Rizzo, Hoyer address state of Cubs' core group

CHICAGO -- Anthony Rizzo would love nothing more than to remain with the Cubs for the rest of his career. He has made that clear multiple times over the years, and maybe there is a way to make to still make it happen. The reality is that hopes do not always align with plans.

Rizzo -- like the rest of the core group that helped the Cubs win the World Series three years ago -- understands that baseball is a business. That could not be more clear this winter, as trade rumblings keep swirling around 2016 National League MVP Award winner Kris Bryant. Rizzo knows that being a Cub for life might not be in the cards for him or some of Chicago's key players.

"I think it would be naïve for me not to have those thoughts," Rizzo said ahead of this weekend's Cubs Convention. "But at the same time, when [those thoughts] do come in, you knock them right out. You do an extra set in the weight room and you do an extra set of hitting to clear that out."

One week ago, the Cubs avoided arbitration with a group of its core stars, signing Bryant ($18.6 million), Javier Báez ($10 million), Kyle Schwarber ($7.01 million) and Willson Contreras ($4.5 million) to one-year pacts. At the start of Chicago's quiet offseason, the team picked up its $16.5 million team option on Rizzo.

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The question hanging over that group is whether any will get multi-year extensions as part of the Cubs' attempt to sustain the team's run of contention. The most realistic extension candidate in the immediate picture is probably Báez, and there have reportedly been preliminary talks this winter. For the rest, there has been nothing substantive made public on that front.

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At the Winter Meetings in December, a report surfaced that there would be no extension talks with Rizzo this offseason. Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein does not typically discuss such topics, but he made an exception in light of the report. For now, the two sides were simply too far apart.

"We're trying to explore opportunities where they exist," Epstein said last month, "where there's potential for some common ground on some of the important variables. But if there's not a deal to be struck or even an offer to be made, it doesn't necessarily reflect a lack of interest. Just maybe the sort of contract dynamic or the existence of some comps that don't make it possible at the given moment."

Assuming the Cubs pick up Rizzo's $16.5 million team option for '21, and barring any extensions, he will join Báez and Schwarber as free agents ahead of the '22 season. Bryant is also in that free-agent class, though the Cubs are awaiting an arbitrator's ruling on the third baseman's service-time grievance, stemming from the timing of his promotion to the Majors in '15. If Bryant wins his case, he would become a free-agent next offseason.

Contreras is currently eligible for free agency following the '22 season. Given that the All-Star catcher has an additional year of control, the urgency to extend him may not be as high for the Cubs.

The volume of players approaching free agency in the next two winters -- including other veteran players with contracts that have the potential to expire in that time frame -- have the Cubs trying to balance winning now with planning for the future. That has played a key role in the trade rumors and reports throughout this offseason.

And on Friday morning, Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer went on 670 AM The Score and reiterated that locking up the entire core group on extensions is probably not a realistic scenario.

"We had this young group that came through the farm system, that came up at the same time," Hoyer said in the interview. "We offered all those guys extensions. We tried hard to really keep this group together for as long as we can. I think there are certain realities where we are not going to be able to keep this group together forever. It may be by them leaving through free agency. It may be by us trading some of them. We might be able to extend some of them. But I think in all honesty, we passed the point of being able to extend all those players.

"I think we had a moment in time where that might have been possible, and then we passed that. And so the reality is we've kept this group together for a long time by baseball standards. We hope to continue to be able to keep it together, but when you look at it, a lot of these guys hit free agency after 2021. We have to think about not only this year's team, but we have to think about how we're going to field a really competitive team beyond that group's free agency after 2021."

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As for the past extensions offers made to the core players, Rizzo said he understands why some within the group have declined to put their name on the dotted line.

"I think guys had opportunities a couple years ago to get locked up," Rizzo said. "But with the deals that are being thrown around now, I think it’s smart for them not to have."

Rizzo declined to offer his reaction to the stalled extension talks this winter, choosing instead to say that his only focus is on helping the Cubs win in 2020. He did, however, acknowledge that the core players understand that their days as teammates on the North Side could be numbered.

"It would be kind of irresponsible and naïve of us players to not know that they have a business to run," Rizzo said. "And we're a part of their business, and we're a part of an entity. We're players. We know this game really doesn't know any names. You're just another piece of the puzzle. And if I'm not playing first base, someone else will be. And that's the way it is.

"Third base, shortstop, second base -- this is a business. I think with [the front office], they're very straight-forward with us. They talk to us, and they're easy to talk to. And that's great for us players to be able to go out and play. There's two sides to this game."