. It was good just to have clarity one way or the other. Now I can get ready for the season.”
Rizzo’s lead agent, Marc Pollack of Sports One Athlete Management, declined comment, as did Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who has maintained he wants Rizzo to remain with the team.
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Pollack negotiated Rizzo’s current deal, which wasn’t finalized until May 2013, or six weeks after Opening Day. But that’s probably a dated reference point — Rizzo wasn’t citing it as a source of optimism that another deal could be reached with the Cubs in the near future. Whatever sense of frustration and disappointment Rizzo may be carrying right now, he contained it while answering questions from reporters.
“It’s just part of the business,” Rizzo said. “Like I’ve stated many times before, I love Chicago. I love the fans. I love what Wrigley Field and being a Chicago Cub is all about. But obviously it didn’t work out thus far. And that’s OK. I’m at peace with it. I’ve done everything I can. And I’ll continue to do everything I can to be the best player I can be. I look forward to this group. We (have) all the makings to be a very fun team.”
That’s one way to look at it. But assuming there are no surprise announcements regarding Javier Báez and Kris Bryant before Thursday’s 1:20 p.m. first pitch, it looks like more than half of the Cubs’ projected 26-man Opening Day roster is positioned to reach free agency after this season. As thousands of fans return to Wrigley Field, the countdown toward the July 31 trade deadline will continue.
Rizzo represents one of many complicated decisions Hoyer faces. As Theo Epstein’s longtime lieutenant, Hoyer knew Rizzo as a Red Sox prospect. As San Diego’s general manager, Hoyer demanded that Rizzo be part of the return for Adrián González during trade negotiations with Epstein. Together, Epstein and Hoyer reacquired Rizzo from the Padres and made him the face of their rebuilding project before the 2012 season.
“It would be foolish (not to listen) if someone comes with a nice blank check and says, ‘What do you want?’” Rizzo said. “But from my standpoint, I’m firm on just playing baseball and not worrying about any dollar figure or any number of years. I’m just focused on playing baseball. And I’ve told them I don’t even want to hear anything unless it’s as close to what we think is right. They know not to talk to me about it anymore at all.”
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Rizzo appears to be looking at Goldschmidt’s extension with the Cardinals as a reasonable frame of reference. That deal closed during spring training in 2019, before COVID-19 disrupted the game’s business model. The Cardinals had also given up three players and a draft pick to acquire Goldschmidt from the Diamondbacks, creating another pressure point that favored the first baseman.
When Rizzo eyed an extension in 2013, he wanted to top the $32 million guarantee that Goldschmidt received from the Diamondbacks. Rizzo got $41 million guaranteed and later maxed out the value of his contract through his showings in the MVP voting. Rizzo’s base salary for 2021 — the second of two club options the Cubs picked up — will be $16.5 million.
Freddie Freeman — who signed an eight-year, $135 million extension with the Braves that reset the market in February 2014 — is another All-Star first baseman who is positioned to become a free agent following this season.
Rizzo’s deal turned out to be team-friendly, but he made that decision as a cancer survivor who valued long-term security, his comfort level with Cubs executives and the legacy opportunities in Chicago.
After being drafted by the Red Sox, getting traded to and from the Padres and winning a World Series with the Cubs, Rizzo has to be prepared for the possibility of starting over with a new team in a different city.
“It’s not something I really think of right now,” Rizzo said. “The only thing that really pops in my mind is my biggest mentor in the game — or one of my biggest mentors and one of my best friends — is Jon Lester. He’s had legacies at two different historic franchises. When you think of that actual business side of it, you can’t just be naïve to think that just because of what I’ve done here — and what I express — they’re just going to hand me a contract. I got to go out and earn it.”
Rizzo has been a consistent offensive force, a four-time Gold Glove winner, a clubhouse leader and a community ambassador for the Cubs through his charitable foundation. He has played more than 1,200 games with the Cubs — a stretch that spans a 101-loss season and a 103-win season — plus 10 playoff rounds in the last six years. The 108-year championship drought ended when he caught the ball that Bryant threw in the 10th inning of Game 7.
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“It’s been an amazing ride,” Rizzo said. “I don’t think it’s over yet. But it’s part of the business. This is business — and you need to separate it — because every good business person will tell you there’s really no friendships in business. This is part of the process. And from the Anthony Rizzo business standpoint, you need to take steps back and realize what’s going on. But from a player and a human being standpoint, obviously, I’ve expressed my love and desire for this city.”
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)