Rozner: Cubs confident dollars will be there

The same people who still don't get the Kris Bryant equation probably don't realize how Jason Heyward wound up in a Cubs uniform.

It was April 2010 when the Atlanta Braves decided Heyward would be in the Opening Day lineup, rather than hold off a few days and ensure they would have him for seven years instead of ... wait for it ... six.

Then in charge of the Boston Red Sox, that was probably the day Theo Epstein began pondering the future and when he might get a shot at landing Heyward.

Because the Braves cashed in an entire year for a handful of games, they lost a year of service. By November 2014, the Braves - in full rebuild and knowing they wouldn't be able to sign Heyward a year later - dealt Heyward to St. Louis for Shelby Miller, since traded to Arizona for a pile of good prospects.

But it all goes back to a ridiculous decision by the Braves way back in 2010. Maybe they were afraid they'd be criticized for not wanting to win.

Where have you heard that before?

That mistake - a mistake Epstein would have never made with Bryant - has led Heyward to the North Side of Chicago, something the Cubs have been thinking about for a while.

"We talked about it right after the season ended," Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said last week. "The biggest question was, 'Will the resources be there?' You just never know when these free agent situations come up, but this was always planned.

"We have a meeting right at the end of the season where we go through all the possibilities. Knowing Theo, he was probably talking to his guys about Jason two years ago."

At a news conference introducing Heyward last week, Epstein admitted there was one particular at-bat during the NLDS that had Cubs brass buzzing.

Heyward was 2-for-8 through a pair of games with a couple of singles when he came to bat in the second inning of Game 3 against Jake Arrieta. The Cubs had been pitching Heyward outside, refusing to give him anything he could turn on, so against Arrieta he lashed a double to left in his first at-bat.

After striking out in the fourth, Heyward on a 1-1 count in the sixth reached out and hammered a pitch at least a foot off the plate into the left-field bleachers for a 2-run homer.

The pitch was unhittable and had a certain Billy Williams feel to it.

"It showed a real sophisticated approach. You could couldn't help but envision the damage he could do at Wrigley Field playing a full season," Epstein said. "Joe (Maddon) loves him. He said, 'He's a beautiful man.' When Joe drops that one, you know he loves the player."

So the Cubs spent a lot of money on Heyward, not to mention John Lackey and Ben Zobrist, but next year's free-agent class is not projected to be as rich, so Ricketts was all for it.

"We're very transparent with the baseball side. Theo knows all the numbers we let him make the decision how he wants to spend," Ricketts said. "He sees all the projections for the next few years and the future dollars.

"It's a large contract, but when you think of it in terms of pitchers that are much more likely to break down and players much more one-dimensional and much older, this was the best value.

"When you can pick up a free agent who's 26 and plays baseball the way we're trying to play baseball, it's pretty amazing."

So the Cubs are spending money now while they have several inexpensive young players, but in a couple years there will be talk of arbitration and extensions with the hope that the Cubs can keep their core together for a very long time.

That will cost big dollars as well.

"We project the numbers out for several years and we talk about it a lot," Ricketts said. "The TV contract in a few years is the biggest thing that will drive financial flexibility, but a renovated park and having a better team (that draws well) is a big part of that, too.

"We're very confident about our financial future."

Jason Heyward is all the confirmation you need.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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