Anthony Rizzo Responds To Claim That He Wasn’t Reasonable During Contract Negotiations

Shortly after Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations, Jed Hoyer, dealt the team’s core of Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Kris Bryant at the trade deadline, he blamed the three players for failing to reach a deal.

“That will probably be my greatest source of frustration from this era,” Hoyer said of not being able to extend Anthony Rizzo and co. “I put my head on the pillow every night knowing we put our best foot forward. The extensions we offered these guys will hold up exceptionally well
against the open market
I don’t know why guys didn’t want to sign.I don’t know why guys didn’t want to even counteroffer, often times. Every one of these guys would say they wanted to stay in Chicago, ‘we wanted to be a Cub,’ but then we would sit down and do negotiations, that wasn’t how they acted.”

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Speaking on “The Kap and J. Hood Show” on WMVP-AM 1000, Anthony Rizzo was asked about Jed Hoyer’s comments. And called out the executive for throwing the players under the bus.

“I’m kind of confused on why,” Rizzo said via The Chicago Tribune. “Why say that? Sounds like a bad breakup and the person saying they’re fine when they’re not fine.

“Listen, when it comes to the guys on or team and what we did — Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, MVPs, Rookie of the Years, good people — those things cost money. I know it comes down to a business, and when you want your cake and you want to eat it too, that’s kind of how it seemed.”

Anthony Rizzo would go also reiterate that he wanted to stay in Chicago for his whole career. He also pointed to the fact that Bryant and Baez couldn’t sign either as a ‘common denominator’ proving why Hoyer’s comments make no sense.

“I think it can speak for itself that there is a common denominator that no one signed,” he said. “Whoever wants to dig into that can. I just think that we had such great memories there, (for Hoyer) to come out and say that, it doesn’t really make sense. But it is what it is.”

It appears that the bridge has been broken between Rizzo and the Cubs front office. And any hope that he would return to the North Side of Chicago over the offseason has likely gone out the window.

Anthony Rizzo will be a free agent this offseason.


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