Kyle Schwarber signed with the Washington Nationals for 10 mil/one year.
Had he stayed with the Cubs and gone through arbitration, the projected numbers were "somewhere between $7.01MM and $9.3MM."
From MLB Rumors: "The fact that Schwarber surpassed even the highest arb projection in landing $10MM from Washington is indicative both of how much interest there must have been in his services, and a sign that the Nats are taking more stock in some of Schwarber’s advanced metrics than his bottom-line 2020 numbers."
I guess I was surprised he didn't go to an AL team, but knowing the guy... his determination, coming back from injury, the weight loss, and also how hard he worked at playing left field... I bet he wanted to stay in the NL.
And Nats park has the added benefit of being just 335' down the RF line while it's 353' at Wrigley.
You know I'm a Cub fan but I sure hope Kyle hits 50 bombs and keeps throwing missiles from left field so he can politely, in the privacy of his own home (because I figure that's how he'd do it), lift a middle finger towards Chicago.
And people are going nuts for the Kris Byrant to the Mets rumor.
Should that happen, well, they say the Cubs want the Mets top catching prospect in return. Which means... of course we all have heard this but would make a Willson Contreras trade way more sensible for the Cubs.
Tell you what.
I'm just not expecting the Cubs to look anything like we've gotten used to over the years.
You should, too.
That way, well we can do that private little cry, but maybe then we won't be so shocked when we're looking at a team that has a bunch of Nate Schierholtzes running around.
Tell you something else, I do not envy Jed Hoyer's position right now.
I can't get this video out of my head (go ahead to about 1:35):
Old Joe makes perfect business sense here.
But now, the part about "selling every ticket, to every game, win or lose" seems not such a sure thing.
And I imagine a phone call between old Joe and young Tom that went like this: "Hi Tom. Our business model is broken, so get rid of the parts that cost the most."
Right after that, Tom called Theo, Theo turned into Jed, and here we are.
Don't want to leave you on that note because when you're done here, there are so many other headlines to depress you, so... here's some other stuff I hope makes you smile. I did these leading up to Jan 1, 2021.
Have a good one, and go Cubs.