Chicago Cubs: 2 good things about the season being delayed

2. Extra time to work on an extension for Javier Baez

The Cubs have a problem.

It won’t be one you’ll notice on the field this year, but it’s certainly one you’ll hear a lot about.

Of all the Cubs players, just five have contracts with the team after the 2021 season – those five are Jason Heyward, Yu Darvish, Kyle Hendricks, Craig Kimbrel, and David Bote. That’s just 21 players short of a full roster.

While fans are certainly happy that some of those players will be around for the next few seasons, it’s noticeably missing the team’s best players. Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Kyle Schwarber will all become free agents after the 2021 season unless they agree to terms on an extension with the team beforehand.

Of that group of players, Baez is without a doubt the most likely to sign with the team long term, but an Opening Day deadline was set to reach an agreement according to Jon Heyman:

"My understanding, from what I’ve heard, is that they’ve set an Opening Day deadline in that situation. They aren’t talking publicly. I tried to check in with Theo Epstein — he wouldn’t comment on the situation."

The delay of Opening Day extends the deadline that the Cubs and Baez have set to reach an agreement, plus, when players sign an extension, they’re much more likely to do so before the season begins.

According to data from MLBTradeRumors.com’s Extension Tracker, from the end of the 2018 World Series through April 2019, 33 players signed an extension with their team. Of those 33 extensions, 25 were signed before Opening Day.

So far this offseason, 14 players have signed an extension. The Cubs, Baez, and fans would all be ecstatic if he becomes the 15th.