The business side of baseball became more apparent for Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner after the 2024 season. It was that winter, as he recovered from right flexor tendon surgery, that he began to see his name floated around in trade rumors.
“I think I was a little more affected by it, just from the standpoint of, I wasn’t healthy, I wasn’t coming off a year I was super proud of,” Hoerner said Sunday afternoon after a news conference formally announcing his six-year, $141 million contract extension, which begins in 2027 and runs through the 2032 season. “So, I think just when you’re in a place that doesn’t feel as good, it’s a little harder to handle uncertainty.”
That winter, Hoerner had just wrapped up the first year of a three-year contract extension tying him to the organization that drafted him No. 22 in the 2018 MLB Draft. But that pact came without the protection of a no-trade clause, and as the Cubs sputtered to a second consecutive 83-win, playoff-less season, the idea of trading a controllable second baseman with the ability to play shortstop to upgrade the roster wasn’t too far-fetched.
A trade never materialized and this winter, when his name again began percolating in the trade rumor mill, he was more at peace with his situation. But he still wanted to finish his career in Chicago, donning the only uniform he’s known.
“You talk about seven years of commitment and it’s a decision that goes very far outside of yourself (like) picturing potentially having a family in those years,” Hoerner said. “And there’s a whole lot of things that, in a good way, brought up good, challenging conversations and I think it just kind of helps get exercise for understanding your values and being in a place where I feel valued as a player, but as a person. The Cubs treat my family incredibly well and (I) have a home here that we love and I don’t think there’s a better place to be a baseball player.
“I think free agency is a special thing to get to experience, but it’s hard to imagine a situation that can top this.”
Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner stands with teammates for the national anthem Thursday, March 26, 2026, on opening day at Wrigley Field. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
That’s why it was so paramount for Hoerner and his agent, Adam Karon of Apex Baseball, to begin negotiations with Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and the team over a new extension. That process began in January, with conversations “picking up steam in like the last two weeks,” Hoyer said.
Both sides imposed an artificial deadline of opening day. The new deal, which includes a no-trade clause, begins in 2027 and runs through his age-35 season, was finalized as the Cubs dropped the season opener to the Nationals 10-4.
“I guess we sort of honored the deadline,” Hoyer quipped after the news conference. “We sort of had that as a deadline all along, which I think is good and it forced us to sort of come together and get a deal.”
Most importantly, the deal practically ensures Hoerner will finish his career as a Cub — no more trade rumors or thoughts of moving away from Chicago.
“I think a lot of us have this kind of idea that ‘Oh, you’re going to stay with the same team from the beginning of your career,’” Hoerner said. “And that’s just not the reality in sports most of the time. So, to be in that situation to potentially do that, I still haven’t wrapped my head around that, but it was a huge priority in this process.
“It’s such a historic organization to be able to be here for a significant chunk of that and hopefully be able to add to that history is a very meaningful thing.”
For manager Craig Counsell, extending Hoerner is a sign of how baseball values players. He’s only clubbed 36 home runs in his six-plus seasons in the majors and has never posted an OPS above .751, but he’s won a pair of Gold Glove Awards at second base, stolen 20 or more bases in the last four seasons and has a career batting average of .282. He’s also posted four straight seasons of at least 3.7 wins above replacement, per Baseball Reference.
“Nico has shown everybody (that) if you do a lot of things really well and the sum of that is just an excellent player,” Counsell said before the Cubs lost to the Washington Nationals 6-3 on Sunday. “That’s how we got here, right? He just does a lot of things really well and you add it all up and it’s one of the better players in the league and that’s what he’s rewarded for.
“It’s the all-around game. That adds to wins. I think we’re coming from a place where … we’re just better at understanding what leads to baseball wins now.”
Hoerner’s extension, coupled with center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s six-year pact that was announced last Friday, provides some reassurances to the rest of the players in the clubhouse, too. Hoerner’s impact on the team was clear on Sunday. Teammates Matthew Boyd, Carson Kelly, Cade Horton, Moisés Ballesteros, Dansby Swanson, Jameson Taillon, Crow-Armstrong, Michael Busch, Alex Bregman and Ian Happ, along with Counsell, were all in attendance at the news conference.
“I feel like it just allows us to build better relationships with the guys around us just knowing that they’re going to be here,” Horton, the Cubs’ right-handed pitcher, said after Saturday’s game. “Those are the guys that are going to be in the dog days, the good days, the highs, the lows. So having them around us is huge. It’s just being able to know that they’re going to be around, and we have a foundation and now it’s about focusing on the day-to-day.”