It would take a heart of stone for Cubs fans to not get choked up at the video of Kris Bryant weeping on hearing that he was traded just before this year's trading deadline. Seeing all of Rizzo, Baez and Bryant homer in their first games with their new teams makes it that much harder to take.
I think I understand why fans are upset, and even angry. I think it's fine to be upset and sad. Anger, I can't get behind.
Anger is the right response for situations resulting from human action. I get angry when I think of civil asset forfeiture, crony tax credits, government prohibitions on low-cost housing, attempted coups, innocent people kept in prison, hapless government agencies killing thousands... things that, in theory, could be fixed or prevented by people behaving differently or by correcting faulty institutional incentives. If there isn't a plausible set of alternative outcomes, though, anger doesn't make sense. It's like being angry because graduation means you are leaving your school friends behind - it just is.
The John Baker Day Massacre doesn't have obvious plausible preferable alternative outcomes.
Background
All of Baez, Bryant and Rizzo - the "core" of the 2016 World Series winners - have the ability to become free agents at the end of the season. If they were on the Cubs at the end of the season, the Cubs could have made "qualifying offers" for a one-year contract. The players have the choice of accepting the qualifying offers or selling their services to other teams for whatever they can get. Qualifying offers are typically rejected.
If the player signs with another team, the team giving up the player gets a compensatory draft pick at the somewhere after the first round of amateur draft. After the first few picks of the first round, draft picks are lottery tickets.
When the 11-game losing streak put the Cubs out of any reasonable hope for the playoffs, management faced a choice - playing out two meaningless months with The Core, or trading them to contending teams by the deadline to get a better return than they would get from the amateur draft in the winter.
What about extensions?
Some fans, including one passionate one who I greatly respect on Facebook, argue that somehow the wealthy Ricketts family should have just met whatever demands the players made for extensions, because they have the money.
I think, though, that on reflection, that there is some amount of player compensation that is beyond what makes sense. The team has to pay 26 roster players, plus injured players, plus 180 minor league players (they don't get paid enough, but that's another discussion), plus scouts, coaches, and the rest of the machinery that puts the teams on the field. Unlike most teams, they also own the ballpark and have to keep it running. Nobody can pay all the players all they want. You can demand that owners lose money on their teams, but you can't expect them to go along.
Also, the players have a say. Bryant has always been headed for free agency. Rizzo broke off talks this spring. The players finally get to see what they get get in the open market - and that's good! They've earned it. To keep them from that might well have required offers so extravagant that they would crowd out spending on other players. It's clear from this year that these three wouldn't have gotten the Cubs back in contention by themselves.
But Ricketts have bottomless money!
But the Cubs, like all the teams, have to deal with a "luxury tax" that works as a soft salary cap. The penalties for habitually exceeding the cap are steep enough that even the free-spending Yankees and Angels don't do it.
Also, it's not all the Ricketts' money to spend. They took on minority partners to finance stadium improvements (they didn't shake down the state or city, like some teams I could name). They have legal obligations to manage the business responsibly. There are limits to the losses they can inflict on the co-owners, if not themselves.
But they mostly just got a bunch of no-name minor leaguers for our heroes!
The Cubs gave up two months of our favorite players in a lost season. In return, they have elevated the farm system to an arguably top-ten group. Initial evaluations of the players acquired are positive (here and here, for example.)
Farm systems don't play in the World Series, but that's how teams that are consistently good (ugh, Cardinals) get and stay that way. It hurts to see Bryant raking for the Giants, but in 2022, and especially afterwards, we are likely to appreciate it. Not all of the seeds planted on the farm will blossom, but it helps a lot to have a lot of good ones growing.
But why end it now?
It's been over for awhile. The offense famously "broke" in 2018, and it never really got fixed. In 2016, it seemed like they effortlessly scored somehow almost every inning. Since 2018, it seems like a battle to score at all.
But we fans wanted them to stay!
"We?"
Kenneth Arrow says that there is no "will of the people" that can make any sense. That is also true of fan bases. While many Cubs fans wanted to keep the band together and finds any alternative intolerable, there are other views. I am in the other views camp. It was painful to watch our heroes strive to no effect. They were going to be gone anyway. If the current team can't win, I want new players coming up. I want management to have the whole world of free agents available, not just three of them.
Was it worth breaking our hearts?
If the Cubs are contenders in 2023 and later, most of us will get over it.
My thoughts?
Rizzo, Bryant, and Baez get to chase rings. Meanwhile, the Cubs give us something to hope for. Cubs ownership needs a good team to get cash out of its big investment in Wrigleyville real estate (and unlike some teams I could name, they did it without shaking down the taxpayers). Jed wants to prove that he's more than Robin to Theo Epstein's Batman. There will be much salary room available for free agents. I think there are a lot of reasons to hope.
Go Cubs!
