Chicago Cubs: Three huge mistakes that led to this rebuild

By all accounts, Jason Heyward is a nice man who has been a great presence in the Chicago Cubs locker room. However, a good leader is not worth an eight-year deal at 184 million dollars with a 20 million dollar signing bonus. 184 is guaranteed and his average annual salary is 23 million dollars. In 2021, he will earn 23.5 million dollars. That is not great for the Cubs payroll because he doesn’t put up the numbers that command a salary like that.

Heyward has basically been a disappointment since the minute he stepped onto the field in a Cubs uniform. He was a very good player before signing with the Cubs as a member of the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals. With the Cubs, his play took a major dip. He is an elite right fielder but that position defensively is not worth the offense being sacrificed.

With the Cubs, he has a slash line of .253/.332/.388 with an OPS of .721. In 592 games played, he has 53 home runs, 249 RBIs, and 285 runs scored. Some of those are decent numbers but none of them are worth the salary that he is being paid. This contract has caused the Cubs to need to move money around, including players who are significantly better than him. They won the World Series with him so it will never be considered as bad as it could have been but it is still bad. If they never signed him to a deal like that, they might not be rebuilding now like they are.