said at the news conference<\/a> announcing his extension.<\/p>\n\u201cBut I\u2019m also proud that my game in a lot of ways hasn\u2019t changed that much since I was in high school and in college. You\u2019re always improving around the edges, but I feel like I\u2019ve stayed pretty true to myself. And I\u2019m really grateful that\u2019s valued in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs\u2019 ledger sheet<\/p>\n
Cubs ownership rightly deserves credit for signing Bregman, Crow-Armstrong and Hoerner to nine-figure contracts within a three-month span. Yet, with so many other Cubs eligible for free agency after this season, it\u2019s not like management had much choice.<\/p>\n
The Cubs had to spend on someone.<\/p>\n
Before agreeing with Bregman in mid-January, the team\u2019s future commitments \u2014 $39 million in 2027, $30 million in 2028 and $26 million in 2029 \u2014 were in the same range as the notoriously thrifty Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n
The Cubs\u2019 potential free agents still include left fielder Ian Happ, right fielder Seiya Suzuki and catcher Carson Kelly, plus right-hander Jameson Taillon and left-handers Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga.<\/p>\n
Hoerner is the youngest of that group and projects the best.<\/p>\n
The 2026-27 free-agent class<\/p>\n
For all the talk of what Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal might command on the next open market, the group overall is weak. Hoerner would have been among the best position players available, if not the best.<\/p>\n
Now that Hoerner is off the market, third baseman Bo Bichette likely will be the top hitter if he opts out of his deal with the New York Mets. Jazz Chisholm Jr., the New York Yankees\u2019 second baseman, also should do well if he matches or exceeds his 30-homer, 30 stolen-base season from a year ago.<\/p>\n
Hoerner provides value in different ways than Bichette and Chisholm. But judging from Wins Above Replacement, which incorporates a player\u2019s offense, defense and base running, he is at least comparable to them, and arguably superior. In fact, Hoerner leads the 2018 draft class, a group that included Skubal and Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, in both fWAR and bWAR. This, after going 24th to the Cubs.<\/p>\n
WAR is an estimate, not an end-all, be-all. But it often is a strong indicator of how players will be paid. From 2021 to \u201825, Hoerner was healthier than Bichette, more consistent than Chisholm. And, unlike those two, he is capable of playing above-average shortstop, which likely would have caused his value to soar on the open market.<\/p>\n
The collective bargaining agreement<\/p>\n
Remember what happened in the final days before the last CBA expired on Dec. 1, 2021? The free-agent market erupted, and a number of position players, including Corey Seager ($325 million), Semien ($175 million) and Javier B\u00e1ez ($140 million), agreed to massive deals.<\/p>\n
If anything, the environment this time might be even more frenzied. Big-market teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets are carrying markedly higher payrolls than they were then. And the final days of the CBA might represent the last chance for those teams and others to make major investments. Greater restrictions on spending are almost certain to be part of the next agreement, either through a salary cap or stiffer luxury-tax penalties.<\/p>\n
The Mets, with Semien under contract through 2028 and shortstop Francisco Lindor through 2031, probably would not have been in play for Hoerner. The Dodgers, on the other hand, have long coveted him. And with Miguel Rojas retiring at the end of the season, their future at second base is unclear.<\/p>\n
Considering the short-term, high-AAV plunge the Dodgers took last offseason with free-agent outfielder Kyle Tucker, who\u2019s to say they might not have tried the same with Hoerner, paying him for four years close to what the Cubs ended up giving him for six?<\/p>\n
Makeup<\/p>\n
To Swanson and the Cubs, Hoerner\u2019s value stems not just from his performance, but also his personality. It\u2019s rare, Swanson said, for players who work so diligently on their individual skills to also show complete devotion to the team.<\/p>\n
Hoerner does both.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy\u2019s the best,\u201d said Swanson, who joined the Cubs on a seven-year contract before the 2023 season. \u201cMy appreciation for him has grown. Not that it was ever not high. But every day, it just grows more.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the news conference announcing Hoerner\u2019s extension, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer spoke of how his lieutenants kept saying before the 2018 draft that Hoerner was, \u2018Our kind of player,\u2019 \u2018Needs to be a Cub,\u2019 \u2018Plays like a Cub.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoerner fulfilled those expectations. The market conditions worked in his favor. Players today are valued differently than in the past. The Cubs couldn\u2019t let him get away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 The contract would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. Even now, just over a week after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-666203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}