Zobrist agrees to 4-year deal with Cubs

Wanted to play for this team, wanted to play for Joe Maddon again, and I want to win a championship as a Chicago Cub. CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman says Zobrist has a no-trade clause for the first three years of his deal. Ben Zobrist the super utility man has signed a 4 year 56 million dollar deal with the playoff bound Chicago Cubs. That opportunity led the coveted utilityman to sign with Maddon’s Cubs earlier this week, he said Wednesday at baseball’s winter meetings.

Octagon – the agency that represents Maddon and Zobrist – has a headquarters in downtown Chicago, and all sides needed to be patient as the Cubs essentially tried to trade Castro in a one-team vacuum. In return, the Cubs received right-handed pitcher Adam Warren and infielder Brendan Ryan and shed $38 million owed to Castro through 2019. “The veteranship has been more among the pitching staff”, Maddon said. He ranked No. 9 on our own Jeff Passan’s Ultimate Free-Agent Tracker. He impacted both the infield and outfield markets. So we seriously considered all the other options. Geography mattered too. Zobrist probably digged playing with the Kansas City Royals in the final third of the 2015 season, not only for winning the World Series, but being centrally located and easily accessible from Nashville, or anywhere.

Looking ahead in the future, there is no question that Zobrist and the Cubs have a chance to win a World Series title. The Mets were believed to the favorite most of the day Tuesday, until the Cubs jumped back into the conversation.

In addition to the Giants and Nationals wanting Zobrist, the Mets reportedly did as well. 279 with 12 homers, 72 RBIs and a. 783 on-base plus slugging percentage at Double-A Montgomery, his first season above Class A. OF Joey Rickard, 24, who made it to Triple A last season is also among the candidates to be taken. He lessens the impact of position-player injuries and gives managers flexibility.

Zobrist developed a reputation as one of the best versatile players in the game thanks to Maddon’s creative use of him.