Cubs to Non-Tender?
Today (Monday, Dec 2nd) is the deadline to tender a contract to any arbitration-eligible players. While there are a ton of easy decisions; Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, and Willson Contreras. Then there is the difficult decision with Albert Almora. Finally, there is the way too easy a decision that might not happen in, Addison Russell. So, are the Chicago Cubs to non-tender Addison Russell?
Here are the projected salaries for all arb eligible players:
- Kris Bryant – $18.5m
- Javier Baez – $9.3m
- Kyle Schwarber – $8m
- Willson Contreras – $4.5m
- Albert Almora – $1.8m
- Addison Russell – $5.1m
As far as Bryant, Baez, Schwarber, and Contreras’ is concerned, they are no-brainer decisions. The Cubs will likely tender Almora a deal in that $1.8 M range, as he is a low-cost bet that he can regain some of that luster defensively and possibly find something offensively. But there should be no reason to offer Russell a contract – at all.
Let’s say we ignore the off-the-field issues. He just hasn’t been a good baseball player since the 2016 season.
In fact, Russell has been a below-average offensive player throughout his career, owning an OPS+ of 86, an 81 wRC+, and an average 1.13 fWAR (mostly generated by his defense) over the last three seasons. Even when you account for his defensive ability, there are serious concerns that his arm isn’t going to hold up to keep him at shortstop and he hasn’t been the same player defensively at second and thus, even less valuable.
The Cubs acquired Russell from the Oakland Athletics for Jason Hammel and Jeff Samardzija during the 2014 season. Russell was called up in the 2015 season and was a part of a surprising 97 win club that pushed its way to the NLCS. Russell would hit 13 homers and take over the shortstop position from Starlin Castro and was a glimmer of hope for the Cubs’ future. In fact, his future was so bright the Cubs considered Russell one of the four pillars of their franchise going forward.
He backed up his nice 2015 with a 21 homer 95 RBI season in 2016, and his biggest moment was a third-inning grand slam in Game-Six of the World Series.
He was penned as the next Chicago Cubs potential MVP. He had the ability and the defense, and baseball people across the globe bought into Russell as a monster at the position.
Then the wheels fell off.
His now ex-wife, Melisa Reidy’s friend leaked stories of abuse in the 2017 season. Those rumors brought upon an MLB investigation, which concluded with a suspension in September of the 2018 season. Reidy would also post an online diary of sorts on their relationship and what was going on in her mindset at the time.
Wherever you fall on Russell, just having him around creates discontent within the clubhouse and among the fanbase. While Theo Epstein’s plan to help rehabilitate Russell was admirable, the organization took a huge blow when they tendered him a contract for the 2019 season. After a myriad of missteps by Russell through the media (mostly his inability to publicly take accountability) and a bad 2019 season, there really shouldn’t be a reason the Cubs feel it is ok to spend $5 million in 2020 on him. Especially when they are pinching pennies to acquire bottom of the barrel free-agent pitching deals.
But, this is professional athletics, an area of the world where *if* someone believes you have value, you’ll always have an opportunity to play the game. So for a former first-round selection, that once showed a great deal of promise, the Cubs just might make the bad decision in retaining him yet again.
