Cubs Sign Jason Heyward to Massive Contract

Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Jason Heyward’s contract with the Cubs is for less than $185 million and is “believed to be eight years”.

That momentum obviously carried into the tail end of the negotiations with Heyward, a three-time Gold Glove victor playing right field who possesses a lifetime.

Heyward is coming off of the best year of his career as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, blasting 13 HR and driving in 60, good for an outstanding. He is a career. They previously lured second baseman Ben Zobrist on a four-year, $56 million deal and got righty John Lackey for two years and $32 million.

Winning 97 games and two playoff rounds helped Epstein’s baseball group work with the Ricketts family and Crane Kenney’s business operations department to creatively free up more money for this winter and keep the momentum going. He was traded before the season by the Atlanta Braves for Shelby Miller with Atlanta knowing that they wouldn’t be able to re-sign him after the season.

Reports are circulating that Heyward’s deal is below the $200 million threshhold, but no concrete numbers have been reported.

Moving to Wrigley Field, which was the third-best park for home runs in the majors in 2015, could give Heyward a natural boost in the power department. Soler sparks interest from many teams, and the Cubs could potentially cash in on another starting pitcher or several relievers shall they choose to trade him.

For a few days, then-free agent outfielder Jason Heyward was making a decision on which team he would sign with.

By wins above replacement, a statistic that measures a player’s total contributions, Heyward ranks sixth among all outfielders.

Heyward is likely moving to center field in Chicago, which should help mitigate the experiment/potential disaster of Kyle Schwarber in left. Unfortunately, over the past two seasons, Heyward has only hit a combined 24 homers. He looked forward to “the day when we might lose the offseason altogether”, which would mean they made few moves because they were loaded with talent. 285 with 27 home runs and 65 RBIs after the break.