Chicago Cubs: Three big contracts to sell high on this offseason

Like Yu Darvish, most of Jason Heyward‘s tenure with the Cubs has been bad. He signed for a big-time contract ahead of the 2016 season where he was expected to be the final piece to a World Series team. Well, you can argue that he was because they did win the World Series the following October but he wasn’t the biggest reason why. He had his big “rain delay speech” but other than that, he wasn’t worth his contract status.

His batting average and offensive production, in general, have always been underwhelming since he came to Chicago. He has, however, been one of the best defensive right fielders in the league. There is no doubt that he is awesome defensively but right-field is not necessarily a position that you sacrifice that much offense for elite defense.

In 2020, like Darvish, he did have a really good year. He wasn’t nominated for any awards or anything like that like Darvish was but he was a great contributor to their success. He had an OPS of .848 and a WAR of 1.3 which shows that he had a pretty good year, especially for his recent standards. It was the first time that he had an OPS over .800 since the 2012 season which tells a lot about how his career has gone in recent years.

It would be a lot for another team to take on his contract but someone might do it based on his 2020 success. If a team feels that their window is closing and can use as much help as they can get, they might take a flyer on Heyward. Even if it meant the Cubs paying some of the money or giving up something as a sweetener to the deal, it would be worth considering for their future.