The Chicago Cubs have a long history of good and bad roster moves. Their decision to non-tender Kyle Schwarber at the end of the abbreviated 2020 season, however, may go down as one of their worst.
A first round draft pick in 2014, Schwarber was already in the big leagues in 2015 and playing an important role in a Cubs team that would make it as far as the National League Championship Series.
The next season, his legendary run from apparent season-ending ACL/LCL surgery in April to a shocking comeback to play a pivotal role in the team’s World Series victory is now the stuff of eternal Cubs lore.
Kyle Schwarber: From Legend To Non-Tender
Four years later, however, he was shown the door by Chicago’s front office, non-tendered rather than run through arbitration for a new contract, which likely would’ve been in the $8 million-$10 million ballpark.
In 2021, Schwarber was signed by the Washington Nationals, then traded to the Boston Red Sox before signing a four-year, $79 million deal as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022.
The Cubs, meanwhile, would go on to trade away many of the key members of their 2016 World Series team– such as Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez– near the trade deadline of the 2021 season.
Schwarber Speaks Out
The 32-year-old lefty slugger, in an appearance on the Foul Territory podcast, recently talked about his wild ride with the Cubs and his dismay at the way that World Series Cubs team was dismantled:
“For me, especially…It’s my first organization, the team that you get drafted by, you think that this is it…Then you get called up within a year and we’re in 2015. Next thing you know, we’re in a National League championship series and we win the World Series. You’re expecting a lot more…You don’t realize how hard it is to win, actually, in this game…
You think that team’s gonna last forever…There’s a business side to baseball. I guess it was probably a bit more shocking going into ’21 when I was already gone. Everyone’s getting traded. You know, I think that was interesting. I felt like the nucleus was still kinda there. They still had a really good team. They still had a really good core of guys. I mean, they’re great people. You know, that’s the business side of the game.”
The 2021 season was a jarring one for Cubs fans, as not only World Series core team elements were traded away, but also Yu Darvish, Craig Kimbrel, Joc Pederson, and Andrew Chafin. The purging of so much top talent in such a short period of time is still a point of debate and discussion among fans.
Chicago Cubs Executive Expresses Regret
In a January episode of David Kaplan’s Cubs REKAP podcast, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer mentioned the situation with Schwarber when asked about his biggest regret as a Cubs executive.
“The obvious one as I look back was non-tendering Schwarber,” Hoyer said. “We felt like…this guy is gonna bat third, fourth for us for a long time and be our leader…We just didn’t have any money after Covid. I had to cut money and that was the move we had to make. I look back on that one and it just feels like we were right about the player. In the end, we were right. We ran out of time and patience and money. I feel like he should be a Cub.”
Schwarber is set to hit the free agent market at the end of this season.
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